Happy Anniversary

 August 6th marks one year since George’s transplant. His new blood was administered to him the morning of August 6th, 2019 at 10:30 in the morning. It was a day we had been planning and anticipating for almost 2 years. I remember when the nurses walked into the room with the bag full of Kate’s bone marrow there being  a quiet peace. I was so nervous leading up to this moment. They told me that once George got his new marrow he could have seizures, violent shaking, and a spiked fever. Leading up to the moment they walked in the room I was extremely anxious thinking about this. The fear left the room like a passing breeze. One of the nurses asked if I wanted to pray over the marrow before they started. My answer was no. I had been praying for this moment for the past two years. Every day. Multiple times a day. The moment was here. I knew God had this covered. We held George, played worship music and prayed for the few hours it took to administer it. There was not one seizure. There was not one shake. There was no fever. It was so peaceful. It was such a calm and peaceful time. God was very present. You could feel Him surrounding George. Fast forward to yesterday. We celebrated George’s new birthday.  The past year has been filled with many highs and many lows. Many laughs and many tears. When things seemed to be almost too hard to bear, we got through them. When George would be making such great strides he would then take a turn to something else that needed attention. It was a roller coaster year for sure. A year. A whole year has passed. A transplant that weighed so heavily on us is now a year behind us. A time that I wasn’t sure we would get through is all just memories. George is now doing so well. He is down to 5 daily medicines, twice a day. He only has to go in for labs once a month. His IV treatments are only once a month. He is growing. He is showing such strides in his health. With this one year mark upon us we are busier then ever with follow ups and tests. They are checking and testing every inch of him to see what or if the transplant caused any residual damage. He has so many procedures and specialist appointments in the coming weeks it’s crazy. He will be going in for his MRI and Bone Marrow aspiration on the 13th which involves putting him to sleep. He will be getting his first Covid test as part of the screening for his surgery on Monday. He will be getting lots of those I guess because of all the tests he has coming up. We are no stranger to a nose swab so hopefully it won’t phase him. The dr cleared my girls to be able to start school again at the end of august which brought tears of joy to us all. They miss being social and I am not cut out to be a teacher. His drs said that all of their cancer patients that have tested positive for Covid have tolerated it fine so they thought it would be safe for the girls to start back. Can I get an amen!!! One thing that George has not been able to kick yet is his hemolytic anemia. Prayers for this are very much appreciated. I have had a few people comment to me that their mom or sister or friend has anemia too. Being anemic and having hemolytic anemia are not the same. George’s antibodies are actively attacking and killing his red blood cells. He is fighting to keep up production of them. The last heavy duty round of chemo that he received in January was suppose to kill all of his bad cells and then new ones would regrow in six months time and everything would be ok. Well, it seems like it worked some but not all the way. I am not sure what the next step with this will be so for right now he is still on a low dose oral chemo every day to keep his antibodies at bay. Once this is taken care of then he can come off of all of the other medications he is presently taking. We have come so far and are almost to the finish line. We will cross it. We will see a victory. If you are at Wolfson or Nemours over the next month or two I’m sure we will see you. We will smile at you from behind our mask and wave. We will continue pressing on with our journey. We will continue seeing Gods mercies and grace and protection in our lives. Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. This carried us this past year. Happy NEW birthday George. You amazing miracle boy. 

 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD. Proverbs 21:31

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57