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.