Perpetually Wright: Haggen Haven

So, the girls and I opted for not accomplishing much on Thursday. It was great. For those of you that don't live around here, you don't know about the wonderful grocery store we have here. "wonderful grocery store?" you say? Well, yes, the girls and I have Haggens...it's the greatest invention since sliced bread (who ever thought of the expression anyway?!) because it is a grocery store with child care! And this isn't just any old child care, it's hang out with a neat teacher, play with playdoh, paint pictures with glitter, play with a ton of toys, get my face painted kind of child care! The girls love it. So, not only do I get to shop while the girls have fun, but there's also a place to eat there. It didn't take long before my girlfriends and I started meeting there once a week to chat, drink coffee, and eat goodies while the kids play together in the play area. We haven't gotten in trouble for it yet, so we'll keep doing it. I guess the idea is to get us to shop there and IT WORKS! I've missed being able to do it for a couple weeks, and I so enjoyed myself there on Thursday.

Now the girls are napping. I should go get something accomplished, but I find myself reading updates from baby Michael's parent's website. They are so inspiring to me. I spent a good while talking to his mommy on our last day of radiation. It was very uplifting. Encouragement from others with strong faith going through their own difficult times means so much. That must by why they invented support groups.

From reading their website I've realized in my own updates I haven't asked much for prayer lately...or I have, but only for strength and endurance instead of healing. I would love nothing more than for Kelby to be healed on this side of eternity, so please, please continue to pray that for our Kelby. We are also trying to pray as Jesus did, "Lord, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." This is the hard part. We have to hold Kelby with open hands. We desperately want to hold on to her with all our might and never let go, but she is not ours. Some of you may find this very hard to understand. If you don't believe in God or are blaming God, you may not see him as the everloving, wanting only what's best for us, faithful Father that He is to our family. It is only natural to ask God, "Why us, why Kelby, such an innocent little child." I've decided that God doesn't mind at all when we ask this question. In fact, I'm sure he's just glad we're talking to him. He has the answers. We may never see them, but I trust they are there. If one person, just one person, makes the decision to have faith in Jesus and spend eternity in Heaven because of what Kelby has gone through...what our family is dealing with...then (please don't misunderstand) it will be all worth it. How can she say that you wonder? God could be totally glorified at this point if he would just heal her...that would be my choice of how God should go about things. But still, what is faith if we don't have it when things don't go our way?

This update has been a couple days in the making. Yesterday was our trek down to Children's for that MIBG scan. We were down there at 1:15 and we got home around 9:30 pm. Long day. There's always a lot of waiting at Childrens. We were scheduled to get started at 2:30, but they didn't start until 4:00. Kelby was under anesthesia for an hour and a half. Then she had to be "recovered" where they keep her in a different area until she is awake enough to come back to us. That takes an hour or so. Suffice it to say, "It was a long day." As we were on our way home the doctor called and let us know that the results where the worthless kind. The radioactive isotope wasn't picked up anywhere...not even in her arm. Since the tumor in her arm didn't pick it up, Kelby is among the 25% that doesn't benefit from the MIBG scan. The overall results of yesterday? We don't ever have to do that scan again! Yeah!

No appointment is scheduled for us in the next two weeks. The bone doctors said that we didn't need to do anything with her arm except let her do her own physical therapy by trying to use it more. She'll have her blood counts checked next week, but otherwise we are on for two weeks of blessed relaxation...or actually "real" life...which is not relaxtion but actual cleaning, laundry, etc. Don't worry...we'll also relax a bit too. I can take the girls to the park and on the rainy days, there is always Haggens!