A Weekend Pass

All the BMT folks are impressed with how great Abby is doing and so we get to come home for the weekend. We stopped at Good Times to get some lunch on the way back and are looking forward to spending the weekend at home.

A New Norm?

By the apartment pool

Making sushi

Look what's around the corner!

Hi all.  I've been with Abby in Denver since Monday. Last week she had her endoscopy.  The jury is still out on that.  No viruses or bacterial infections were found so that's good news.  They just aren't sure if it's GVHD or just an irritated, inflamed colon issue.  The lab expert was on vacation but is back this week so once she returns, our gastroenterologist will huddle around the microscope with her and some other experts and decide.  However, in the mean time the corse of treatment for either thing is similar so they've started her on a steroid.  It's a new kind, that only releases in your gut so you don't have all the issues of having it go through your whole body.  We are very glad about that!  Abby on steroids is no fun.

Abby is doing great! She turned a corner Friday in terms of her stomach issues and it has really helped her energy levels.  She isn't sleeping as much, she has been up and around more, smiling more, talking more, eating and drinking more, less nauseous, and doing school for a couple of hours each day.  It's beautiful to see!

She had a visit from a teacher at ASIJ who lives in Durango.  School got out at ASIJ June 10th.  It was really great to see him!  He brought a game the middle schoolers designed and made for Abby in the CAD lab (the new lab/program Mark directed) on the 3D printer.  It is a memory game with photos of all of Abby's teachers as well as the 7th grade class.  He also brought year books (signed by friends and teachers!) for each of our girls.  It was really sweet.  He worked closely with Mark at ASIJ and Mark thinks the world of him so it was wonderful for Mark to spend some time with him as well.

It feels like we have come back up on the other side of this BMT/leukemia monster.  Only God knows what's ahead, but as we look back, we have been through a lot!  I find myself longing to go back and begin where we left off.  I picture us all in our home in Japan, me in the library with the girls coming in to say hi, Mark in the beautiful CAD center doing what he loves... I think I finally have time to connect on a heart level with the reality of the loss of a dream.  For two years, Mark and I have been prepping to take our family over to Japan.  A year ago this week, we sent our shipment off and started getting ready to leave the US.  It's so strange to be where we are today.  I'm not exactly sure how to process it.  I am sure time will help with that.

The rest of the family is thawing out as well I think.  Being apart so much is hard on us all but it seems like Anna and Lily are feeling more things in their own ways.  The shock and intensity is over. The realities have sunk in.

Overall, we could all use prayer as we sort this all out in our hearts.  I am reading the book I talked about in an earlier post, Finding God in the Ruins by Matt Bays.  It's about how God redeems pain.  It's raw and honest and I am really enjoying it.  It's great timing as I try to "make sense" out of all that's happened.  Of course, I won't succeed in make sense of it all but I am trying to let the pain and loss change and deepen my view of God- who He really is and not who I have made Him to be in my desire to find quick, tidy answers.  Anyway... I hope you all have some good summer reads ahead.

To our dear friends at ASIJ- enjoy your summer, you have earned it!  You are the most hard working, talented, dedicated set of teachers and support staff Mark and I have ever seen.  You are also an amazing community.  We are honored and deeply blessed to have been a part of you all.  We miss you tremendously and want you to know that we could not have made it through the past year without you all.

Abby and Mr. Erwin with her yearbook and game