Praise God for the days that we have at home.  It’s great to be back.  Our days go by quickly with an infant and a toddler to take care of, but we’re loving every second of it.  Well, Alice is.  I have my moments at 5am, but I’m quickly reminded of how blessed we are to be awake at 2am and 5am because of the cries of newborn life.

Jeremy adjusted very quickly to being back at home, even with a crying baby in the mix.  The other morning, Matty was in his rocker and started to cry, while Jeremy was doing a puzzle nearby.  Jeremy rushed to Matty’s side to rock him and kiss him on the head in an attempt to calm him down.  Yesterday, we made a short trip to Target, one of Jeremy’s favorite places, mostly because of the toy section.  As we were getting ready to go, he told us, “I want 弟弟 to go, too.”

He’s also started to show some mild signs of jealousy.  Actually, I’m not even sure I’d call it jealousy, more like just missing his mother.  In the mornings, Alice is usually nursing Matty while Jeremy is still sleeping.  Jeremy has been accustomed to some morning cuddle time with Alice as soon as he wakes up, so he’s been missing that.  He doesn’t whine about it and doesn’t demand that Alice stop what she’s doing with Matty, but he does cry and asks me to carry him.  All in all, he’s adjusted amazingly well to having a little brother.

Jeremy’s really enjoying his time at home, running around, jumping, throwing himself against soft surfaces, making toast with butter in his play kitchen, putting together his puzzles.  He’s pretty good at those puzzles, putting together a 48 piece puzzle all by himself yesterday.  He’s learned the chorus for a few songs, too.  We’ve thoroughly experienced God’s faithfulness during this season of difficulty and we’ve found a lot of comfort in hymns.  For me, in particular, it’s “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  Jeremy picked up on our random outbursts of song and sings along with us occasionally.  It’s a blessing to hear him sing those hymns with us.

We had a bit of eventfulness today.  When we were getting Jeremy ready for his bath, we noticed that his dressing had come undone enough that his central line site was exposed.  We’re unsure as to how long the site was exposed for.  We decided that we had to change it right away, but neither of us had ever done a dressing change, though we’ve observed many.  We ended up changing it, but aren’t very confident in the work that we did.  We don’t have the sterile resources that are available in the hospital, but we did what we could so that it was as clean as possible.  Still, we are praying that it didn’t expose Jeremy to more bacteria.  The last thing we want is for him to encounter any sort of infection or illness prior to transplant.

Speaking of transplant, I called the bone marrow transplant (BMT) team today to follow up on how things were moving along with the 9/10 potential donor they found out of Hong Kong a little while back.  When we were discharged we were told that they were planning on a tentative admission date of November 11th for bmt.  On the call today, we were told that it’s been moved to the 19th because they’re trying to nail down solid dates that work for the donor.  Praise God, Jeremy’s primary oncologist told us that it’s ok to wait until then, according to protocol, which means no additional round of chemo! And, we were told that the donor will be going in for a physical exam on Monday, so it sounds like they’re planning to move forward with donation! Praise the Lord! We continue to pray that they will pass all the necessary workup and exams and will be exactly the match that Jeremy needs for a full and complete cure.

So for now, we wait.  Waiting is still one of the more difficult parts of this journey, but we confess our fears, worries, and anxieties and surrender it to the Lord.  We continue to experience His goodness and faithfulness.  We trust Him.  We trust Him with our lives, we trust Him with the lives of our children, with Jeremy.

“Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord we have an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4)

Praise God:

• for Him, our everlasting rock
• Jeremy remains fever free and continues to eat well
• Jeremy has adjusted well to being at home with Matty
• Jeremy is able to avoid an additional round of chemo
• Jeremy’s donor appears to be moving forward with donation
• our families continue to provide support during our time at home
• for all of you people of prayer who continue to pray for Jeremy
• Alice continues to recover well from Matty’s delivery

Please continue to pray (new/updated items in bold):

• that God would continue to use this situation for His glory
• that we would be obedient to God’s plans for this situation
• that we would continue to cast our worries and fears on the Lord, that we would fix our eyes on Him
• that we would continue to be reminded of God’s greatness and provision, that we would wait on Him, and that we would not allow fear to creep in
• that we would rejoice in the moments that God gives us
• that God would provide full and complete healing and total health for Jeremy
• that God would provide with the whole process of finding a bone marrow match, the risks of transplant, and the anxiety of it achieving long-term remission for Jeremy
• that Jeremy would stay in remission while we wait for bone marrow transplant admission
• that the potential 9/10 donor would be a suitable donor for Jeremy, in perfect health and free of infectious diseases (hep B, etc)
• that the potential 9/10 donor would follow through with donation, so that a haplo transplant can be avoided and thus avoiding total body irradiation
• that Jeremy would not have any brain, liver, lung, kidney, pancreatic, heart, or any other type of organ damage as a result of the chemo and antibiotics
• that our semi-sterile attempt at a dressing change today wouldn’t cause any issues for Jeremy
• that God would continue to protect Jeremy’s heart from the lasting effects of the medication (mitoxantrone) from the last round
• that God would protect Jeremy from any bacterial, yeast, fungal, or viral infections
• that God would guide the doctors in the decisions being made regarding Jeremy’s central line
• that Alice and I would not get sick in order to care for our family
• for adjustment for all of us as we learn to care for one another in the hospital setting
• that baby brother would nurse easily and sleep well
• for our neighbors who are also enduring trials of their own
• for our parents – that they would have rest and place their trust in Jesus and receive His comfort
• that God would give us wisdom in teaching Jeremy in the hospital environment
• that we would be witnesses of God’s love and grace to our neighbors and the medical staff