Staying the Course

Time seems to move forward so fast with so many things to do and then I realize that I haven't written to update all of you!

We were at the cancer center from the 17th - 20th and there is not much new news. Matt's tumor marker rose just slightly and the oncologist told us that is too soon to know if the new chemo cocktail is working or not. We were hoping for it to drop so there was some disappointment there.

There is good news, it seems that this new chemo doesn't make Matt as sick as the old medicine did. This is good news indeed in the fact that Matt has more energy and is able to have a better quality of life. He is still really bothered by the stuffy, bloody nose that seems to be getting worse over time. This is caused by one of the drugs that was not changed.

After getting the results of the last ct scan, Matt and I have sat down and made some family and personal goals for how we want to spend this precious time that we have together. We have made a lot of summer plans where we hope to create more beautiful family memories. Our first trip will be in two weeks and we will be spending a week in St. John, US Virgin Islands. We are staying in a large home near the beach and we plan on relaxing and playing together the entire week!

We have plans to go camping and to go up to Yosemite with our dear friends. Logan is coming home for the summer to spend it with his dad. He will go with Matt to the cancer center sometimes and this will help me a lot! I feel guilty leaving the four youngest for almost a week every other week. It is sad that they are growing up with such heavy life realities to deal with!!

Please continue with the prayers for Matt. We can feel their strength and have been so incredibly blessed over the past few months. Heavenly Father has not healed Matt, but he has blessed us so much in many other ways. All of our children are moving forward in their lives and they bring us so much joy. We have gained so many wonderful friends through this trial and have found that the friends we already had are the best friends ever!! Thank you all! We love you!