Learning to Ride

Caleb is learning to balance on his bicycle. Thanks to Sid at the New Hope Bike Co-op, Caleb's bicycle pedals have been removed and he's learning to balance his bike all by himself! I tried to put up a video of Caleb rolling down the hill, "wheeeee"ing all the way (except when he ran into Aleah) but I am so far unsuccessful at video posting. He's so proud of his new skill! We are too!

We're mid-week, we had clinic yesterday and we have clinic tomorrow. The unusual schedule (instead of Tues & Weds) is because of Caleb's venogram tomorrow. Yesterday we were able to have a tour of the radiology room where the test will take place, and Caleb has a picture of the room with him here at home so we can look at and talk about it. He'd love to show you, if you see him. All of this is aimed at reducing Caleb's anxiety and helping him handle his treatment in the most positive way possible. He seems to be handling it pretty well, much better than his preparation for the echo-cardiogram a few weeks ago. I'm learning better ways to navigate the hospital with a small child.

The hospital is beginning a switch from being a general purpose hospital to becoming a children's hospital. Some areas of the hospital are better prepared for this than others, to be honest. I am so thankful for our clinic and ward, which have learned a lot over the years of treating cancer in children and it shows. I think a lot of energy is put in to helping children and their families survive treatment as a whole person, not just a body with cancer. I believe that we all can fight disease better if we are treated as a whole person. It's hard to have to go for tests outside of our "safe zone" of our clinic, and I get nervous about it. I feel like we've done a good job introducing ourselves and Caleb to the radiology area, and hopefully this makes tomorrow go that much more smoothly.

Pray for peace for us. We're receiving it. The word to us on Sunday was "relax." It came so directly, it's impossible to ignore. We are blessed.