This week has been a wonderful break for us. For those who tried to hit the site and found it down, it was a minor glitch and we're glad that our hosting buddies are home from vacation and flipped the breakers that turned off power to the server! Thanks GCIS and Sandi and Lloyd, but they deserve a vacation if anyone does.
Monday, Peyton and I went to the clinic for chemo via port and two shots in the legs. It constantly amazes me that after a painful treatment, she can still give hugs and kisses to her nurses and walk out with a smile (most days). Her blood counts were down, her ANC is almost non-existant, but she's doing great.
We've enjoyed the fact that we have no clinic visits until Monday of next week. No finger pokes or transfusion trips, so she's just bouncing around as happy as can be. I'm pretty darn happy about it myself.
I visited Nathaniel's class this week and did a little talk about Leukemia and what's going on with Peyton. The kids were great and just had so many questions about her cancer and treatment. They are a wonderful group of kids and they pray for her every day. They wanted to know what hurt, what her treatment was like and were so funny about her having her own website. They told her she was famous! It was a good thing for Nathaniel, for his classmates to understand a little more about what his life is like right now dealing with Peyton's illness. I made sure to let everyone know how much he helps out at home and what a great big brother he is.
Rachael holds Peyton's hand each day as we enter her clas and makes sure no one touches her with "germy hands"….she stands there like a little bouncer and yells "don't crowd her!" ….she has a bright future in the Secret Service.
Peyton and I are heading to St. Pete tomorrow to visit our special friend Adelaine and have a play date. It'll be so good for her because she hasn't had any of her normal play times, no day care friends, no ymca nursery friends, it's so isolating. I can't wait to see her get some good play time with someone on her level. Our good friend Chris took the girls so I could go out to dinner with another group of friends over the weekend whil Pete worked. Her two daughters Morgan and Paige are 8 and 5 and my girls just loved the time playing with them, it was good for us all. THANKS, Chris.
The fundraiser is going wonderful, we've had a great response so far and we are still waiting to start working with our church. We are just humbled by the generosity and love of everyone around us, what huge hearts we see. It is going to be a huge help with bills and expenses and we're thankful beyond words. Our next goal is to have a poker tournament later on to raise more money down the road, and possibly a golf tournament. We'd like to help some of the families we've met that we know are struggling as well, with both the emotional and financial burden we have thrown on our backs. If anyone knows anything about starting a non-profit organization to help families with childhood cancer I'd love to hear from you and pick your brain, I think that's something that we're being called to do.
Peyton is an amazing testement to God's love and strength because people who see her are constantly commenting on how happy and healthy she looks. She usually has a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. It's more than we could have ever hoped for, she's so joyful and her body is doing a great job of handling all it goes through.
With love
—-Anissa
ps…GO COLTS! We are so planning to send a copy of these pictures to the Colts and hope Peyton Manning gets a glimpse of his cutest fan.
