3, 2, 1!!

A lot has happed since our last update!  It’s been a hectic couple of weeks but I’ll give you some of the highlights.

We officially closed on our house!  We moved to British Columbia last September and our house had been on the market since that time.  We are so thankful to have this finalized!

We got to meet a precious family whose little girl had rhabdomyosarcoma.  Payton finished her 43 week protocol in April and her family took a mini vacation to Scottsdale to celebrate that milestone which coincided with us being in Phoenix for Nico’s radiation.  It was a providential encounter that was very special!

May is a busy month with several special days for Nick and I.  Nick and I both have birthdays in May as well as our wedding anniversary and then of course Mother’s Day. Sure enough, the evening of our anniversary Nico had a fever.  We had planned to go out to dinner together while Linda watched the boys for us.  Instead we ordered sushi and had it delivered to the hospital.  Thankfully, he wasn’t admitted and we were able to go home that night!  We did make up for it by going out the evening of my birthday.  One thing that we are consistently reminded of is that nothing is constant except change.  And so we have lots of opportunities to practice giving thanks for the good in-spite of the hard.

Nico got invited through Mayo Clinic to walk onto the field with the captain of the Phoenix Rising FC Soccer team a couple weekends ago.  Much to our surprise (he is very shy) he said he wanted to do it!  So we attended and had a nice time.  Nico was very interested in learning about the game and got his own #11 Drogba jersey.  He’s worn it quite a bit since then!

Meeting team captain Didier Drogba.

Excitedly wearing his new #11 Drogba jersey.

We had what we feel was the longest and most exhausting week of Nico’s treatment so far.  Radiation and chemo everyday for five days really kicked our butts.  We made it through though by God’s grace and with the help of my wonderful mother-in-law!  Thanks Linda!!!  Having had to deal with both, we are looking forward to only having to deal with chemo moving forward.  Makes it seem easy now!  It’s all about perspective.

Pet therapy time! Love when the therapy dogs come to visit.

Smiles for the camera while we do some waiting at PCH.

Nap time for Nico and Nali during our busy week of radiation and chemo.

Love the red wagons after a long day of radiation and chemo!

Mis amores. ❤

Taking the tesla for a spin after a long day of radiation and chemo.

Our baby girl is growing and gaining beautifully!  She continues to be a really smiley baby that has brightened our days.  She has been sleeping really well at night and we are fully enjoying that as long as it lasts!  Good sleep has helped us manage much better through all the hard.  Nali will be three months old soon.

We have enjoyed getting together with old friends.  A lot of our friends have moved away but several remain in the area and it has been great catching up with them at church or over a meal.  We still have a few more friends to get together with this week but we are running out of time and sadly there are people we won’t get a change to connect with which really stinks.

Today we got back from visiting southeast Arizona which is where we moved away from last year.  We lived down in Willcox, Arizona for a little over three years and we loved our life down there.  It was great to be able to go down there again and fellowship with our friends and church family again.  We were a bit nervous about making the three hour drive to do so since there is always the possibility that Nico could get a fever and then we would need to get him to the hospital.  Saturday morning Nico woke up with a slightly elevated temperature- 99.2/99.5.  Due to previous experience, Nick and I knew that his temperature would most likely continue to climb and eventually reach that magic number and we would need to end our visit early and make our way back and get him to the hospital.  We continued to monitor his temp but it remained the same and did not go up!  This morning his temp was back to normal!  I see that as demonstration of God’s grace.  You see, once Nico’s temp starts to rise it continues and we have always ended up at the hospital.  God is good!

Fun at the park with old and new friends.

Precious girls ❤

Love this family!

We are at the tail end of Nico’s radiation!  He has three more days of radiation this week and then he is all done with that portion of his treatment plan.  His last day of radiation is on Thursday, May 31st.  We have had a wonderful experience with Mayo Clinic, Nico’s radiation oncologist and his nurses.  They have helped to lighten the mood of this otherwise somber experience by their playful banter and fun-loving attitudes.  We shall be celebrating!

That means we will be returning to British Columbia!  We fly back June 3 and we are ready and excited to get back there.  We have been told often that BC in the summer is the best time of year there so we are looking forward to experiencing it for ourselves.  Thanks to a connection through Nick’s sister (thanks Chelle!), we were put in contact with an amazingly generous couple (thanks Coral and Howard!) who will be letting us stay in their basement suite until Nico is finished with treatment.  What a huge blessing!  We will continue to be about an hour away from BCCH.  I’m excited about getting back, getting settled in our new temporary home and hopefully establishing some form of normalcy through routine and structure.

Pray for us this week as Nico finishes up this last bit of radiation.  So far he has had nose bleeds sporadically that started a couple weeks ago and the left side of his face is very red.  But he doesn’t complain of any pain which is amazing to us because from the looks of his skin it seems like it should hurt.  Prayers as we travel back to BC.  We will be hitting the ground running once we get back with five days of chemo.  But at least it’s just chemo and not chemo and radiation!!  Did I mention we are so happy to be almost done with radiation?  So HAPPY!!!!!!

Thank you for your prayers!  Stay tuned, the adventure continues!