It's THANKSGIVING!!!

I don't think there will ever be another Thanksgiving like this year's! Last Friday we met with Dr. Chang to get the results of Shayla's post-treatment scans and were given the 'official word' that Shayla is CANCER FREE! How can there be anything more to be thankful for? But we are...

• Shayla's cancer-free status
• Jase's good-paying, providing job
• Carmen's good-paying job that is only 2 days a week
• insurance to cover Shayla's astronomical medical needs
• talents that bless our lives and others' lives too
• a home that is warm (even though it is never clutter-free or clean!:D
• children who are trying to do and be the best they can
• FAMILY
• God's blessings
• Grandma to do the baking this year
• a loving new home for our dog

I am so grateful God has seen fit to bless us with a riddance of Shayla's cancer. It has been a very intense 8 months. We have traveled through the lowest, darkest of valleys and been carried to the highest, exhilarating peak. The emotions we have experienced have been similar to the landscape of the journey. I am grateful we are where we are now. It is with a little bit of guilt that I am so happy to be done with cancer (at least with the 'in your face every day' part of it) because a friend has been dealing with her child's cancer for the past 14 months of her young 18 months of life and the end is much further down the road for them (10 years?!) you can read her blog here.

Another family friend (Kip Fife) asked our family to share what we have learned from the experiences of the past 8 months. I have re-learned that God is closer than we think, even if we don't believe we deserve his companionship. I re-learned that God hears the slightest of prayers, whether offered at the bedside of a hospitalized child or in a stairwell. I have learned my children are strong, capable young people. I have learned that crying isn't a sign of weakness. I have learned that God truly will only try us to the extent that we can bear...as long as we rely on His arm for strength.

What's next?

For the next 4 years Shayla will have repeat CT scans, bone scans, MRI and blood/urinalysis tests every three months. But that's all! Hopefully we can get her scheduled for port-removal surgery by early January. Once her port is out she will no longer need the twice-daily belly injections which have been necessary since May due to clotting around her port and peripherally into her right arm. She must return to the MSTI clinic monthly for breathing treaments of the pentamadine since she is allergic to the Septra/Bactrim medication. But that will end soon, too. Shayla is also being weaned off one med and will use up the last 3 of another to make her morning down to 1 pill a day for about 6 months.

Hair? Yep, she will get it back. Dr. Chang told her she could expect it to be 'combable' in about 6 months. So, by the time it starts to get hot around here again she may wish she didn't have hair!

Make-A-Wish trip: The plan is to go in May. We are all looking forward to the get-away. Shayla gets to be on a local radio station December 10th (at 8:00 am!) to talk with Paul J. about her wish and her dream to become an Equine vet. She got to visit the Idaho Equine hospital last week with her Make-A-Wish fundraising team from Capital High School. It was a surprise for her and she had a great time. The horses is what life is all about for her. I hope she will always have the fire of a dream to spur her on! (no pun intended, but apropros)

Looking back...I know I will be doing that alot. We still have a long way to go, but the road is so much more beautiful to look at from this vantage point! I hope to always be willing to look back and see the hand of God in our lives. I hope we all can.

Have a gratitude-filled Thanksgiving everyone!