Two weeks

Nella, at our picnic yesterday. It was too windy for Nella, she said she was going to blow away. It was safer in the buggy.

Aleah. Our wild child.

Caleb loves his new hat from Tammy. We love it too.

Monday. Two weeks ago we came to the ER and we've been in and out of here since then. We are receiving excellent care. Mac has been a positive experience for us, despite all of the reasons why we are here. I am thankful to be in Hamilton, close to this hospital, and quite possibly the best care we could ever have. We know that despite circumstances, through our circumstances, God works to provide for us.

Right now Caleb and I are sitting in his room on the ward, he's hooked up to the IV line again. This is in preparation for more chemo this afternoon. This morning Caleb woke up at home, in his own (new) bed. He slept-in. We had a casual breakfast at home, took some meds, did a puzzle, and came to the hospital. Now we're relaxing for a bit, waiting for blood work results and for rounds to be completed so we can know what our next steps will be. There is the possibility of being discharged today. This would mean we go home until probably next Monday. We are on day 11 of treatment. There is chemo scheduled for today, and then the next scheduled chemo is on day 18 of treatment. That is a week from today. All of this depends on blood work results and Caleb's health. Really low blood numbers would mean coming back for transfusion. Fever would mean coming back for antibiotics. We can pray that neither of these happens. So far things seem to be going well.

We had a nice time at home. It is still stressful, and we need lots of patience and help, but I can see that it will get better. For a short while yesterday afternoon it was even relaxing and more like normal. I'm looking forward to getting a rhythm and routine to how we do things, and that is something we'll be learning this week. I woke up in the middle of the night last night, thinking hard about whether or not we had given Caleb all of the meds that he needed or if maybe we forgot something. I've resolved to make a chart that I can check off when we've given something. I'll ask the nurses today if that makes sense or if they have a better idea. Any of you more experienced parents have any ideas about this? At this point, I don't know how they'll send his meds home with us, and I'm sure that will also affect how we do things.

Yesterday we popped in at church for a few minutes. Caleb really wanted to go, and because our church is small, we donned masks and came in. We lasted about five minutes, but it was nice for all of us. Aftger church we had a picnic lunch at the lakefront and had a walk (stroller ride) by the Burlington/Hamilton lift bridge. There was a massive cargo ship going through, and we managed to make it in time to see it! That was enough activity for one day, and it really only lasted an hour!

Again, thank you all for meals, gifts, calls, prayers, and all of the ways we experience your support. We received a box with many individually wrapped presents, given by a family who's father had spent some time in hospital as a child. These individually wrapped gifts are serving as rewards for meds taken successfully! Thank you! I'm slowly catching up with some of you in person and by phone, thanks for waiting and sticking with us. I was able to talk with a friend last night who shared about learning to give her daughter needles for diabetes when her daughter was nine. This really touched my heart. I take such comfort in shared difficult experiences like this one. Thank you for sharing your own experiences. We are strongest when we are together.

Caleb played his guitar for the first time since coming home. He and Uncle Johan had a jam session on Sunday night.