Thursday (Day 6)

Friends, today is day 6 of our new journey. I will say that today has been the best day yet. Last night was so rough on both Kari and I. Kari had a little breakdown and so did I. We sat in bed and cried together until we got it all out. This morning Kari was very down and out and totally not like herself.


But we got some cheer when Aunt Lacey and Malachi showed up!! I was so excited to see my baby boy. Kari still seemed down though and I made her get up, put some clothes on and I fixed her hair. She resisted the entire time but after we stepped out of this room to go play, she was the little Kari we all know! She played from around 9:00 this morning until now. It's 11:45 and she's sitting on her bed eating macaroni and cheese and we have a bed full of crayons, markers and coloring books. Also a baby doll that needs doctored, and two princess card games to play. Shewee!! We will be up all night!

Tomorrow Kari will have a spinal tap and a more intense chemo treatment. Several of you have asked why she is having a spinal tap. This is a simple way that they explained it to me: leukemia cells are in her blood but they are not in her spinal fluid which is great! However, when the leukemia starts getting blasted out with the chemo treatments, they look for places to hide like the spine and around the brain. They give her chemo in her spinal fluid to prevent them from hiding in there. Tomorrow will be rough since after 8:00am she is on clear liquids only and after 12:00, nothing. The steroids make her very hungry (tonight she has already had 3 bowls of chicken noodle and a bowl of mac and cheese)so she will not be a happy camper tomorrow!!

We have the best nurses here EVER!! I'm so thankful for them. They never fail to ask if we need something and it means so much to me.
I'm also thankful to everyone that has done ANYTHING for us. I can't keep track of it all but I don't want to be unthankful!! Also, thank you for reading our blog and commenting. Your words mean so much to me. I check it when I can throughout the day just to read your kind and encouraging things you say....I'm grateful. A special thank you to my pal, Tonya! Thank you for explaining things to me, telling me what to expect, what to be careful and paranoid about and what not to be! You are truly a blessing and I love you dearly!

Thank God for a great day with Kari. He's continuing to just bless on every side. I know God has a plan through this though it's certainly hard to see it now. So I don't try to. I just want Him to get the glory from it! I don't say that trying to pretend that I'm all spiritual and strong because I'm far from either of those. But I want our lives to glorify God and if He will get the glory from this trial, I'll leave it in His hands. That doesn't mean I won't go kicking and screaming sometimes (lol!) but He will provide the strength to get through it all.


I do ask you to pray for all the others that are here. We've met some great people facing some awful things. One little boy has a rare type of cancer that is hard to treat, one 15 year old girl relapsed recently and is losing her hair again (a teenage girl losing her hair? how sad is that?), a 16 year old boy next to us has AML leukemia, and a little boy Kari's age has the same as Kari but has heart problems on top of it. There are so many more cases here that are heartbreaking but I've seen a strength in these people that amaze me. We lean on each other. The father of the 15 year old girl comforted me last night as I cried and I was able to comfort another mother as she cried about her son in pain. It makes you think outside of your own little world and I encourage each and every one of you to make it a matter of prayer the lives of these children. What if it was your child or your grandchild or your niece/nephew?

I want to encourage you to listen to this song.
I want to draw closer to the Lord through this and have a relationship with Him that goes so deep that I never draw away from it. My baby girl is sick and our world has forever changed and I hate it... but none of this has surprised God. He is in control and I pray that He uses it to make Himself more real than ever to myself, Kari and anyone who is part of our journey.

I apologize for all the rambling. Little Cinderella just fell asleep on my leg and I can't move so I kept typing. I will update as soon as I can tomorrow after Kari's procedure.
Love y'all!