February Update

Hi there...thank you for checking in.  We've continued to get great reports from the doctor at Mom's checkups each month in Chicago.  Since her counts look so good Mom is now down to only ONE medicine!  What a major accomplishment from where she started a little over a year ago. 

Life is good and Mom continues to do everything she loves to do.  She visits her Mom in Ottawa a few times a week, does projects around the house, and is very much looking forward to Spring!!  Isn't everyone?  All of us kids keep her busy as well.  I'm living with Mom, Dad, and David as well and my husband and daughter until we finish fixing up our new house down the street.  So as you can imagine, we keep her busy here.  Amy is also around the house almost everyday with her 3 girls.  Julie visits whenever she can get away from Chicago and Adam and his family are going to be coming to visit from Pennsylvania in March.  We can't wait!  Dad has been very busy with work lately, as the season of outages starts this week.  He'll be working many 12+ hours over the next few months, but thankfully, he loves his job and feels blessed to have it.

We hope you're all doing well and getting through these last couple weeks of winter.  God bless you!

1 Year Celebration

Last week we celebrated my mom's 1 year anniversary since her stem cell transplant!  Wow, it's been a YEAR!  On her 1 year anniversary mom had a check-up appointment up at Northwestern.  They did a bone marrow draw to see how everything looks, rather than just looking at her blood results.  With this procedure (which she's had done a few times since her transplant) they draw bone marrow out of her hip bone.  They send it to the lab and it takes about a week to receive the results.

We found out this week that the bone marrow came back perfectly clean!  It's great to have confirmation that she's still cancer free!  We were pretty confident that she was healthy because of how she feels and because her monthly blood results continue to show the doctor she's doing well, but the bone marrow confirms everything. 

No matter what, we trust that our God is in control.  He knows my mom better than the doctor and has healed her from disease.  We continue to praise and thank Him everyday, and will no matter what the future brings for anyone in our family.  We pray that each of your holidays will be filled with honoring Jesus and appreciation for the many blessings that He pours out on us everyday.  Take some time this holiday season to share God's love with someone who needs hope in their life.

God bless!

Happy Fall

Everything is still going great for my Mom.  Her doctor is still extremely pleased with her blood results each time she has an appointment.  Her counts continue to head in the right direction and they continue to decrease the amount of medicine she has to take.
We've come a long way from a year ago, been through many hard times and experienced many blessings.  Now that we're nearing the 1 year anniversary of Mom's stem cell transplant we recognize how blessed we are to have our mother in our lives.  Her doctor says that normally they do a bone marrow draw around 1 year after the transplant, but they may not choose to do it if her blood counts continue to be so positive.  Mom was so happy to hear this.  It's a relief to her each time the doctor tells her how well she's doing.

Mom is kept busy, just as she likes it, with babysitting her grand kids (Amy and I are coaching volleyball this fall), visiting her mother in Ottawa, and managing her house.  David is still living with Adam and his family in Pennsylvania for the fall and is doing well, just a bit homesick now.  He's used to my Mom taking care of him and I'm sure he misses her a lot.  We were able to visit with him and Adam's family a couple weekends ago as Adam was inducted into the Millikin Athletic Hall of Fame.  It was such a fun weekend with them and great to see them, as always.  Cory, Tenley and I have kept my parents company, using the extra room we finished in their basement since we moved to town in the summer.  We plan on finding a home here in Seneca, but are able to keep my Mom company as my Dad works his long hours with the outages going on.

Thanks for your continued prayers and love.  We'll continue to give God all the glory and hope to bless others with the blessings we've received.

Good Reports for Mary, Sad News about Friend

Mom had her 3 week checkup on Wednesday and all is well.  Her levels are continuing to improve each month and they continue to reduce her medicine.  She's feeling really well and enjoying the beautiful weather God has given us these past few weeks.

We're very sad to say that Mom's friend Chuck, who was also battling leukemia, passed away last week.  Mom was able to talk with Chuck over the phone and offer support and encouragement as he faced many challenges in his fight against cancer.  Please lift Chuck's family up in prayer...it's an incredibly hard time for everyone close with him.  Mom is thankful she was able to know him the past few months but it's definitely been a hard week for her.

Thanks for checking in...God bless.

Blessings & Prayer Requests

Mary & Greg welcomed a new grandchild on July 17!  Tenley Grace is my (Suzanne's) and Cory's new baby girl and we are celebrating this new blessing in our lives.  My mom is loving every minute of time she's spending with Tenley :)

Mom has kept busy this summer entertaining guests, having Amy's kids over to swim, and a visit from Adam, Bre, and their kids, Lane and Graysen.  All of her counts have been good and because of God's blessings, she's been feeling great.

She asks that you would lift up 2 friends of hers in prayer.  Chuck was diagnosed with AML a couple months ago and has had many battles since.  He is currently in ICU after his stem cell transplant because he has become very sick.  Please lift him and his family up to our God who is the Healer of all and the Hope we can trust in.  Please also pray for mom's friend Meridith who mom met in the hospital while going through the same rounds of treatment.  Meridith's AML has come back since her transplant and she's now taking medicine at home to battle the disease.

As always, thank you for all the love and support.

Summer time

Mom is doing really well these days.  She has lots of energy (to keep up with her kids and grand kids) and is over the worst of her cold and allergies.  Mom's doctor had to prescribe some new medicine last week because her graph's v host is acting up a bit in her liver.  The blood results this week show that the medicine is already helping.  It's nothing that they weren't expecting and is very manageable.

Other than that she's really enjoying her summer.  Amy's kids are over almost everyday to swim, Cory and I are staying at Mom and Dad's for a little while this summer, and David says he's never moving out :)  Obviously all of this gives my mom plenty to do.  Mom's trip to see Adam and Bre went great.  They had a really fun and eventful long weekend.  Mom also has been up to see Julie and Evan in Chicago many times over the past month.  It works out well that Julie's living in the city now since mom's up there for her appointments once in a while.  Any day now I'll be having my and Cory's first baby and that will just add to the excitement of my mom's busy summer.  Do you think she realized her job as a mother would keep her this busy even after we're all adults??

Thanks for your continued prayers, as always.  Mom feels the love from each of you.  God bless!

Doing well

Mom had an appointment again today in Chicago.  Her doctor was very happy with all her results from this week and always makes my mom feel so confident and happy with everything.  Her counts aren't exactly where normal levels should be, but it's normal in her situation since her body is still recuperating from everything.  Also, the more they lower her medicine, the more her body has to fight to get back to normal.  She's doing very well besides dealing with a head cold and allergies.  She's starting some antibiotics to fight them off.

Mom and Dad are heading out to see Adam, Bre, Lane, and Graysen in Pennsylvania tomorrow morning!  They're so excited to be heading out there and I know Adam and Bre love having them.  It should be such a fun weekend for them!