Eighteen Months and Counting

Benjamin is looking good and cancer free!  Yesterday we spent the day in STL.  Last week Benjamin had his chest CT here in town, then he had his MRI of his knee yesterday.  Dr. G prefers to work closely with the radiologists at SLU, so for that reason and for consistency we will continue with the MRIs there.  The reports were clear!  We have been so blessed by Dr. G. and his staff.  They are wonderful.

We will return in six more months for the same routine again.  After year two is clear, then we will decide whether to continue with every six months or move to yearly follow-ups.  Because Benjamin's cancer is so rare (and a rare mutation of that) there isn't much research or protocol to follow.  In some regards we are confident that it won't return, but due to some treatment in the early stages of Benjamin's diagnosis we have reason to be concerned.  A couple of studies have shown that up to 60% of patients have had recurrence and metastasis in the chest.  Those recurrences have been 5-20 years later.  Ugh.  We have known that we are in this for the long haul, but each clear follow-up is definitely reason to celebrate.  We give God the glory for what has taken place so far.

The last couple of years have been rewarding to watch Benjamin grow and mature.  He has handled all of this with such ease and "coolness" and an amazing attitude.  We are so proud of him.  Speaking of growing...we had the nurse measure my height after Benjamin's.  It's official, he's finally taller than Mom!

Mom's Weekend Away

Ahhh, typically twice a year I get to enjoy a 3-day weekend with awesome girlfriends.  It started out as a scrapbooking retreat, but we do everything from scrapbooking to reading, to crafting, to sewing.  There is no schedule.  It is truly relaxing.  This time we tried renting a different place, a house on a lake.  It was wonderful!  I love hanging out with these ladies, going on walks, chatting way into the night, eating breakfast in our jammies, laughing, crying, relaxing. 

Um, with all the rain the dock was a bit flooded!

My view from the easy chair.  I spent most of the weekend reading Unbroken, an incredible WWII story that I highly recommend.

Meanwhile Chris held down the fort at home and took over some regular Mom duties.  He had to take Benjamin to the eye doc for a follow up on Friday morning.  Then in the afternoon he had to take Benjamin for his 6 mth CT scan (more on that later this week).  Then Sunday morning he had to take Elijah to Urgent Care for his poison ivy reaction.  Thanks, Baby!

Twenty Years Ago

On this day in 1993, Chris and I pulled into town.  Chris was driving our small moving truck which pulled his car.  I was following behind in my vehicle.  We communicated with walkie talkies.  We had just spent three days on the road traveling from our home in California, then we spent a couple of days with his family in Joplin before heading to our final destination.  We had only been married eleven months.

We had no jobs, no home, but were eager to settle in and see what adventures lay ahead.  We spent our first night at the Christian Campus House and eagerly began our apartment search the next morning.  By that afternoon we had signed a lease and were moving ourselves into a 2-bedroom townhouse.  We couldn't believe that for $370 we could get such a large and nice apartment.  We had been paying $550 a month for a tiny run down apartment.

The humidity stifled us and sapped our energy very quickly, but each morning we set out job searching and getting to know our new surroundings.  We signed on with temp agencies.  Our plan was to work for a year, save money, then attend MU grad school after we had become state residents.  God had other plans.

My first temp job was working the front desk at a doctor's office.  I remained there in various capacities until Michaela was born four years later.  Chris worked a few different temp jobs, but within that first month he temped at a small emerging company called Carfax.  There were twelve employees.  A special segment on the company had just run on 60 Minutes and they were expecting a deluge of phone calls to their 800 number.  Chris helped field those calls.  As the calls died down, the office manager kept finding things for him to do.  In October he was officially hired after working the 90 day temp contract. He's still there, one of about 500 employees.

We bought a house.  We made lifelong friends.  We gave birth to three kids.  We traveled.  We bought another house.  We adopted two kids.  We traveled some more.  We made more lifelong friends.  We never went to grad school.

We had no idea what lay ahead of us when we pulled away from that $550 apartment in California.  Now looking back we stand amazed.  First of all we can't believe it has been twenty years.  We still feel young, and at times it feels like yesterday that we were heading out for a day at Balboa Beach.  I never would have dreamed all that has happened, but this I know.  God has blessed us more than we could have imagined.  He has grown our family in ways we never thought of.  He has provided in amazing ways.  He has made us look forward to the next twenty years, whatever they may hold, wherever they may take us, however we get there.  Wow!

School is Out!

Well, we're mostly done!  Poor Michaela will have a bit more chemistry to finish up when she gets home, but it shouldn't take too long.  We will do some reading this summer, and possibly a bit more review for one kiddo, but we're calling this school year complete.  We now have a senior, freshman, eighth grader, seventh grader, and second grader!

We're moving on to some fun summer activities like swimming, hiking, archery, horse care, gymnastics, and lots of free time.  Woo hoo!

Last week after archery class we went to a nature center with friends for a picnic lunch and enjoyed a hike.  It was hilarious trying to get all eight kids up on the rail at once.

Unfortunately when you don't stay on the paths....you can end up looking like this.  :(  Poor kid learned the tough way not to tangle with poison ivy.  Chris had to run him to the Urgent Care Sunday morning while I was out of town.  The swelling is down, but he's still resembling a chipmunk a bit. 

Kittens

They are seven weeks old now and oh, so cute.  Time to find homes for them, although the kids are very reluctant to let these fluffy bundles go.  They are at such a funny and playful stage now....attacking blades of grass, batting their mama's tail with gusto, pouncing on a twig.  Fun!  Any takers?

Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to get a  pool membership again this summer since we will be around and not off on a long road trip.  The kids enjoyed it so much last year, so we'll be poolside a lot again.  The water hasn't quite warmed up yet and I only had 3 brave souls venture in, but we had fun.

 
With the public schools out, Ami and Johanna have enjoyed lots of extra play time with the neighbor girls.  Ami and Sofia were having a blast belting out songs with the keyboard and microphone.  So funny!

We made our best effort at going to the Memorial Day parade, as we have for many years now.  We were walking up to find our spot on the route when news broke that it had been cancelled due to impending rain.  I love this parade each year.  It's not full of advertisers, candy, or anything else except for focusing on honoring past and present service men and women.  We are so very thankful for those that have served and are serving our country!

In other news....Michaela is still up in Ishinomaki with my sister's family.  Today they had a dedication of the new Nozomi House, a building for the jewelry project I have posted about before, and had a very special guest that led worship for them....Jeremy Camp!  He was in Japan helping with relief efforts and graciously came to take part in the dedication.  He didn't even have his guitar with him on this trip, so bought one in Japan to use.  Fun experience for Michaela, and a neat encouragement to the mission team there in Ishinomaki. 
 

A New Look

We're kidding Benjamin that he looks totally different with his newly acquired contacts.  He just got them yesterday....poor kid, he didn't stand a chance with the genes that Chris and I each passed down to him.  He actually has done quite well and once had "eagle vision", but with this last couple of years of growth and change his eyes took a turn for the worse.  They're fairly borderline, so hopefully he'll never have the blindness that I have.  The doctor said that about half of her patients at this stage opt to use no correction, but Benjamin is already raving about all the things that he can see clearly now.  Fortunately everyone else checked out fine (with no change) and Elijah and Ami remain our two with great vision.  :)

Speaking of this blue-eyed kid, he is just about equal with me in height now.  And as his height goes up, his voice continues to go down.  There are many times that I'll hear someone downstairs and think, "Who is here?"  Oh, it's Benjamin!  His voice has changed so much, and I don't recognize it on the phone either.  Love this kid!

New Duds

So Johanna dug out the baby doll clothes that haven't been played with in ages.  Enter our poor kittens (both male, I might add)....looking forlorn, but oh so cute.

No, the kittens are not allowed in the house.  So why do I keep finding them being cradled like a baby in the kids' arms?!

New Adventures

The boys started an archery class yesterday!  They had so much fun and were grinning ear to ear the whole time.  Their immediate discussion, as soon as we were in the van heading home, was about saving up to buy their own equipment.  This summer session is only four weeks long, but I have a feeling we'll be signing up for continuing classes.  Cool stuff!

(Yes, we have a lefty and a righty!)

Catching Up

I finally feel like we're mostly caught up on things.  Even after just a week-long vacation there is so much catching up to do, but especially after being gone almost two months, there is all the more.  We got started back up on school, although it's somewhat of a lighter load.  We are almost finished with our school year and hopefully we'll be done in just a couple more weeks.

I've also been getting summer schedules in order.....swimming lessons, archery lessons, gymnastics, wedding RSVPs, wedding and grad gifts, etc.  My piles are dwindling.....mail sorted, bills and accounting up to date, accounting is caught up for Dad and Mom's mission and Chad and Jennifer's mission that we handle Stateside things for, souvenirs put away, packages sent out, the rest of our winter clothes put away, suitcases back in storage, and more.

I still haven't made it out to the yard.  There is so much weeding and maintenance to catch up on.  At least Benjamin has mowed for us!  I haven't done major grocery shopping yet.  We've kind of been winging it and stopping by the store each day to get what's needed for the next meal.  Oh, here's a funny.  I was running errands and texted Benjamin that I was on my way home, just needed to make a quick stop at the grocery store. 

Benjamin:  Real cereal please.
Me:  Such as?
Benjamin:  Cinnamon toast crunch, life cinnamon, lucky charms.  Nothing 'organic' or 'all natural'.
Me:  But isn't that the definition of "real"?
Benjamin:  Nope!

Oh my, I'm losing this battle!  Anyway, the more I get done, the more I seem to keep adding to my list.  I've got fall curriculum to order, our next fall trip to plan (yippee!), other house projects to work on.

Michaela is doing great. I really do miss her.  It is so weird to only count four children, or six total.  We usually Skype twice a day (morning and night--as we are 14 hours apart).  She is currently back up in Ishinomaki with my sister's family, enjoying her cousins and helping there.  She's supposed to send me pictures of some of her activities and when I get them I'll share (hint, hint, Michaela!).

Last night we got together with our Chinese student, Cici.  She had to move out of her dorm for the summer, and is returning to China for a couple of months.  We are storing a bunch of her stuff at our house while she's away.  I really felt old, like we were college parents helping our child move out of the dorms.  It really could be us, we're old enough to have a college student.  Wow!  Anyway, we enjoyed a nice evening with Cici.  We had dinner at Outback to celebrate our school studies we are doing for Australia.

  
And that's my only picture from the week!  I think my camera is enjoying the break from daily blogging.  :)