June 16th, Day 51, Happy Father's Day

We have lots of praises and prayers over the last couple days.  Hunter has loved having his brother here over the weekend while I'm home with the boys.  Chase, Mark, and Jana have all been needed over the past few days to build up Hunter through this gut wrenching part in his journey to be cured and home.  Our family has been blessed by several incredible men of God, and I'm so glad that they are Daddy, G-Daddy, and Uncle Chase to our boys.  I couldn't ask for any better examples of how to be a good father for our sons.

I'll start with the praises.  Hunter's hemoglobin Saturday was at 8.0.  Friday he was 5.7 and got two bags of blood.  Each unit of blood should raise the hemoglobin 1 point and he went up 2.3.  This was our first little step that he could be destroying at a little bit slower rate.  Big huge answer to lots of pleading prayers there.  He didn't receive any transfusions yesterday, and this morning's level was 7.3, so he has held his own red blood cells the best that he's done since back in the hospital June 4th.  I'm writing this before we've seen our doctor for rounds, but we are encouraged that he is making some slow progress.  It's been a long almost two weeks full of fighting through much disappointment, so hemoglobin numbers holding today feels really good.  We know and feel that we have been covered in prayer, and we feel that support.  The blood that Hunter got was A+ from "volunteer donors" from June 13th, so we are certainly blessed by someone who came to give especially for Hunter.  

As expected, Hunter's groin line has not been a joy.  It was placed perfectly, but his platelets are low so it's been dripping blood and won't clot off.  This is keeping him pretty contained to laying in bed.  The CMV virus is still active, and that's what Dr. Carrum thinks is causing his drop in platelets.  Yesterday, he had a platelet transfusion.  He has tried to go for a walk, but his port would start bleeding again.  It has been compression wrapped and iced.  This is not a fun process for Hunter in the slightest.  I would ask that you join us in prayer that Hunter's platelets will quickly recover and his line will become much more manageable and stop bleeding.  Hunter needs this port to last through his hospital stay for blood transfusions, blood draws, and medications.  

I have had a quiet week at the house with the boys.  It was a treat to get to watch Benton make lots of progress at swim lessons.  I've done tons of snuggling and hugging three little boys.  This was our good night Daddy picture from Friday night :)
Benton and I got to go on a date Friday night.  He requested Olive Garden and we had the best time together.  It was a precious memory for sure.  He chatted it up with the people around us, our waitress, and the manager.  When they found it we were celebrating his birthday, they brought him a chocolate mousse with a candle to blow out.  This process is hard on this sweet angel, and I'm so proud of him.



When we first got serious about a transplant, my best friend from college Erinn immediately said she wanted to come take care of the boys while mom was at work as soon as she was on summer break from her teaching job.  She moved in our guest house last Sunday and has been a huge blessing already.  Our boys have always loved her, and I know they will have so much fun this summer.  I have had some moments, especially early in the week, where it was tough to balance the needs of three happy little boys while I was trying to keep in touch with all the happenings in Houston.  Erinn just stepped right in and took care of all of us, me included.  We have stayed pretty close to home, but I've had great visits with Michelle, Nathan and Katie, and Macey and Hudson.  On Friday, we went to the Childrens' Art and Literacy Festival downtown for a couple hours and played at the Grace Museum.

I can't help but think that this year's father's day is bittersweet.  It is hard to be away from Hunter, and the boys miss him so much.  Hunter has made so many sacrifices for our family.  He has put our needs way above his for our entire married life.  He was so insistent that I come home for Benton's birthday and spend time with the kids in the midst of probably the most difficult week in his transplant.  This will make next year, and all the following Father's Day much more special to us all.  I'm also thankful for my Daddy and Grandpa, and for all the other good daddies in our lives.

Please pray for our family as we are apart right now, for Hunter's antibodies and platelets, for those taking care of him in Houston, and for physical and mental renewal, and for protection from infection.  Daddy is our Hero!