I Added New Blogs

I added two new blogs to my blog list on the side.

Ewing Family is a friend from high school who married a friend from college and they now live in Hawaii with their too cute for words son. Yeah you heard that right. Hawaii.

I also added A Posse...Ad Esse which is my friend Erin from Furman. She was on my freshman hall (isn't that where most long lasting college friendships are made?) and she just had a son in July. She's the only other cruiser to have a baby so we bond over projectile vomit and nap schedules and milestones that no one else cares about (oh my gosh she just pinched her fingers together- did you see that? Genius baby).

Enjoy their blogs.

Now to Him...

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

We saw the hematologist today. First of all, it was quite a humbling experience to sit in the pediatric oncology waiting room with many other families. I couldn't help but look at each of them and wonder why they were there... knowing for most of them, it came down to just one word: cancer. I was, however, thoroughly impressed with that waiting room. A teen and his mom were playing Life in the corner. Jonathan took a few turns on the NBA Jam video game. As soon as Austin, maybe 5 years, came in, a nurse came out with fish food so he could help feed the fish in the aquarium. You could tell it wasn't the first time he'd done that. They had a scrapbooking room and a computer lab. There was a bucket full of knitted hats from a church down the road.

I felt so out of place, not worthy to share the space with those who are going through so much more than we are. I can't imagine the heartbreak of the journey of a child with cancer, especially my child. Today was one of those reality days. The reality is that families deal with cancer in their kids. And they do it with strength and courage and a smile. And the reality is that those families didn't expect it to happen to them just as we don't expect it to happen to us. I'm so thankful to serve a God who can do exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine.

Today was hard. But thankfully, it wasn't hard for the reasons we were scared of. The nurses took 4 vials of Kiran's blood and it wasn't pleasant but they did a fantastic job. It was much less traumatic than last time. We met with the hematologist. He looked Kiran over and said, "If I had seen her for a physical, I would declare her a very healthy child." Her hemoglobin was 10.9 today (it was 9.9 last time). The normal range is 11-15. The hematologist looked at everything and his conclusion was that she had a viral infection that suppressed her bone marrow production for a while but that she is pretty much over it. Nothing to worry about. Thank you, Father. We'll have to check her hemoglobin in 2 weeks (with just a finger prick thankfully) to make sure but the hematologist was certain her levels will be up even higher.

As we caught the elevator, the receptionist that checked us in rode down with us. She asked what the dr said and we told her. She breathed a sigh of relief and said she was so glad the news was good. I could tell that most times the people that come there don't receive good news.

So maybe Kiran had a viral infection. She never acted sick- no other symptoms. Maybe God healed her. If we were in India when this happened, no doubt we'd be praising God for his miraculous healing of Kiran's body. Either way, I think His power is at work within us- maybe within Kiran's physical body, maybe within my spirit- and He continually does exceedingly more than we ask or imagine.

Pro Pictures

I can't believe I forgot to post about this. My SIL, Beth, and I took our little ones to get real professional pictures made at Furman a few weekends ago. We did it as a surprise for our Mother-in-Law. The photographer is our friend, Jana, and she is amazing. If you need a photographer in the Upstate, you need her. Except not in October because she will be popping out baby #2. If you want to see some of the pictures go here. You can click to see the slide show too which has more pictures.

Your Blog

So if you have a blog and you want me to link it on my sidebar, just let me know and I will. And if you see your blog on there and you'd rather it not be, again just let me know and its done. I forgot to include Merritt's blog originally so don't take it personally if yours isn't on there. I made the list a few months back when I first created this blog and obviously I didn't do it too carefully (Don't worry Mert's blog is on there now- Pura Vida- after only a few harshly worded reminders from her!).

The Office

Jonathan & I bought magnets at Target in Virginia. They were only $1 for 4 and they were right as you walk in the door calling to us. Well Dwight was calling to Jonathan and Michael was calling to me so we spent $2 and walked away with 8 awesome The Office magnets. My fave one has a picture of Michael saying, "I want people to afraid of how much they love me."

Tonight we watched the season premiere of The Office that we Tivoed last week. (We don't really have Tivo- we have whatever free DVR came with our dish network subscription but I think Tivoed is a really fun word.) I pretty much crack up at every single thing that comes out of Michael's mouth- but I have to listen very closely to catch it all. I've decided on two shows for this fall season- The Office and Extreme Makeover Home Edition. But I'm kinda getting over EMHE so if you have another show you think I'd enjoy, make your pitch to me and I'll try it out. I'm planning to limit myself to only two shows this season. I have plenty of other things to do. Like finish unpacking. But Jonathan thinks we should watch Grey's Anatomy since we invested so much time in it last year getting caught up on all 3 seasons.

The Round-Up

So I make a new blog and then I go out of town so I don't even post regularly. Sorry :)

Here's a quick round-up

• We just returned from 5 days away from Kiran! I missed her so much but it was good to get away with J for a few days! It was very fun to see her today.
  
• Unfortunately those 5 days were not spent in Hawaii. But we did get together with some people who had been in India with us and also around the world. We caught up with old friends (Hi Alicia! Hi Julie! Hi Lindsey!) and made some new friends (Hi Brad & Alison! Hi Clint & Crystal!).
  
• I bought the Nicholas Sparks book at Barnes & Noble for 30% off which was $17. Which means the original price was $24.95. Whew. Thats a lot of money for a book. That is why I love the library so much. Have I ever blogged about how much I love the library? That might be a whole series of posts.
  
• I read the Nicholas Sparks book on the way home today. It was good. I shed a tear or two. I think I really like Nicholas's characters even more than I like his plots.
  
• I haven't read the book Merritt sent me because I'm stuck in an incredibly detailed biography of Princess Di's life.
  
• I just ordered We've Been Outsourced: Year One. It was 200 pages. I ordered the hardcover and with a coupon code I had, it was only $40 including shipping. I'll let you know how it turns out but I'm pretty excited. Now to get to work on Year Two.
  
• I'm tired. Good night.
  

Out of the Loop

I'm so out of the loop that a Nicholas Sparks book has already come out and hit the shelves and I didn't even know to preorder it! Ever since I inherited all of my grandmother's hardback Nicholas Sparks books, I've been adding to her collection with every new title. I figure since I'm going to buy the hardback anyway, I might as well preorder it and have it show up at my house the day it comes out. So now I need to go get The Choice.

Fun fact: Nicholas Sparks was living in Greenville, SC when he published his first novel so he always starts his book tours there!