The Lion Fights: A Smile

I am not much of a public speaker. Even posting something for all to read has felt intimidating which is why I have not made a blog post; however, I have decided to be the informer. I will leave the insightful posts to my husband, and I will just fill you in on the day-to-day stuff. I want to make sure we are keeping people in the loop with what is happening. Sometimes that can be extremely difficult because time is a serious issue, but it is important for us to share because we know many people out there love Ari too. We are so grateful for this. So grateful that people love Ari well and love our family well. We are so grateful for the many prayers being proclaimed to God. We treasure those prayers. So here we go -

We have spent the last week and a half at home! That is right a whole week and a half! It has been glorious and scary and exhausting and one of the most difficult things we have done. Ari has still had some serious nausea issues so we have had difficulty keeping meds down and have had to implement the use of a few IV meds and food. It has been nerve racking to try to balance all his meds and the med schedule and to constantly monitor how he is doing, if something is wrong, and all that. Ari has not been sleeping well either, usually due to nausea. He was waking every 45 minutes to 1 1/2 and getting sick or wanting to be held. Needless to say, Colby and I have not been sleeping much at all. It is by the grace of God that neither of us has been sick. I can't imagine if we got sick and couldn't take care of him.

There were some amazing things about being home. We saw Ari smile! Yay! What a beautiful sight! His cute little smile brought tears to our eyes and joy to our hearts. Oh, how we have missed that amazing baby smile! :) He enjoyed playing, looking out the window, going on walks, being outside under his favorite tree, babbling, and rocking with mom and dad. It was great having some time in our home as a family. There were times we could trick ourselves into feeling "normal" again.

We came in late last night (Wednesday) because Ari has been acting a little differently and has had some continued nausea issues. They did a quick MRI and admitted us and have a full MRI scheduled for 3 p.m. There is talk of another surgery to try to deal with his fluid issues in the brain. We are thankful for God's continued goodness, and just ask for his guidance in this situation. We ask for prayers for clarity and wisdom for the doctors and for us as choices need to be made about his care. We pray that Ari can be free from this nausea and from fluid buildup and from tumors and from cancer altogether!
-J