Some sweet moments

This weekend and today was rough for Jon.  We ended up staying in Atlanta and Jon went in to the infusion room today to get extra fluids.  He is just feeling pretty bad in general.  It's been tough for him for sure.  The first time Jon went through this a few months ago, he had a total of 20 days of chemo.  This time (high dose) he will receive 5 times the amount of chemo in just 6 days.  It just makes us even more anxious as we think about how Jon's body will respond to this amount of chemo in such a short time.  Please pray his body will rebound from the standard dose round so that he will feel good on September 3rd going into the high dose round.  Also please pray that he will begin feeling good quickly so that he can go back to work before we move to Indianapolis.  He just wants to be "normal" and go to work and do what he loves to do, teach those precious children.  Jon will get a shot of bleomycin (one of his chemo drugs) tomorrow and some fluids.  After we have Luke's allergy appointment we will head back to HHI.  Pray the trip will be smooth and the kids will not be too whiny!

I have some cute pictures of the kids I wanted to share.  When I watch them with Jon it brings me joy and is a reminder that they will never be the same after going through this experience.  Our family is "sticking together like glue" to help get Jon better.  The kids follow Jon up to his room when he gets home from chemo.  They love when he walks downstairs to say hello.  And they come snuggle with him in bed.  They love helping serve him and get things for him.  It is so cute and I know they are learning life lessons that they otherwise wouldn't be learning.  None of us will be the same after this, and I know that we will be a stronger, closer family through serving each other and putting others needs above our own.

Here is Emma Kate snuggling with her daddy.  They have missed him so much this week.  They call his port his "doodles" so everyday when he comes home they ask if he got his doodles taken out.  They know that the port is a sign that daddy is sick and has to go to the doctor all the time.  We have been extremely open with our kids about what Jon is going through.  They see all of our emotions about the situation.  We do not try and hide anything, although obviously we tell them what is age appropriate.  But unfortunately Luke over hears a lot more than he probably should.

The kids like bath time so much more with Mikayla!!  She puts LOTS of bubbles in there and it's a great hour long activity!!

Take a look at Luke's black eye!  He had a collision with Emma Kate.  But don't worry, she told us she was just fine an not "crying"  But Emma Kate wasn't fine the next day when she got stung 4 times by a hornet on the hand!  I felt SOO bad for her.  She cried and cried!

Yes this is Jon THIS WEEK.  He has done P90X everyday except Sunday. And he looks dang good!  He said he is in the best shape of his life!  Below is Jon's first day of chemo.  Doesn't he look handsome?

We stopped at my grandfather's house on the way to Atlanta.  He gave the kids a tractor ride and the LOVED it.  They were so excited to see great-grandaddy!