Online Chat Room Free Mobile

It is so crazy to me that of the 400 cases of osteosarcoma every year in the United States, one of them this year is a boy at Steven's school and in Steven's grade.  And from what I understand, his tumor is on the same bone and on the same leg as Steven's. They've never been in the same class, so Steven doesn't know him very well yet.  He's been in treatment for a few months and is getting his surgery this week if all goes well. At the school, the sixth graders and several of the teachers and staff shaved their heads or donated hair to Locks of Love yesterday to show solidarity to this boy.   Steven wanted to be first in line--I think he really wants to do something to help him, and I haven't been the best at finding him an opportunity to follow through with that desire.  I was so grateful that the teachers and kids at school planned this support day at school.   Steven loved it!  Addie has been growing her hair out for some ti...

The kids--all grown up and off to Hogwarts The boy who lived A rare shot of Molly holding still Pumpkin picking--a hard choice Hatching a monarch--an exciting development. Steven played soccer this fall and loved it!  He tried his hardest and got lucky with his team.  They were undefeated this fall. 

Today is Daniel's birthday--I can hardly believe it has been a whole year since he was born and died.  The year has been long in some ways, and yet sometimes a wave of sadness will wash over me that is as fresh as it was a year ago.  It isn't as debilitating now, but I think about him every day. I was thinking about what I wanted to write on my blog for his birthday, and I have decided to share a few things I've learned or experienced with grief.  I am not an expert, but I know more now than I did a year ago.  And maybe something I share can be helpful to someone else. Those first few weeks and months I found the grief very intense.  I would cry all the time and hold his blankets and stay in bed.  I was recovering physically, so that didn't help either.  I think my kids were really worried about me, they hadn't seen me so sad before.  While I was very sad, there was also a very real sense of peace in my heart.  I know that Christ's promise th...

Good news! Steven's scans were good today. Last night as I was saying goodnight to him, I asked if he was nervous and he said, "Not at all. Mom, they are going to be good. Don't worry." He was right, thank heavens! If attitude has any sway on cancer, then he has this thing beat. (Don't take that wrong--I'm all for chemo, trust me! It reminds me of a deep thought by Jack Handy "Dad thought laughter was the best medicine. Maybe that's why several of us died of tuberculosis.") Slightly dissappointing to us was that he has to go back in December.  Not because they are worried, it's just that he needs all his yearly appointments, like an echocardiogram.   Plus, even though we are only weeks away from his two year anniversary of finishing chemo,  it was November when they did his post chemo scans.   And he forgort to drink anything this morning which threw off one of his tests.   So I guess we'll be doing this again sooner than I had...

Summer has come and gone and it was lovely.   The kids are just at the perfect age to be excited about all my adventurous plans.  And they were perfectly happy to hang around at home when I wanted to do that instead.   I was kind of sad to send them off to school this year.   I cried for hours the morning I sent Laura to kindergarten.  It's kind of lonely here in the mornings.  But I have plenty to keep me busy for now.  I'm not sure what it is happening to me.  I used to be on top of my life but as the last few years have presented some serious challenges, I feel like things are starting to break down big time. But today might be the worst day of all to assess my mental health.   Tomorrow Steven has scans.  I am hoping that everything is great, but he has had a cough and lately every single time he coughs, I feel like I did that first time they told me he had cancer.  That fear only lasts for an instan...

Summer has been a whirlwind of activity around here--I don't get to laze around much, but when I do it turns out that I don't blog.  I can't believe that summer is almost over for us.  We have a few precious weeks left and we will use one of them for a camping trip.   We have almost accomplished all the things on the summer bucket list but the one thing we haven't done enough of is nothing at all.   We just haven't had time to be bored.  I did something I never thought I would--I sent the boys to a week long summer camp.  It's called Camp Hobe and it is for cancer kids and their siblings.   I just felt really good about sending them and it turned out well--they had an absolute blast.  Steven even wrote me a letter from camp....something along the lines of "you were right about the pranking, Mom.   We are in prank war with cabin 10.  The food is awesome."   Steven was the only amputee there but his ...

Steven's scans yesterday came back all clear.  Hooray!   It has been a rather stressful week for me.  I had worked myself into some serious worry and while I could also find peace at times, I was so crazy that every little thing would send me over the edge again.  For instance, Steven hurt his good ankle one day--I got scared it was cancer.  He was limping around all week and if you've followed our story, you know that we found the cancer because he was limping.   He started limping with his hurt ankle, but then once that was better, he was limping because he had developed a blister with his prosthetic.  And then a few times in the week, I heard him give a minor little cough.   And so it went that by the time Friday came around,  I was a mess. I tried all sorts of things to get over my craziness.  I tried to be extremely busy (but not at my own house).  That helped a little.  I quoted myself statistics and tried to stay positiv...