Great Summer Days

We are having a good, uneventful week here at the Colbert household.  

Abbey has been feeling really good and we have been enjoying these hot, summer days.  The kids have spent a lot of time in our kiddie pool out back and their slip and slide.  Jim and I have done a lot of work outside, cleaning up the yard, planting flowers and tomato plants and just enjoying our yard, our kids and the beautiful weather.  

 

Abbey is completely over her cold and cough which has made us all feel better.  She just finished her 5 days of steroids (she has to be on them for 5 days each month while on maintenance) and she handled them beautifully!  Each day she's on them, we wait for her to start feeling really lousy and seeing some of those yucky side effects come out, but the last two times that she's been on them, we can't even tell.  Today is her first day off of them and even though she is handling them so well, it's so nice to be done with them until next month and not have to think about them for a while again.  We will never forget how horrible the steroids were the first month when she was diagnosed so it's hard not to relate them to that every time she is on them.  We are so happy that this is the steroid treatment from here on out though.  We can totally handle this.  

We can tell you guys have been praying for her shots to be easier on her.  She has been handling them better this past week and she is just letting me get it over with quickly.  A week from Monday is her MRI so we may only have 10 days left.  Please keep praying that the clot is completely gone by July 6th.  That will be a very long day because her MRI isn't until 2p.m. and she has to be sedated for the test so she won't be able to eat until after it's over (which will be around 3ish).  Please pray that she would make it through the morning and afternoon without being miserably hungry.   

I added the above pictures of her from these last couple of days.  You can really see her hair coming in and it is so cute!  I actually was able to clip a bow in her hair yesterday for a little bit.  She loved it and tells us often that her hair is getting so long :)  It's amazing how fast and thick it is coming in.  She is beautiful with or without hair, but I have to be honest when I say I love that she is going to have long hair again soon :)  I can't wait to be able to brush it and do pony tails.  

We continue to be so thankful for how well she is doing.  I am often reminded of how very fortunate we are to be in our situation and when I start to get down about what we have to go through, I have to remind myself that there are many children and families in tougher situations right now.  

A friend of mine named Melissa has a son Josh who also is fighting cancer.  He actually just finished his treatment not too long ago and two weeks ago his port was taken out because he was officially done.  They went a few days ago for his routine scan and they found another tumor on his lung.  When she told me this my heart sank and I just can't imagine the rollercoaster ride that they are on.  They just finished and thought that this summer was going to be back to normal for them and in a minute, their lives again were turned upside down.  Josh will need to have surgery to remove the tumor.  He will have to get a new port put back in, radiation which will be more intense and more chemo.  Please visit this family's blog and leave them a note of encouragement as they have a long road ahead of them... again.  Below is a picture of Josh (isn't he so sweet!) and click HERE to go to their blog.

  

Thank you all for being so wonderful as we go through this yuckiness called childhood cancer.  Watching my child go through this as a mom is the hardest thing I've ever gone through and at times it can be very lonely.  You all will never know how much your support has meant to us and as I see another mom go through this for a second time, I want to ask you to come around their family during this time.  Another blogger who has become my friend as we have been walking this road with our daughters together recently put this poem on her blog.  I thought I'd share it here and ask you all to pray for Josh and his family and leave them some words of encouragement.

A Pair of Shoes
I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable shoes.
I hate my shoes.

Each day I wear them, and each
day I wish I had another pair.

Some days my shoes hurt so bad
that I do not think I can take
another step.

Yet, I continue to wear them.

I get funny looks wearing these shoes.

I can tell in others eyes that they
are glad they are my shoes and not
theirs.

They never talk about my shoes.

To learn how awful my shoes are
might make them uncomfortable.

To truly understand these shoes
you must walk in them.

But, once you put them on, you can
never take them off.

I now realize that I am not the
only one who wears these shoes.

There are many pairs in this world.

Some women ache daily as they try
and walk in them.

Some have learned how to walk in
them so they don't hurt quite as much.

Some have worn the shoes so long that
days will go by before they think about
how much they hurt.

No woman deserves to wear these shoes.

Yet, because of these shoes I am a
stronger woman.

These shoes have given me the strength
to face anything.

They have made me who I am.

I will forever walk in the shoes of a
woman who has a child with cancer.

*Author Unknown*