9 WEEKS!!

Wow, it is hard to believe that it has been 9 weeks since we got the phone call from Mom telling us about Dad's leukemia. We, as a family, spent almost a month Skyping daily and finding out how Dad & Mom were doing. Dad made it through a week of chemo and his second bone marrow draw. The results were good...no leukemia was found!! The only lingering problem was a heart thing. His heart would start racing, this was not a life threating thing but still needed to be dealt with. He was able to have surgery to fix the problem and all is well now.

For Tabetha's 15th birthday we met the family at my grandfather's cabin in Pennsylvania. It was good to see Dad doing as well as he had sounded on the phone. My sister and her youngest son, Jacob, were there, home early from Africa which made the visit that much more special. Dad even had the energy to take Jacob on a 4-wheeler ride!! The highlight of the weekend was when my Dad's brother, Frank, and his family came to visit. Their oldest, Megan, was the flowergirl at our wedding and it had been almost that long since seeing her. Since that weekend my sister and her family have moved to Jackson, Michigan and are on staff here at the Bible School until next summer. They are looking forward to adding another little one to the family in January.

So today Dad is to start the next round of treatment!! He will start a 4 month process of 1 week of chemo each month through February. His schedule will be 1 day chemo - 1 day rest - 1 day chemo - 1 day rest - 1 day chemo. These rounds of chemo are stronger than before but are needed to make sure he is in complete remission.

Well, that about rounds out this update!! I was hoping to post a few pictures but figured that by the time I did it might be another 9 weeks. Thank you for you prayers and emails. I'm sure Mom will be posting again at Dad's Carepage. http://www.carepages.com/ his page is listed under EverettHalstead (no spaces).