The Lion Fights: Back to Eugene

So, we're home. We enjoyed our time in Portland so much that it felt weird to think about coming back to Eugene. We talked many times about what that meant. Mainly, it meant that we'd again be 2 hours away from "our" hospital. It also meant that the next phase of Ari's treatment had come to an end. For the latter, we celebrate. Ari's radiation treatments went well considering his age and history with other treatment modalities. Our doctors were very pleased at how he progressed while receiving treatment. We are thankful for that. Leaving Portland also meant that we would be leaving this amazing retreat-like river house that we had been blessed to stay at while there (thank you Kevin and Marisa). We will miss our afternoon river walks, our times sitting on the deck watching the geese fly in and the bald eagle swooping down to fish, and we will surely miss just simply being together. It was a time of respite. It was a time of growth, physically and spiritually.

This was one of our favorite spots along the river.

So, we're home. We frantically unpacked our stuff yesterday only to have much of it spread across our living room. Jenny to the rescue! My wife is amazing. She worked tirelessly to get things in their rightful home while I handled the "feather" lifting and Ari duty due to some back issues. And, what did Ari do during this time, you ask? He rolled. And rolled. And rolled. Yes, he was rolling all over our living room. You see, at the river house he spent the majority of the time laying and playing on our bed because the floors were concrete and he still didn't have great control of his head. So to avoid him hitting his head on the floor we opted to have him play on the bed (supervised, of course). His play space was definitely limited. But now he's everywhere. Just as Jenny and I got everything (or mostly everything) put in its place, we realized the living room was a mess. The floor was covered in toys. COVERED IN TOYS! This wasn't because we had placed them all over the floor for Ari to discover; no, it was because our son was traveling all over the living room playing with his toys. We smiled and celebrated.

Ari is now mimicking almost everything we do and say. He's trying to verbalize more and has started clicking his tongue after we do it. It's pretty awesome. He's clapping in response to us saying the word "clap". He's sitting for longer periods of time in his high chair and while reading books on the floor with us. And, he's been mimicking singing with the most awesome sing-songy babble I've ever heard. He's doing really cool "baby" things. He loves music. He loves being silly. He's trying to relearn how to laugh (thank you Ryan and Kristen for the toy). He's Ari.

So, now we have a bit of time off. The next step will consist of words like stem cell harvest, stem cell rescue, and high dose chemotherapy. Again, words that don't really hold any meaning just as long as they work. Our oncologist has worked hard at devising the next step. We are so thankful for her and the rest of the team and all they do for our son. Ari will go into clinic on the 27th of October for the stem cell harvest. This shouldn't be a painful or complicated process, rather, one that involves a big machine he'll be hooked up to that will draw his blood out of his central line, send it into a large centrifuge, separate stem cells (baby cells that will turn into all other cells), and return the rest of the blood cells back into his body through his other lumen of his central line. The stem cells will be frozen and saved for later on in the process. We have Ari's next MRI scheduled for November 11th. As long as all is clear, we will continue with the high dose chemotherapy the following week. We pray and plead for it to be clear. We ask the same from all of you reading this.

We find ourselves in the very place we are. Does that make sense? I think often we can over think "where we are" in life and how we need to respond. But the reality is that this is where we are in life. We aren't sure that all of it will exist, or that we will, in an hour...in a minute. Fear paralyzes; hope frees. So, we hope not in what "is", or is not, today but what transcends today into eternity and allow that to free us to experience today. Our friends say moment by moment. I agree with that, and it is fitting for almost every situation.

Thank you all for walking this journey with us. Your continued cards, prayers, gifts, thoughts, visits, and messages are encouraging. Here are some pictures from the past several weeks.

We will miss the sunrises on the river.

We were blessed with many visitors! We are glad we got to spend quality time with Jenny's parents out on the deck.

We had fun with Colby's parents and also enjoyed our time together.

We are blessed with wonderful doctors and nurses. Today when Chris, our primary Nurse Practitioner, walked in, Ari reached out his arms to him. Guess that is a good sign he likes him too! :)

Thanks, Jan, for the cute puppy pillow! We are so thankful that our nurses are not only very skilled, but incredibly sweet as well.

This is Ari on his last day of radiation! We were waiting for the sedation doctor, so Ari got to play with nurse Jan and radiation therapist Andrea. As you can see, Ari loves both of these gals.