December 13, 2011 in Uncategorized with 15 Comments

Thankfully, Gray came through his series of hospital visits and terrible infections last month and made a full recovery! We were definitely exhausted and fearful after what seemed like so many set-backs and unwelcome surprises involving Gray’s health. But, thank you Lord, Gray was able to finish his antibiotics despite his allergic reactions to them and the medicine did what is was supposed to do and cleared Gray’s frail body of all infection!

We have been home now for over a month finishing out Gray’s cancer medicines and giving him extra nutrients through his feeding tube. He has been doing really well! In fact, we recently celebrated his 4th birthday amongst family and friends! It’s amazing how celebratory birthdays truly are when you aren’t sure if you’ll make it to the next one. Gray was in a great mood for his party! He loved having everyone sing happy birthday to him and even did a little dance as he blew out his candles! He received tons of new dinosaur and dragon toys! His favorites! Just a couple of days after Gray’s party (and ON his real birthday…) Gray had to go back into the hospital for his first round of tests to determine if his cancer is in remission. This first set of tests was on his bone marrow. It is an outpatient procedure but extremely painful. Unfortunately, too, Gray already had his port taken out (which we were so excited about at the time!) but now for his last round of tests that means Gray has to be poked many more times then he would have had to if he still had in his port. Oh well. It took just over a week for us to receive the results of Gray’s bone marrow biopsy but we couldn’t be more excited to announce that it came back CANCER FREE!!!! The week of waiting for the results was long and, at times, draining but that one phone call telling us the results made up for all the energy we lost in the wait! Gray still has a battery of tests in the next couple of weeks to check EVERYTHING and make sure there is no cancer anywhere in his body but we are hopeful that the results will be the same! We can’t wait to hear the words “GRAY IS CANCER FREE!! HE’S IN REMISSION!! YOU CAN GO HOME!!” Wow!! It’s hard to even imagine what that will be like!!

We are so very eager to be done with Gray’s cancer treatment. He’s ready too. As we approach the end of this very long journey, please continue to pray for Gray and his health. Please pray that all of his upcoming tests will produce the same cancer-free results. We also ask for your prayers for our family as we do our best to resume a “normal” life. We will forever be the parents and big brother of a boy who beat stage 4 cancer and we will forever carry that testimony and that scar, if you will, with us but we want to reenter our lives as ministers and servants, and simply as a family, as best we can. We are anxious to put Gray into Pre-K this fall and almost as anxious to send him back to the nursery at church. It’s scary to release your baby boy back into the “wild” after keeping such a tight leash on him for so long. It’s also difficult not to feel like the rest of the world has kept moving while our lives were on pause for over a year. We literally had to drop everything, EVERYTHING!, and focus on getting our son well. In the mean time, our friends and family, co-workers and acquaintances continued moving forward and living their own lives. We would never have asked them to do anything other then that but it seems strange to now place ourselves back into that life. Where do we fit? Please simply pray that the transition is smooth and that the Lord directs our steps. We will post again in the coming weeks as Gray undergoes his remaining tests and as we receive the results. Thank you for your continued support and all of your prayers. They mean more to us then you will ever know.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:8