McKenna, Rachel, Gage and RJ

Mommy got a chance to talk to McKenna's mommy yesterday. She seemed to be hanging in and in a bit of fog from lack of sleep and a whole new world to deal with. They seemed to be pretty frazzled with everything that was happening - moving from one room to another and McKenna feeling worse than she had been. We have offered to help in any way that we can and specifically mentioned a few ways. Hopefully, we will be able to get out and visit with them for a little while one day this week. When we talked, they were not feeling like they needed help "in a hurry" and with everything being pretty busy we decided not to visit that day.

My heart just breaks for this family. I remember what those first few weeks were like: the lack of sleep, the worry and concern, how terrible it is to watch your little one suffer and only be able to do so much for her, wondering if you are doing the right things or if there is more you should be doing or if you should just be doing something different, and listening to the doctors talk about the treatment and all the side-effects and possible outcomes and literally "freak out" but having to be strong for my little one.

Please pray for this family. Mom is with McKenna in the hospital, dad had to go back home so he could go back to work, and Grandma is helping with the other kiddos. McKenna has a major surgery (something like 13 hours) on Thursday to remove the brain tumor. Thursday will no doubt be a really tough day for them. Pray for success with the surgery, peace and comfort for the family, sleep for mom and guidance for everyone involved in her care.

Please pray for Rachel and her family, too. They are struggling right now and need a miracle. The latest treatment wasn't working and so they've switched again. It is a tough time for them and they can use all the prayers they can get.

Gage is now two weeks past his transplant and his counts are just starting to come up. Their prayer now is that they are ALL HEALTHY DONOR CELLS. Gage has also been having some issues with his liver, so please pray that it isn't anything serious.

RJ got to go home a few days earlier than usual. Something about having been through this three other times and him being able to take care of himself instead of bothering the nurses.

Right now, all these kids as well as RJ are heavy on my heart. All things considered, my girls are doing pretty well. It is all a matter of perspective. We'll have some more stories about how they are doing coming up soon, so stay tuned... Thanks for checking in and for praying for us and our friends.