Thanksgiving

It's been an exhausting last few weeks!  Michael hasn't been feeling well, so he's been crying and needing to be held most of the day and up a lot at night.  We aren't sure if it's radiation sickness, a cold, or something else.  He's playing catch up on his immunizations, so he received several shots a few weeks ago.  It's possible that with his weak immune system it's just taking him a lot longer to bounce back.  On top of that Liz has been very sick, so lately we've been trying to keep things pretty low key.

Fortunately on Thanksgiving Day Michael and Liz had improved significantly, so we enjoyed a nice, relaxing day.  The weather was beautiful so we went for a short hike in a nature area near our home.  The kids absolutely loved gathering sticks and rocks and throwing them in what's left of the river.

At the trailhead

Crossing an old rickety bridge

Adventurous hikers Sarah and Whitney

Not much left of the river this time of year, so the kids had fun walking in the river bed

The Blanchards invited us to their home Thursday afternoon for a terrific Thanksgiving dinner.  They have been so kind and supportive of our family over the years, and even more so this year as we've been dealing with Michael's illness.  They are wonderful friends.

By Thursday evening we were all so exhausted that we tucked our kids into bed and then crawled into bed ourselves!  All of our lights were out by 8:30pm!  Maybe having a huge turkey dinner in the early afternoon shifted our body clocks back a few hours.  But being up with Michael multiple times each night for most of his life might have something to do with it as well... :-)

Today we offered our kids the choice of visiting the new children's museum in town or decorating our house for Christmas.  Any guesses which one they chose?

Sleeping like angels by the Christmas tree.

This evening we placed some gifts under the tree from Grandma Wheeler and let the kids open them.  The gifts were all Christ-centered and really helped us get a good start to the Christmas season.  We let the three older kids sleep by the lighted Christmas tree as long as they agreed to go right to sleep.  We thought for sure they'd be back in their own beds in no time, but to our amazement, we never heard a peep from them.

This Thanksgiving season we feel we have so much to be grateful for.  We're so grateful Michael is still with us, that we don't have daily trips to Children's Hospital in Denver anymore, and for incredibly supportive family and friends that have helped us get through all of this.  And of course for our Savior, who has been by our side every step of the way.  Last Thanksgiving we were in Utah with Liz's family.  That was right before Michael's health started taking a turn for the worst.  Little did we know what lay in store for us at that time, and little do we know where we will be a year from now.  But we're grateful for the opportunity to be on this incredible journey called life, and that for all the terrible things there are in this world, there is so much joy and goodness to be found as well.

Sarah's Seventh Celebration

On Thursday Sarah celebrated her 7th birthday!  The day started with mom and dad coming into her room singing Happy Birthday as is our tradition for waking up the birthday child.  As is also tradition, the birthday child is wide awake long before we get to their room... :-)  Sarah picked cinnamon rolls and sausage for her birthday breakfast and ate them on our special birthday dishes.  She opened her presents and got to play with them for a few minutes while I did her chores.  She didn't get much of a chance to play, though, before she had to rush off to school.

At school the principal wished Sarah a happy birthday during the morning announcements.   Mom took Sarah out of school at lunchtime to go to lunch at Wendy's.  After school we got a babysitter for the three younger children so that we could take Sarah on a special birthday date.  We were going to take her to Fort Fun for miniature golfing, but when we got there it was closed!  That's the trouble with having a birthday on a school day.  So we took her bowling instead, and she must have had some birthday luck with her that day.  Not only did she get the first strike, she took first place in our last game!

She picked macaroni and cheese for her birthday dinner (I remember doing that as a kid).  To top it off she had cupcakes for her birthday cake and dessert.  Some of her friends came by that evening with a singing telegram to wish her a happy birthday.  She had family members call and sing happy birthday to her on the phone.  What a great day!

Here's a poem the kids memorized at school that sums up the day nicely:

Everything's been different
All the day long,
Lovely things have happened,
Nothing has gone wrong.

Nobody has scolded me,
Everyone has smiled.
Isn't it delicious
To be a birthday child?

From "The Birthday Child" by Rose Fyleman

MediPort Removal

Earlier this year, as Michael recovered from his brain surgeries, we celebrated each time one of his countless tubes and other medical device was removed.  On Monday we had another such celebration; his Medi-Port was finally removed!  It was implanted just under the skin in his chest and provided a quick and convenient way to hook him up to an IV without having to look for a suitable vein.  His port was used for everything from routine blood draws to chemotherapy treatments to putting him to sleep for radiation and surgeries.  The only implant he has now is his shunt, which is permanent.  Hooray for his continued progress and healing!

Mommy and Michael, just before his Medi-Port removal surgery

This last week was Halloween, and boy, was it ever scary this year for our kids.  I mean, just look at the terrified looks on their faces:

Of course, we were actually trying to get our kids to smile for a picture in their Halloween costumes.  I can only imagine how they would have looked had we been trying to scare them.  But one of the pictures we took actually did turn out okay:

Trick or treating at daddy's work

The kids had a ball carving pumpkins that they grew themselves this year.  Pumpkins are easy to grow and make your garden look really big, so that's the only thing we planted this year.

Liberty, the school Sarah and Whitney attend, doesn't really have a Halloween celebration.  They have more of a learning based celebration around the same time as Halloween so the kids can still have a fun dress up event at school.  This year Sarah was studying about Egypt so she dressed as an Egyptian, and Whitney dressed as Little Miss Muffet.

 The kids had a ball helping to rake leaves yesterday.  Of course the best part about raking leaves is jumping in them...

on the ground...

...and in the compost bin!

Going off daylight savings time always throws a lot of people off.  In fact this morning Whitney asked me, "Dad, I thought you were going to set the clocks backwards last night."  I responded, "What do you mean?  I did set the clocks back last night."  To which she replied, "Then how come the time is still going forwards?"  Whitney is so hilarious!

On a more serious note, today in Sunday School we were studying in the Book of Mormon about Christ's visit to the Americas after his death and resurrection.  We watched a short video portraying the part where he healed all that were sick or afflicted in any manner, and where he asked that all the little children be brought until him.  The video is well done and very moving, but with all we've been through this year it was also a bit hard to watch.  Sometimes we wish so badly that Michael could be healed, just like so many others Christ healed in his ministry.  When we're having one of our down days we sometimes wonder if God was even paying attention when Michael's cancer started to grow, or during his surgery when his smile was taken away.  But towards the end of the video as it showed Christ interacting with the little children, I was impressed by the incredible amount of love he had for those children.  Then it hit me how much love he has for our little Michael.  He has been there with us every step of the way and always will be.  And even though it breaks our heart sometimes to see all that Michael has to endure, we are never alone in our love and concern for him.  And someday, even if it isn't in this life, Michael will be completely healed.