Road Trip!

When Daddy was going through treatment and during his two months in the hospital, his siblings and their spouses were great about coming up to visit him. (And my kids LOVE when Uncle Bud, Aunt Dot, Aunt Betty, Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave come visit.) Now, he's going to visit them this week! He hasn't traveled anywhere for quite a while, and the fact that he feels up to a multi-day road trip says a lot about how much better he is feeling now. So, look out, Georgia! :)

On a more serious note, please pray for our friend, Kofi, who was diagnosed with cancer in the past 2 weeks. It was a rather sudden diagnosis and has metatasized. He has a wife and 2 kids (one in high school, one in elementary school). He has been a great friend to Daddy, and visited Daddy frequently during his long hospital stay.

Team Garrett

It's official! Corrie (who will be 5 and is terribly excited about running) and I signed up to run in the Purple Stride Atlanta on November 13. It's a 5k Family Fun Run/Walk hosted by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to raise awareness and funds for research. We're recruiting for our team-- Team Garrett -- won't you consider joining us or supporting us? Here's a link to our team page.

http://pancan.kintera.org/purplestrideatlanta10/teamgarrett

And We're Back...

Sorry for the gap in posts -- I was on vacation, and forgot to update before I left. My whole family (3 girls and husband) had a weird virus two weeks ago-- the main symptom seemed to be laying around crying with no appetite for 3 days. I couldn't get the girls to tell me what was wrong, if anything hurt, etc. Then my husband got it and said he just hurt all over. He stayed in bed for a day, and took 2 more days to really recover. (You can see where this is heading, right?). Well, Daddy got it. We had been out at their house one day when my oldest daughter all of a sudden started acting like she felt bad -- really just crying and laying on the couch. Of course, Pop-Pop had to comfort her, and 3 days later he was in bed for 3 days. The good news is that he's much better now and back on the road to regaining his strength. The bad news is that it obviously takes him much longer to recover -- probably twice as long and he feels like it set him back a couple of weeks. Otherwise, since he recovered, he's doing well -- he was back to making barbecue sauce (not the meat yet) the other day. Seems like there was something else I was going to post about but it's late and my brain has shut down for the night!

Small Milestone

Daddy made it to church on Sunday for the first time since early May. What a blessing for Mom and Dad to get to worship together again and with our sweet church family! I don't know if I've been clear about this, but I want to make sure that I am -- we firmly believe that God is working in our family for His glory, regardless of Daddy's health on any given day. And we are thankful for the people He has put in our lives to point us to Christ during the good times and the hard times. My prayer has been that this whole experience would make our family, and those whom we encounter throughout this journey, long for and cling to things that have eternal value. And I'm done preachin' now.

As promised...

Pictures above from Ruby's birthday party! In other news, Daddy had his PICC line removed this week and the dr. said that they see no sign of infection right now. He followed up with the oncologist, and will just see him every couple of months to check in right now, probably with a scan every 6 months or more. He says he's feeling better every day, and even drove a short distance the other day. He's also back to reading which was a surprise to me because last time I asked about a month ago, he said he was shaking too much to hold the book still. But then I asked him yesterday if he read the book I gave him for his birthday, and he said, "Oh, yeah, I read that already," and he passed it on to a friend. We are so grateful for the little things these days, and just thankful that God has given us more time with Daddy.

Celebrations

This time last year was when I started worrying that something was really wrong with Daddy. It was Ruby's birthday party, and he left super early because he was in so much pain that he couldn't sit still. I had my suspicions then that it was more than just a pulled muscle, but we didn't get the diagnosis for two more months. Well, yesterday we celebrated Ruby's 3rd birthday, and Daddy stayed the whole time! He even let Ruby give him a pretend haircut. I will post a picture soon but I have to recharge my camera before I can get the pictures off it. Needless to say, we had a good time celebrating Ruby, and are grateful that Daddy is here to celebrate another year with us. He's talking about traveling when he feels better, and is tentatively planning to go to church next week for the first time since before his surgery. He has several dr. appointments this week, including a follow up at the oncologist, so I'll post if we learn anything new. Praise God for the opportunity to celebrate big and small milestones!

Extraordinary Cancer Survivor Turns 100

Extraordinary Cancer Survivor Turns 100
Ok, so here's the actual story title. Sorry for all the confusion-- still trying to figure out the logistics of blogging at times! And don't be confused, this is about another cancer survivor -- Daddy's not turning 100 yet! :)