May 12th update

Hey everyone!

"This is the day that the Lord has made, Rejoice and be glad in it!” This is the Bible verse that Laurie heard this morning when she was on the treadmill, and it just seemed so appropriate. She finished her 6th weekly chemo treatment yesterday, which means she is halfway through this 2nd round. And last night she was able to go to bed at normal time and sleep through the night. Her "spiritual" alarm clock woke her up at 6:30 so she went downstairs and got on the treadmill for the first time in 6 weeks, and turned on the TV, which just happened to be on this channel giving her a great verse for the day. How AWESOME is our God?

Last week, Laurie did get another sinus infection, but the Z-Pack from the doctor seemed to do the trick although she got a fever after starting the medications and had no energy on Thursday and Friday. Her great Brownie co-leader Stacey took Brooke to the Brownie Mom & Me sleepover Friday night, and then Laurie and her mom drove out to Potomac Woods (past Leesburg) for the activities on Saturday. I'm not sure if all the walking around the camp was harder for "Grandmom" or Laurie but they both made it with support from all the other mothers, and Brooke had a great time making jewelry, swap its, playing games and learning new Girl Scout songs. We got home around 4 pm, just in time to freshen up and go to Carlene's for a family celebration. Laurie's Dad turned 73 and Annie will be 17 in the next week, and of course, we celebrated all the mothers too! That night, we drove down to Ruther Glen, VA so we could be ready for the 2nd day of Forrest's baseball tournament. The first day, the team had won one and lost one. On Sunday, they won the first one, and then played against the team that had beat them the 1st day. They played like a team, very consistently, and beat that team, which placed them in the Championship game. For that game, we played the RISE team (Richmond Indoor Sports Experience), which is coached by a friend that used to go to Ox Hill Baptist with us before they moved to Richmond, Wayne Huggins. So while we lost to them 0-5, it was still good to see old friends and keep the game respectable (they got their points when they had 2 folks on base and then a home run was hit, and then 1 person on base with another homer).

On Monday, when Laurie did go in for her treatment (her Dad came with her again), her white blood count was totally back to normal days (8.3), and her hemoglobin had gone up .3 points (it was up .2 points the previous week). So while it may only be in very small increments, her numbers are slowly going back up, and that is great news! Maybe that walking around the Girl Scout camp did help! As her hemoglobin goes up, she will have more energy, which helps all of us. 8-) Yesterday, since she felt a little weak after leaving the doctor’s office, her dad and mom treated her to a High Protein Smoothie at Fresh City, and she perked right up! So she is learning new tricks for this round of treatment. And although she is going in weekly now, the appointments are only between 2.5 and 3 hours, so she can normally work the full morning on Monday and then go get treatment, and be back for Brooke & Ridge's baseball games that evening (unless they are rained out ... which luckily did not happen last night). They are both hitting the ball quite well and are making plays in the field. Every practice and/or game we see improvement and that is rewarding as one of their coaches!

So, all in all, things are going pretty well. We continue to go through each week one day at a time and praise the Lord for all he does for us. We continue to thank you for all you do for us and look forward to providing another good report next time.

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