Girls Weekend in NYC!

My Mom spoiled my sisters and I this past weekend with a sort of spontaneous trip to Brooklyn, NY to visit my sister Molly and have a fun girls weekend in NYC! We had a wonderful trip! The weather was beautiful (in the 70s and 80s) and we got to do a lot of neat things together. The timing was right too because my older sister Kate is due with her second baby in December, so we won't be able to go on another trip like this for quite a while.

We spent a lot of time talking, eating and walking. All the food was delicious and I think this is my favorite part of New York (other than my sistair Molly of course!); all the hole in the wall/unique food options. We ate free samples from a bunch of small restaurants along Molly's street - 7th avenue- in Brooklyn at a food street fair, coal oven pizza under the Brooklyn bridge at Grimaldis, delicious huge portions of Thai food at a cute little place called Spice in Chelsea, coffee and tea with pastries from a special bakery called Almondine, a yummy picnic of specialty cheese, meat and fruit with a fresh baguette in a cute little park, hand dipped Mr Softee ice cream cones, tasty pasta at a cute Italian place called Armando's and brunch in the "garden patio" at another Italian spot called Anthony's....are you feeling a little stuffed??? We were!

We also saw a bunch of sites different than any other time I've been to visit Molly...Coney Island and the beach, the "High Line" which is a garden walk 3-4 stories up on an old rail line, an amazing dance performance by Batsheva at the Joyce Theatre, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Hudson river at sunset with a view of the sky line and the Statue of Liberty, Prospect Park and lots of cute historic buildings and homes.

Sunday night before we left we were able to go to church with Molly at Redeemer Presbyterian where she is a member. Her church is really neat. Not only is the preacher, Tim Keller- some of you may have heard of him- really smart and interesting, but they are very service oriented and friendly which I love! The message was particularly good that night and he spoke about the passage in John 3 where Jesus explains being born again to Nicodemus. My favorite part of the message (perhaps because of my job and because I went through it recently) was when he explained why Jesus used childbirth so often to describe conversion. He said that the only way to be born is through someone else being willing to suffer great pain and put their life at risk for you (not so true now as in Jesus' pre-epidural times). Women did this every time they gave birth and it is still mostly true today. Christ did this for us when he suffered and died on the cross...sooo, we have to accept His Grace and gift to us just as we were born through our Mother's suffering by no effort of our own. He also said that just as every child birth is different (and believe me they are!) so is every conversion, some are fast and loud, some slow and quiet. That just spoke to me, and I hope I explained it fairly well. You can probably read more or buy the sermon CD on the redeemer website: http://www.redeemer.com/ if you have any interest.

I have to say, I love Molly's new neighborhood, and Brooklyn in general. It has a more family friendly, laid back feel with less noise and more space. She's still about the same distance from her work too, which is nice. Brooklyn is also really big and has all the neat little specialized shops like Manhattan. Thanks again Momma for taking us on this wonderful trip! We will remember it forever! I also have to say a special thank you to Philip who watched Levi for 4 full days with no help and no complaints. The house was spotless when I got home and Levi was happy and asleep. I really and truly appreciate it! Love you Momma and Philip!

We're Adults Now!

Levi and I spent Thursday and Friday in Kingwood, TX (near Houston) to meet his new friend Noah (6 weeks old and oh so handsome!) and spend some time with his best buddy/almost birthday sharing friend Charlotte. I was happy to see my precious friends Cheryl and Lauren too. We have been friends since freshman year of college and went to nursing school together as well. We will have been friends for 10 years pretty soon! Well, we are feeling a little old because we are all now married with babies, BUT we are loving life too! It has been so special to go through so many big life changes with these girl friends and I thank God for them all the time! Here are some cute pics of the babies!

Levi and Char enjoyed eating meals together in their matching thrones :)

All 6 of us! Me and Levi, Cheryl and Noah, Lauren and Charlotte

Notice the busy hands, Levi has acorns and Char has a pine cone!

Just for fun, here is a pic from when Levi and Char first met (2.5months old).Wow have they changed!

It took about 10 pics to get this one, and like 100 to get the one of them on the bench above :)

Great News!

Well, Carol's bone marrow test results are in and she is being called "clean"! WOW! We are so amazed at this blessing and are so happy that she can be considered in a sort of remission. In time she may be considered truly in remission. Her liver function is still not up to par as well as her kidneys, but both continue to improve and she actually put out a normal volume of urine today (although it was not clearing toxins well). Her hands are still a concern and they still want to do a round of consolidation chemo, but thankfully due to the "clean" status that can be put on hold for at least a little while.

So, now the focus is on getting her body stronger, organs back to normal and regaining some muscle strength and function. She is still unable to walk and is very easily fatigued. She has been having to be assisted in every basic need (hygiene, eating etc).

Please continue to pray. Thank you for all the prayers already sent. God has heard.

Family Pictures

Philip and I took Levi to a neat park close to our house on Saturday to give it a go at taking our own family pictures and some more pictures of Levi (cause we don't have enough right - ha!). We took our "fancy camera", the remote (about $10 and soooo worth it! I highly recommend it to anyone!) and our tripod. We walked around the park snapping shots of Levi and then some of the three of us. I must say we got a few that I really like....and saved a bunch of money in the process. Here are a few of my favorites:

I'm glad we took these pictures when we did because this morning while I was on the phone with a friend he was trying to climb a chair (a new favorite activity) and slipped and bumped his mouth causing a big fat lip and quite a bit of bleeding. Luckily he was feeling better quick and it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all...he is still eating big and jabbering nonstop :).

Blessed

I just thought I should update all of you on Carol. She is doing well (considering everything and compared to where she was). She has been moved back to the hem/oncology floor from the ICU. Her kidneys are still in failure, but her liver seems to be starting to recover. Her liver labs are slowly improving little by little. Another bone marrow aspiration was done today and we should know the status of her cancer and the treatment plan in the next few days. She has remained in good respiratory status and has been regaining her voice.

Her fingers are not doing well. At this time it is seeming likely that she will loose about 1/2 (possibly more) of all 8 fingers and possibly only a very small amount from each thumb. She has very little use of her hands right now which is very difficult for her (she cannot feed herself, write, answer the phone, etc). Philip found a phone that has huge buttons including a big speaker button and she is learning to use that with the help of Allen. I'm so proud of Allen (Philip's Dad) for the care he has been giving Carol to help her through this despite the stress their relationship has been under the last 4 years. It is such a comfort for Philip that he is still there, especially due to the unfortunate fact that the nursing care on this floor remains much less than satisfactory.

I'm also proud of Carol, although she has moments of anxiety, depression and frustration, she has kept a fairly positive outlook and has repeatedly told all of us how she just feels truly blessed. God is working in our family. He is healing relationships and creating closure. We are blessed.

Friends From a Far

Our friends are in town from Germany! We have been enjoying spending time with them (that is Levi and I have...Philip will get to join in once he gets home tomorrow!!!). Today we all met up at our mutual friends house to hang out, eat, let the kids play and swim. All of us had our first kids around the same time (May 09, June 09 and July 09) so they are about the same age, just 1 month between each. They were in town about a year ago when all the kids were still teeny tiny. Last time we did a lot of sitting around, starring at our immobile babies...this time we chased and played with our busy toddlers! They are just so cute together...but WAY harder to photograph.

Today they were loving to swim together in the pool: Levi- 13 mo, Autry- 15 mo and Caden- 14 mo

Last year they just chilled on the bed: Autry- 13 weeks, Caden-9 weeks, Levi 5 weeks

They are thinking about moving back to TX in about a year and we would LOVE it! Levi would have a male friend to hang out with and it would be wonderful to have another stay at home Mom to spend time with! Come back, pretty please!!!


On another note, Carol is doing about the same today as the past 2 days. She has remained off the ventilator but continues to fight her kidney failure, liver failure and infection. She has been struggling with extreme fatigue, some confusion and shortness of breath. We are hoping these will get better so that she can enjoy being awake a little more. Again, thank you for all the prayers, keep them coming...God has given us this miracle- how could we limit Him now??!!

Feels Like a Miracle!

Well...I have some amazing news. Carol is off the ventilator! You read that right, she is breathing on her own and starting to talk (she is VERY hoarse). I'll admit, I'm a little in shock. It is so so so wonderful that she is able to talk with her family and she seems to have made it back from the very edge of life, the brink of death. On Thursday things seemed pretty much the same. On Friday she began to open her eyes and have moments of eye contact and seemed to be waking up, but we weren't sure. And then this morning she was begging for the tube to come out! They took it out early this afternoon and she is now on just oxygen. Yes, she still has a LONG way to go. Her kidneys and liver are still not functional, although she did make some urine for the first time today :), and she is still struggling with infection and of course there is the ever looming cancer.


However, we feel a miracle has happened and praise God that He allowed us all this time to talk with her and communicate and be fully present. What an amazing blessing God has given Carol, Philip, Tamara and Allen (and all the rest of the family). I feel that it may make all the suffering worth it even if she with us for just a short time. She is still a little foggy, but seems to have little to no brain damage at this time. Again, we are witnessing a miracle. Thank you everyone for all the prayers. Please continue to pray for her health and also for her mental well being. She, of course, seems very concerned about loosing her fingers/fingertips. Please pray that God can give her peace and that she can feel his presence. Continue to pray for the family. Philip is coming home on Tuesday and I am sure it will be hard to be so far away while she is still so sick. Hopefully we will have more good news soon! I leave you with a pic:

Here is Carol with Tamara and Philip this afternoon. She has a remarkably positive attitude. Philip says she looks more than 100% better in the photo than when they arrived.

2 steps forward and 1 step back...

Well, today is a lot of the same with Carol. She is still on the ventilator, still minimally responsive, still in kidney and liver failure and still battling sepsis. Unfortunately they discovered that she also has a yucky hospital acquired respiratory infection that could cause pneumonia. The antibiotic of choice, however, is really hard on your kidneys, so they aren't starting it just yet - they are consulting the infectious disease specialist first. Although she is no longer bleeding in several places, her platelets are remaining very low and she is continuing to receive frequent platelet transfusions.

BUT, there was some very good news today too. They did a CT and there is NO bleeding in her brain! This is a big deal because it increases our hope that she will become alert and responsive when the Versed completely wears off...which could take a few more days. The doctor also seems fairly hopeful that her liver is starting to recover (although the labs are only slightly better) and said that statistically two thirds of people with her type of kidney failure do regain kidney function. A lot of stars have to align, but there is some hope. Her cancer treatment is on hold for now. They talked about doing another bone marrow aspiration, but since her CBC showed normal white blood cells they are going to wait on that for now. So far they have seen no blast cells which is a fairly good indication that the leukemic cells are not building back up in her bone marrow.

Philip, Tamara and Allen are planning on coming home on Sunday at the earliest. They really want to be there when she wakes up. Levi and I sure do miss Philip, but I am glad he is able to be there with his Mom. Please keep praying.