A Sigh of Relief

Hope everyone was able to experience some wonderful and magical moments over the holidays. The kids get so excited, it's nice to think back on our own holidays when we would wake up on Christmas morning and be "wowed". Jim was saying that he and his brother Kevin would lay awake in their bunk beds and swear to each other that they heard Santa's sleigh bells and vow to stay up all night to see him. Somehow he magically slipped in and out during that one brief moment when they must have nodded off into dreamland. Of course we were up later than normal on Christmas Eve, having spent the evening over at Cousin Chris and Andrea's, celebrating Kalle's 4th birthday, having a great meal and coming home to our now traditional Christmas Eve of reading Polar Express, putting out cookies, milk and carrots and sprinkling the reindeer food around outside. All I kept thinking was that for J.R. and Addie, this is their memory to keep and how incredibly precious this time in life is for all of us. Of course it was hard to keep our minds from wandering but it only helped to strengthen our resolve to make this holiday very special.
I try to keep this blog focused on JR as he has had to endure so much more than the rest of us and probably understands a lot more than I realize, but it's difficult to talk about his experiences without including others around him so I do apologize again for the fluff but I'm just so fluffy, what can I say!! (now there's a run-on sentence for you!!) He did mention that he wished that Santa could use his magic and make all of this rotten stuff go away. We are hoping that this has happened as he wished but that we need to keep checking to make sure.
We visited the hospital yesterday (with Kimberly by our side) for another MRI and had the doctors gitty with excitement over his scans - no change from the last MRI and that was the best news we could have ever wished for. It takes me a while to process this good news and I try very hard to keep it all in perspective but can breathe a sigh of relief for now. It's only after this sigh that I realize how incredibly anxious, sad and distracted I get by this and that it is truly wasted energy. It's completely natural but it takes away from what we have. So for each of you reading this, please breathe the same sign of relief and stay positive! He's doing great! He starts his chemo again on the 10th of Jan. and every 4 weeks until the end of July when we reevaluate and see where we go from there! Two places we know we're going from there is Cuttyhunk in August and Hawaii sometime after that, thanks to the Make a Wish Foundation.
2008 is here and is already feels so good. Thank you again for showing your concern for JR and our family and all the wonderful cards, gifts and prayers we got from so many people. You are all helping so much. Happy New Year to all!!