The Lion Fights: While We Wait

It has been an interesting season of waiting. While we wait for the next MRI, we have been trying to find a new "normal" for our family. Ari's counts continue to recover. We are down to once a week office visits for transfusions. It is nice to only make the long trip once a week now. While at home, we spend a lot of time playing and working on physical therapy. Ari is still stuck at home for the most part while his body continues to recover. Protecting him from germs is still a big priority for us. We definitely try to get out for walks when it is nice. We are grateful for those sunny days.

Ari continues to regain strength lost while being sick in the hospital for a month. He has been sitting up with us more and really loves to read books. Unfortunately, sitting up still makes him throw up often. Although his vomiting has decreased overall, he continues to battle with it. We've noticed he is much more nauseous being on TPN. Some of his best hours are the 9 hours he is not hooked up during the day. We're thankful for those hours. He has also become quite adept at rolling all over the floor, flirting with every blunt corner or furniture piece he can get to. It keeps us on our toes!

As we sat around as a family the other day, I (Colby) was kissing Ari's cheek when, to my surprise, he giggled. He giggled! He hasn't giggled since before that February 25th night when Dr. Romanoski told us we were being directly admitted to Riverbend Hospital for an MRI the next day. So, what do you think I did? I kept kissing his cheek to hear him giggle more, of course. Enjoy!

We celebrate all of these things. We also yearn for further restoration and healing for our little man. We pray, specifically, that Ari will regain the strength and coordination to sit on his own, to crawl, and to eventually walk and run around. We pray he regains the ability to use his stomach for nutrition and for his ability to re-learn how to eat and drink. We pray he and all his fellow fighters are healed of their diseases. We pray that through Ari's story, people will become more aware of children being diagnosed with cancer everyday. We also pray that through Ari's story, all will be affected on a soul level, driving them deeper into wonder and hope. We pray all of these things today, on the first day of his MRI week, but, we don't reserve these prayers just for times like these. We pray these things daily as we wait for each next step.

For now, we continue to discover what our new "normal" is for our family. Our days may be filled with central line flushes and TPN, but we celebrate that there is more time spent playing with toys and enjoying one another at home. We will try to be better about updating all of you following Ari's story. Thanks, as always, for continuing to walk with us.