Hi! There is nothing new to post. I wanted to get some pics up from December that I have been meaning to for a while. The boys continue to do great. Eli is at basketball practice right now, can you believe it?!

Please pray for a clinic friend, Theo, who passed away this morning. May God give his family peace in this awful time of grief.

Thanks for checking in.

Maria

Today was another long clinic day, although it didn't start out that way. We went in for chemo and pentamadine. The pentamadine takes 1 hour to infuse and the chemo only takes 15 min. Well, the pentamadine came up so quickly I thought we would be home by 11....then Jennifer had Bobby come and tell us that the "hood" in the oncology pharmacy had gone down just as they were preparing our chemo and they had to wait for someone to come fix it before they could prepare our chemo and get us out of there. Do we have the best luck or what?! So, we finally got the chemo around 1 or so. I got home just as the boys were getting home from school, so it was pretty good timing.

Funny thing Eli did today: Jennifer was covering for us because our normal nurse, Wendy, had lots of patients. Eli really is very relaxed when he is there, so this was no big deal. Well, she comes up to him and says, "Can I see your tail?" meaning that she wanted to see his tube so she could hook him up to the IV. Well, this was lingo that Eli is not familiar with...we call it a tubie. So he says. "It's not a tail" and proceeds to pull his pants down and show her his pee pee!!! We then told him what she meant and he pulled his shirt up so she could hook him up. Jennifer wasn't the least bit flustered by it, having two small boys at home. I thought it was funny because Eli has seen so many docs and such that he is so compliant when they ask him to do something. Either of my other boys would have said, "What?!"

We saw some friends that we hadn't seen in a while and they look great. It is so great to see how quickly these kids rebound and adjust.

Check out this video. One of the guys mentions Eli in the beginning. It is a group of men that biked cross country to raise money for Childhood Cancer. It is an amazing clip and I can't wait to see the documentary that will follow. As I have said many, many times before, I think if more people took a look at pediatric cancer they would become outraged by all of it and maybe something would be done about it. It is groups like these cyclists that will make that happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6hEygLJu2


That's all I have today.

Thanks for checking in.

Maria

Well everyone, we have been on this ride for 2 years now. It is official. WOW. I can say with all honesty that in 2007 I could not imagine ever being here and being so very happy with our lives and aware of how blessed we are every day. I can only say thank you for your prayers and thoughts. They are what got us through 2007, and they continue to uplift me everyday when the "what ifs" creep in....Bring on 2009 and then we move into the Crowley Year....2010!!!

Eli played basketball for the first time today with his team. They are a developmental team, so they really won't play games, just practice and learn the game. He had such an amazing time.

We had a very busy week last week. John and I were able to go out to dinner for my birthday on the 27th, then Sam had a sleep over for 5 of his buddies for his 7th birthday, then we had the Hucks and Tyners over for John's birthday on the 29th....whew....then we did fireworks with the Lawrence family on New Years. We have been sleeping since....haha. No, we have really enjoyed it.

This year we bought a "be a tourist in your own town" pass for January. So yesterday we went to Cypress Gardens and Santee Canal State Park (very cool places) and today we went to see the Hunley. (The first submarine to sink a ship during the Civil War.) We are planning a trip to Ft. Sumter and Patriots Point for next weekend. The pass should help to make January a little more exciting than usual.

I have tons of pics on my camera that I will be posting this week. I am so bad about that, but at least I take more pics now than I used to :)

Thanks for checking in...and thanks for being there for us.

Maria

I am thankful for all of the people who have helped us in the past two years as we battle this beast. (There are so many from friends to doctors and nurses and caregivers of various types) I am thankful for my beautiful Eli who has shown me how to be brave and courageous and spiritfilled and my boys Sam and Jacob who make our lives full.