The nurse called today and gave us some good news, Brinley's ANC is 2200! Woooohooo! And everyone is better, so we high tailed out of here to go to lunch with Daddy, then we all went to Taylor's soccer game. I think Brinley was quite happy, as was I. Her other counts were low, red blood and platelets, but not so low they will transfuse. So we will be having some fun out of the house this week, we should all be able to go to church together Sunday, which has only happened once since her diagnosis!

Some more good news, but first I have to give a little background. We have really been struggling with Jade, I think she is getting the short end of the stick, Brinley is SO demanding that Jade sometimes gets left in the dust because she will play by herself, or watch a movie, and Brinley won't do anything without me. As a result, Jade has shown a lot of resentment towards Brinley. It has been making me really sad and I am trying to understand from Jade's perspective, but she can be so mean to Brinley! It's hard to be patient. Yesterday she even said "When Brinley has long hair again, then I will be nice to her again." Knife to the heart.....anyways, today was a breakthrough. First of all in her prayers last night, Jade said "bless me to be nice to Brinley so that Jesus will be happy." Today, Jade realized that she can tell Brinley what to say and she will happily say it. So she has been playing with her a lot of the day, they played dolls and Jade ran the show, and then for lunch they had a little tea party and Jade actually ENJOYED Brinley's company. I actually took pictures because it just never happens. I was so happy! I'm hoping it will keep up, it has really been a challenge to help them get along, poor Jade is just needing my attention so badly, but Brinley is always within 5 feet of me, she won't nap, I am never away from her so that I can have a few minutes with Jade. Frustrating!!!! Hopefully today is the beginning of feeling some sisterly loooooove.

While things are going so well for us lately, I would like to request some prayers on behalf of some other kids who are not doing as well right now. I talked before about an online list I joined with parents of kids who all have ALL and often get updates and prayer requests from them. I wanted to share a few with you and see if our prayers can't help them too.

Serenity's is the first blog I read when Brinley was diagnosed. She is the same age as Brinley and is a few months ahead of us in treatment. She is currently in Delayed Intensification, a more difficult phase, and has been in the hospital very sick for several days. She has a very high fever and has been vomiting with diarrhea. Her ANC is very low, so if she has an infection (they are waiting for results) her body can't fight it on it's own. I have not heard an update today, but as of yesterday she was not doing well at all. Please pray for her and her family that she will recover a be able to go home soon.

Kaylee is another child Brinley's age who is also in Consolidation (same phase as Brinley) and had been in the hospital for over a week with a possible fungal infection. These can be very serious, and she was not doing well at all. Her ANC had been at 0 for weeks, and was not improving. My heart goes out to them, please send them your prayers.

Avalon is a little girl who had a stunt put in her brain, and had an awful surgeon that made some serious mistakes that are irreversible. She has already been through hell with the cancer, and now she will have permanent damage to her brain for the rest of her life, specifically her memory, because of an incompetent surgeon that made incomprehensible mistakes. I cannot begin to fathom what they are feeling and going through right now, but they could use the prayers.

There are many others on the list that are struggling, these are the specific ones I wanted to share with you, but I pray for the kids often and am feeling very humbled for whining about feeling cooped up - we could be cooped up in a hospital room! I am learning so much from these people, and I wanted to share while things are calm for us.

I just wanted to do a quick post about what a wonderful weekend we had.  We had no soccer this weekend, so David and I got up early and cleaned the whole house top to bottom.  Those of you in charge of the housecleaning know how this put me on cloud 9!  That night we watched Kung Fu Panda with the kids and it was so fun to just have a day to relax in a clean house.  


Sunday was great too, more sitting around relaxing, just enjoying being together with no worries.  Thinking back this sounds really silly, I can't pinpoint what was so great about our weekend.  I missed Taylor sooo much, but when she came home last night, we stayed up talking until midnight and I was just so happy to see her and have her home.  My point in posting this is that we are having some great days lately and I love life.  I love my kids, they are so fun, and naughty, and cute, and naughty, and can make my heart soar with a smile, or a kiss, or a hug, or an I love you mom, or a laugh.  And we are walking down the road of childhood cancer, and we are pulling together during the good times, and hopefully will be able to stay that way during the bad times.  I could never have imagined feeling this way a month ago, when everything was dark, and sad, and hard.  I have to write it down because  when a dark spell comes, I can come back and read about the joy that is possible in our lives.  

Okay, so this is a week and a half too late, but I wanted to post her first steps - the second time around.  She's gained a little confidence and speed since then!  Please ignore the background....the house is....well...you know.