Sunday (December 28)

Well, Christmas is now over, and we are preparing for the next phase of our life. We had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to travel to Brevard to spend Christmas Eve and Chrismas morning with Jodi, Matt, Chloe and Ethan. And, yes, we still believe in Santa. We are so blessed to have children, grandchildren, family and friends.

We are now starting the final week of Joel's 10 week regimen of chemo IV's at Baptist Hospital. His final one will be this coming Friday, January 2. He will then have a 2 week break and start the next phase on January 20th. That drug is one of the "bad" ones, as we call it, that he received in the hospital in September. He will go to Baptist for 3 days in a row for this treatment. He may lose his hair again and his counts will go down which will result in fatigue and some other side effects. He will then get about 6 weeks of rest before starting the final 3 day treatment in March. If his bone marrow test is clear at that time, he will only have to take chemo drugs by mouth. He should finish that phase in April 2010. It has been a really tough 4 months, but, we are grateful that he is alive and is doing well. This was the best Christmas present I could ever have.

Joel actually had to get a hair cut yesterday. Joel's personal barber, aka brother-in-law Tony, came over and buzzed him.

God has been so good to us. He has allowed us to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversay on December 18th and to spend another Christmas with our grandchildren. We know his hand in on us at all times.

Jodi and Matt are in Costa Rica this week and next on a much needed vacation. They went last year and enjoyed a week of beautiful warm weather learning to surf while I was here babysitting 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and snow! This year, Matt will not be able to surf since he broke his leg in Septmber and consequently had to have surgery. He is doing better and is using a cane now instead of crutches. Matt's mother and father are babysitting this time.

We would still appreciate your prayers for us and we continue on this journey.