Catching Up

I still need to put up pictures from Disney, but that will wait for another post! We packed up the car and drove to Laurel a week ago today. Drew was was great on the drive up here and he put on a show when we got to Hal's parents. Wednesday we went house hunting with Drew in Brandon, something we won't do again in the near future! Saturday we left him behind with Maw Maw, Paw Paw, Uncle Ed, and the girls and headed for more house hunting. Sunday we recovered and Monday, Hal started work. Yes, it has been a little busy around here. We are so glad to be here and I think the best way I can sum that up is that we told Ed and and the girls bye on Sunday morning it was so nice to know that we wouldn't be waiting months to see them again!

Hal and I prayed for a long time about whether God wanted us to make this move or not. On Wednesday, our decision to move was confirmed a 100%. Hal's dad, Randy, had an appointment with a specialist in Jackson on Wednesday. We learned some sobering (for lack of a better word) news from the appointment. His doctor here in Laurel has been consulting this doctor all long, but this was Randy's first visit. This visit was to talk about doing a stem cell bone marrow transplant.

The results/content of this visit was a little different than any of us expected. We thought it was more of a consult about the bone marrow treatment and in fact it was more informative about the type of cancer he has. The doctor let us know that Randy is in Stage 4 of lymphoma. The type of lymphoma is extremely aggressive and is only diagnosed in 1-2% of all lymphoma patients. The chance of this cancer recurring is 80%. If he elects do the stem cell bone marrow transplant, the chance of it recurring is 50% If he makes it to the 2 year mark without a relapse the chance of recurrence decreases dramatically. He has elected to do the procedure. We are grateful that the bone marrow biopsy they did last week came back clear. This was a major hurdle to clear before he could begin the transplant process. It usually takes about 2 months for insurance approval, so we are hoping he can start this sometime in May. The transplant process is involved and can be quite painful.

Please join us in praying for quick insurance approval as well as for strength and stamina as Randy continues to walk through this process.

Here are a few pictures from our week! Hal's parents have 2 dogs, Sam and Sally. Sally isn't to sure about true, but Drew and Sam were fast friends.

A trip to the park with Paw Paw

Drew and his buddy, Sam.

Picking Maw Maw's flowers

Terrorizing Sam!

Telling Sam good morning!