Cade The Warrior

Cade successfully managed to handle a big chemo group without getting a fever, and we are thankful! We have had two weeks of a quick chemo, and this Monday we go in for another five day group. We are praying that God is already "priming the pump" of Cade's body to receive whatever it needs from this group. Here are some of our specific prayer requests: 1. Protection over his kidney and bladder: We are doing an additional test this week to try and determine the correct dosage for one of the chemos for his kidney. Please pray the dosing is perfect for his body. Please also pray that any bleeding in his bladder post chemo or during chemo is stopped, and that any bladder irritation is healed. 2. No nausea or vomiting during or after chemo: We are thinking some of the vomiting we experienced after this chemo group is caused by an abundance of stomach acid, so we are trying preventive measures like antacids. Please pray he does not get sick in the week following treatmen...

We go in for treatment tomorrow early, and I wanted to post some specific prayer requests. The past week Eden had spring break and Cade's treatment was delayed a week because of his long inpatient stay and high fevers, so we got gifted with normalcy. I AM SO THANKFUL. In a very real way, this season has made my ability to taste and experience gratitude to increase by the thousands. I feel like my cup is overflowing. I love how the Lord is faithful in every week, and I love how much pleasure He takes in filling our hearts. Chad and I got to go on a day date this weekend to a much-cooler-than-we-are brunch place, and while waited for a table we wandered upstairs in the building to an open couch. We were talking about the weeks ahead and my heart started to feel all the same trepidation. I'm not less fearful, I just am getting faster at uprooting fear. But as I started down that rabbit hole, I looked up and realized we were sitting in front of a closed restaurant with the name  ...

Walking into the hospital today I passed a few bushes sprouting green buds and a cluster of daffodils and I just had to marvel over God. This plunge into the deep started right before Thanksgiving, when winter was just getting ready to settle in. Coats and gloves and boots and car rides to and from the hospital and radiation and snow mark so many of those first memories. Christmas songs and decor intersecting with blinking lights in hospital rooms and vital signs on screens, so much felt like a choice and disparate with the season of our lives, the mustering up of hope for our own Advent, seeing the flesh of Jesus in a baby, destined to suffer even from birth. January and February speeding on wings of treatment and piled up hospital visits and IVs. And then, the amazing and inevitable happens. Every year. Just when I think winter might actually be here to stay, spring sends out its unstoppable shoots. Cade's scan results came in the day before Spring started. Let's pause and ma...

We are so thankful to report that God truly is working a miracle in Cade- and his scans showed each tumor on his lungs have virtually dissolved. You'd think this blog would be the easiest one to write. But this week felt like it lasted a month, and I never had time to sit down and really focus. But! Now is a good time to recount the wonderful works of God, and to say with all my heart that I believe the tailwind of Cade's scan results is healing and faith for every person who reads or hears about him . March 19th will forever be one of my favorite days. When we were first given a scan date, it was written on a little sheet of paper and I was so terrified of it I could not even touch the paper. If I didn't know what a coward I can be before this, I certainly know it now. I find so much comfort in simple verses like Psalm 18, "I love you, O Lord my strength,"  and 1 Corinthians 1 where it says "foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakn...

Cade is loving life right now and feeling good. He got home from the hospital Friday at noon and has been nonstop since. While he was still hospitalized, he was quickly recognized as the most rambunctious kid there and every time the doctors made their rounds they laughed at his antics, and exclaimed over how he didn't need to be there. He was as wild there as he could be while hooked up to an IV pole. The great part is, I think that stay felt like a vacation to Cade. He got one on one time every day with me, Chad and his Grammy, was mostly fed every meal by one of us, and played Wii or games all day. He asked to go back twice in the first two days he was home. That to me feels like restitution. I am praying he only remembers those parts of this journey. The laughter, attention, and feeling of security. Because of his low counts, we are delaying the five day chemo he was scheduled for this week until next week. About half way through his inpatient stay, I started to believe the...

I am taking a shift at the hospital with Cade right now, and he decided to take a nap so I'm sitting decked out in a hospital gown, mask and gloves to write. Cade was hospitalized Thursday night when he started to run a fever. After some tests, we've determined he has a normal cold, but he has literally zero white blood cells so his body just couldn't fight it off. We've been fever free for two days now, but are waiting for those counts to rise so we can be discharged. I am so thankful for a mother-in-law who is taking shifts with Chad and I so we can have a few hours at home with the girls. Somehow, I think we both feel really refreshed and grateful in a deeper way for the hours of weekend we have gotten together. That's the craziest part of this journey, finding joy in unlikely places. I want to process some of the thoughts I've had the past two weeks because I want to do my best to let you all in on some of the heart work that is going on here. I want to sp...

This past week was one for the books. Cade had his first inpatient 5 day chemo, and he has officially had and responded well to every single chemo in his protocol. Well as in absolutely zero visible side effects. I walked in the door after being with him one day and realized in a fresh way that I am living in a miracle. It is amazing. While we were supposed to do this chemo group outpatient, Cade had some issues with blood in his urine (as in trace amounts and not visible) so we had to keep him on round the clock fluids and were checked into the stem cell wing of the oncology floor. He basically played Wii and ate for 5 days straight. Our church was praying all week and fasting for him the three final days of the week, and I am amazed at how visibly full of life and health he was and is. He was sent home with some fluids this Saturday, and I got to be his at-home nurse and hook him up to an IV every night. I kind of love being in charge like that, not sure it was a good idea for...