First, school and work have been a full-time job for me the past few weeks. I went through 2 straight weeks of classes basically 8-5 Monday through Friday. This in turn required me to make up the 25 hrs a week that I normally work in the weeks that surrounded the classes. Working 40 hours a week was quite an adjustment compared to what I was used to. But, our Fall application deadline kept me quite busy.
Callie and I also have dog sat twice in the past month and we will be adding a third time this next week. It is a nice addition to our wallets...but can be time consuming. All that tennis ball throwing and all that TV watching (HGTV) ends up being exhausting. :)
Callie has also been busy with Sam as usual. Sam is growing quite rapidly like a normal baby. Each week you can see quite the change. It could be that I notice the weekly change because I only see him every few weeks. But, boy is he stinkin cute!!!
Last weekend we finally got a week away in which we met Emily for a night of camping in the Columbia Gorge. It was a usual amazing night of campfire, conversations, and sleeping in a tent. But, what seemed like a campsite out in the woods was actually only a mile away from the main highway so we could hear some traffic throughout the day and night. We even got a few quick doses of the train blowing its horn (one I think that was at 3:30 am). It truly was a relaxing evening and next day though. Em followed us back to our apartment which was very exciting for Callie. When Em gave her approval of our new apartment and Callie's choice of color it made us quite impressed with ourselves. :) Sunday Em came with us to church where she got roped into helping Callie greet. Then we followed a dose of the Spirit with a dose of some 'spirits' at the Portland Brewfest. Overall it was not a bad way to spend a weekend.
The last thing that I must mention has probably been the majority of what has been on our mind and prayers. You probably remember Mo the baby Callie just recently nannied for. He was the one with all the spunk! To make a long story short, he had a problem with one of his testicles dropping so he had to go in for surgery (apparently this is common in young boys). The surgery went well and everything seemed to be great. But, that night when they took him home he started throwing up and acting really weird. Thus, Mo's parents took him back in to see what was going on. It turns out the surgery went great and he was healing well, so they decided to do some more looking to see what was up. As they were looking around they noticed a few tumors on one of his kidneys. After doing more tests they found out that Mo had Wilm's Disease You can go to the link and find out more, but basically it is cancer in babies that usually starts on the kidneys and then moves to the rest of their body. This resulted in the doctors having to remove one whole kidney and 20% of the other. Apparantely a person can survive on 50% of one kidney and be totally fine so he will be good that way but he will not be able to play any contact sports, drink much alcohol or soda, and many other things that are associated with damage to kidneys. He also is going to have to do a round of chemo (18 wks) in order to try and destroy the cancer from returning.
This type of thing is 'flippin' amazing! It causes you to think about what you believe and why you believe what you believe. You ask yourself the question about how can a baby get cancer?? Callie and I went and saw him in the hospital a little over a week ago and this boy who had all the spunk was completely mellow. He had a scar from the bottom of his sternum all the way down to his belly button. He has a port in his chest where the IV went and now where the chemo is being injected. He also had a yeast infection that built up on his neck. It was a tough site to see. We got a chance to chat with Kim (Mo's mom) and be there with her. Obviously this whole ordeal has been tough on her. Since then....tonight we got the opportunity to bring the Rees' a meal (Callie's or shall I say Claudia's tortilla soup). We got to see Mo now that he's home. It looks like he's healing well and finally getting some of his spunk back. This was his 2nd week of chemo and I guess they steadily increase the dosage every week. PLEASE BE PRAYING for him. And us. That we might have the opportunity to be a light to them. Callie has offered a few hours on her much loved Friday off days to spend time with Mo and give Kim a few hours off. Be praying for us and our witness. Be praying for Callie and for strength for her if she gets the opportunity to spend time with Mo (this will be hours on top of her normal 40 hrs).
Thanks for your patience with us on posting on this blog. Thanks for your patience with me since I have blogged maybe one other time. I miss seeing you guys and would love to hear how all of you are doing.
