What a weekend...

Wow, what a weekend. It’s kind of bad when you feel like you need the first couple of week nights to catch up on rest from the weekend.


As most of you know, we had a big weekend, as we packed up the minivan on Wednesday night with suitcases, pillows, dresses, and a little size 2T tuxedo to make the trek south to help my sister and her fiancé set up for and celebrate their wedding. Also, as most of you know, Levi was able to join us for the event! Last Monday the home healthcare nurse came out to draw his labs, and his counts were on their way up. His ANC wasn’t quite up to the minimum 500 level yet, but it was going to make it by the time we left. We spent the night in Seymour on Wednesday night, then the girls headed down to Louisville on Thursday morning. Nate and I kept the boys with us, and headed that way later in the day. We spent the evening decorating the church and rehearsing for Friday’s big event. The kids did really well, and we had high hopes for their involvement in the wedding as little ring bearers and a flower girl.

On Friday the girls were busy all day with decorating the reception hall and running the gauntlet of girly wedding activities. The rest of us were able to meet up with all of our family who were able to make the trip from Kansas. We had a great time catching up with them – it had been far too long since we had seen them. They loved meeting little Levi, and he enjoyed the attention. Later that evening we all exchanged our comfortable street clothes for more wedding-appropriate attire and headed to the church. The wedding was beautiful, and the kids did pretty well. Levi sprinted down the aisle, Xavier headed down with his Uncle Cyrus, and my little Caylee Grace walked down with me holding her hand. I think she may have been just a little nervous with all the eyes on her. It was a late but fun evening, and the kids somehow found their second wind (or maybe it was their fourth or fifth wind) after we got back to the hotel around 12:30 am. After a breakfast and helping the new couple open their presents on Saturday morning, we all headed back and were more than a little envious of Hannah and Rob as they prepared to leave on their honeymoon to Puerto Rico.


It was a great weekend with the family. It was a much needed break, and things almost felt back to normal. We were able to soak in the moments, play with the kids, and catch up with family and friends. The little ones got enough outside playin', go-kart ridin', rough housin', and grandma snugglin' time in to last awhile. The weekend felt whole with our little Levi joining us. I honestly don’t know how I could have gotten through it all being apart from him; he completes our family, and things aren’t the same when he’s not with us. I thank God for His answer to our prayers, and count it a blessing to be able to have all of my family together. Many thanks to all of you as well who prayed fervently for this to be.

So… the plan moving forward…

The home healthcare nurse came out again today to draw Levi’s labs. We got his counts back late in the afternoon, and everything looked good. However, the doctor wants his ANC to be pretty much back to normal before he performs the bone marrow test to make sure the test is as accurate as possible. Levi’s ANC is coming up, but is not to the “normal” level yet. The doctor decided to delay the bone marrow test that was originally slated for tomorrow by a couple of weeks. Now, he won’t get another blood draw until the Monday after Thanksgiving and won’t have to travel down to Riley for his bone marrow test until the next day – which means that Steph and Levi get another couple of weeks at home and we get to all be together for Thanksgiving!


In my last post, I mentioned that there were some big decisions coming up. I didn’t want to share them just yet, since things were very much up in the air. But the decision is this – the doctor is considering possibly cancelling the fifth round of chemo, provided that the tests continue to come back clean. Of course we are very excited about this possibility – and that is what it is at this point, a possibility – but to be honest it does make us a little nervous. We want to make sure that the leukemia has been beaten completely, but on the other hand we don’t want Levi to go through an additional round of chemo (which happens to be the roughest one) if it’s not necessary. We’ve dwelled on this at length, but in the end we’ve come to the realization that it will do no good to worry about this; as with every stage of Levi’s battle, it is out of our hands. So we give this decision to God, and ask that you pray that He would give immense wisdom to the doctors as they examine Levi’s case and the existing research. We will trust Him that the decision they reach will be the right one, and we will support it and do whatever it takes to get Levi through this. We long for the day when Levi’s treatments will be done, and we can place him in bed at night without counting down until the morning when his next round will begin.

Thanks as always for all that you do for my family. We love you all,
Michael, Stephanie, Caylee, and little Levi