We're Off!

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room looking at my four favorite people sleep peacefully all around me, while I feel the fifth one do some pretty cool moves in my belly. It is such a nice change of scenery and as much as I'm a homebody, it's so nice to be away right now. We are half way to our destination and somewhere in Virginia.

Our clinic visit this morning was o.k. Not great, but not bad. Abbey's ANC (neutraphils) are still very low, but there is something else that they look at in her blood called monocytes. Monocytes are important because they turn into neutraphils and her monocytes were nice and high this week so it is an indication that her ANC is on it's way up. Last week was hard not only because her neutraphils were so low, but her monocytes too were very low so they couldn't say that her numbers would be up soon. Today they were confident in saying that her immunity is on it's way up and they were pleased with what they say today compared to last week's blood check. So, although it wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear, we are thankful that things are on the up and up and that there was an improvement from last week. We normally would have to go back next Friday to again check her numbers, but since we will be gone until Sunday they said it would fine to come in on Monday (a week from this Monday). We feel pretty confident that by then her numbers will be back up to where they should be and they will be able to continue on with her oral medications. The nice thing is that she again is getting a week break from almost all of her medications (and we have the assurance that things are looking up).

We asked them more specific questions today about what we should and shouldn't do while on our vacation. We have to be mindful about indoor crowds and be diligent in giving her baths after she's in the pool or sand. Anyone that knows me knows this is far from hard for me. I really can't tell you the last time I skipped a bath for any of my kids at night so I assured them that I would continue to be my neurotic self while on vacation. I sometimes actually annoy myself with my germaphobe ways, but I think God put that in me a long time ago since he knew I was going to have a kid with cancer. When we checked into the hotel, Jim stayed in the van with the kids for 20 minutes so I could come up to the room to plug in our air purifier, wipe everything down, tear off the bedding and put sheets and blankets from home on the beds. If there's anything that I can do to try to protect my immunocompromised child from sickness, you can be sure I will be doing it!

Tomorrow morning we will get up whenever the kids wake up and go down to the hotels continental breakfast and then we will be back on the road. We have about five hours left until we reach Myrtle Beach so if it goes half as good as our drive went today, we'll be in good shape. The kids were troopers and we are really glad that we broke the drive into two days. We will be meeting up with Jim's parents there as they too are somewhere in Virginia for the night.

As we drove today, I had a lot of time to think and meditate on how blessed I am. We

listened to a lot of our favorite Christian music and I was brought to tears many times

as I looked in the mirror back at Jacob, Abbey and Micah. I am crazy, madly in love

with my family and although this life hasn't been easy (especially the last 10 months),

I wouldn't want to be anyone else. God has been so good to me and I am thankful for

everyday that He has given me. I know He is molding me into the person that He

wants me to be and am just praying that I would continue to be shapeable and trust in His perfect plan for my life.

Thank you for praying for Abbey's numbers this week. We feel covered in prayer each

and every day. Once we get settled in our home for the next week, I'll be sure to share

some pictures :)