Just Life

The day Jonah dressed himself in an orange shirt, a white shirt, a yellow shirt and a Spiderman hoodie with blue fleece pants, shamrock socks and a shamrock necklace.  I guess that's one way to put some weight on him.

Crazy hair day.  I am in a season of looking back.  A year ago, any hair would have been crazy hair day.  Jonah was completely smooth bald and we weren't sure what his hair would come back like.  To have a paintbrush ponytail is a type of crazy hair we can all live with!

Now that Jonah is almost a year out of treatment, we look to alternative therapies that will hopefully continue to help him stay healthy and make him stronger and stronger.  One of our newest explorations has been acupuncture.  It's one of those things that you don't know if it'll work till you try, so we're trying it.  Jonah is tolerating it well, but did insist that Cowie also receive therapy.  I'm not sure that sticking more needles in Cowie is the right plan for his longevity, but luckily they're tiny needles.

                                                 
Anna, our blooming electrical engineer.  Simon jokingly told her to change to doorbell this weekend.  When she came back asking what to do about all the wires, he decided he should at least be supervising her efforts.  If you come to our backdoor, take a moment to admire our sweet new doorbell.

Last year the Teddy Bear Picnic was kind of like Jonah's homecoming.  He was almost done with treatment - still at Marion Joy, but the end was in sight.  The day of the party was rough - right before leaving the hospital to come to the party, Jonah threw up and we were all anxious about his attending.  His immune system was low and he was wheeling into a preschool party.  This was his first big social outing, returning so very different than when they had last seen him - bald, in a wheelchair, facial palsy.  And he was welcomed back with open arms, embraced, welcomed and well loved.  This year it was all the sweeter to arrive all together without worry of germs, without Jonah's presence being remarkable.  Blessing upon blessing heaped into everyday.  Thank you God.

The time has come again where our new normal life is put on hold while we wait with baited breath for the reprieve of stable scan results.  Jonah has his next MRI right after Easter, Tuesday, April 18th. This is going to be a long day for our guy, as he's not only having his MRI, but also an upper endoscopy to check the status of his eosinophilic esophagitis and a tarsorrhaphy (eye lid closure surgery to help get better closure with his right eye).  Three procedures for three rare conditions all rolled into one amazing little boy.

If we could ask for your prayers on the 18th for all of these procedures, for stable results from the MRI and endoscopy and for a successful eye surgery.  In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy the blessing upon blessing heaped into everyday as winter turns into spring.