Monday, December 31st

We are back in Green Bay!  Happy New Years to us!  🙂  It was so nice to be home over the last couple of weeks.  We had a wonderful Christmas!  Just being home and together was enough, but we had several blessings to make it even better.  One was that we had a local church in Skandia, Community Covenant Church, come out to our house and sing Christmas carols to us.  I didn’t even know people did that anymore.  It was awesome!  Caleb really enjoyed it.  As we stood in the doorway and listened, Caleb insisted going outside and standing on the porch to hear them better.  He stood there with the biggest smile on his face enjoying every second.   He looked so proud like they were there just to sing to him – like he was the center of attention.  It was adorable!  I will never forget that.  🙂  Jacob, on the other hand, kind of hid behind Ken and I not wanting to be noticed.  🙂  Another blessing was that some family from the Green Bay area blessed the boys with a bunch of presents for Christmas.  It was through the hospital here.  What an amazing blessing!  I am still in shock!  We probably will never know who they are, but they made 2 boys very happy!!!  Thank you to whoever you are – our secret Santa.  🙂

Jacob stayed healthy the whole time we were home.  I was a little nervous because his white blood cell count was down so low pretty much the whole time and just went back up over the weekend.  Thankfully no colds or fevers.  He’s a trooper!  Caleb’s 9th birthday was yesterday.  So on Friday, he had his birthday party with his friends and had a sleepover.  All went well and not too much craziness.  In the meantime, Jacob and Caleb’s Aunt Kim and Uncle Dave came up for a surprise visit.  We knew they were coming, but the boys had no clue.  You should’ve seen the look on Caleb’s face especially.  He just stood there with his mouth wide open.  🙂   We celebrated Christmas again with them and it was nice having them there for Caleb’s birthday too. 

We left early this morning for Green Bay.  What makes it better is that Caleb is with us.  Yay!  Sad we had to leave Ken behind.  🙁  They were able to start chemo earlier than normal   – at about 1:00.  Jacob is doing very well, but since this is the 5 day stay with Ifosfamide and Etopiside (the one he’s allergic to), as soon as they give him the Benadryl, he’s usually zoned out for the rest of the day.  We do have a busy week, however, with tests and scans.  He’ll have PET scans, CT’s and a MRI done along with the radiation simulation to get ready for radiation which will probably start on January 14th.  Next we will be heading down to Milwaukee next weekend to meet with Jacob’s oncologist to go over the results and to decide on a plan on what to do from there.  We’ve pretty much decided what route we want to take, but we’ll still hear them out.

Jacob is getting his 6th round this week.  Only 8 to go.  It’s hard to believe that we’re there already.  This is where we pulled him out of treatment last time to save his life.  I am just so amazed at how great he is doing this time.  We are so thankful that God has blessed us with these great Doctors and Nurses here in WI where they actually care about the childs health and they’re not just out there to make money and boost their egos.   They are taking such good care of Jacob.  I am so happy he’s doing so well.  Thank you Jesus!!!  I just hope other children aren’t suffering at the hands of the doctors at the G.R. hospital like Jacob was.  We will have to lift them up in prayer and remember that God is in control!

Child Life came in earlier to give the boys noise makers, party hats, silly glasses and streamers to hang up for our own New Years Eve party, but they were both out at 9:00 cheese time.  I’m not too far behind.  🙂  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and cherished every minute with your children.  I also wish you all a Happy New Year!!!  May you all have happiness, good health and be blessed this year. 

Please keep Jacob in y0ur prayers this week and next as he has his tests and scans.  I will let you all know when we have the results!  God bless!