Shawn started his second round of chemotherapy today...came home exhausted, but otherwise in pretty good shape. As mentioned in the previous post, the last chemo session started off okay. I pushed submit that night, and then headed to bed to find Shawn in pitiful shape...and the following days turned quickly to the worst with extreme nausea, exhaustion and other really painful or downright strange side effects.
This chemo thing is just a boatload of fun, trust me on that.
Two weeks later, going into this next round, he's feeling good. His smile and wisdom...those have not been stolen by cancer. He's lost his hair but not his sense of humor. Case in point...the other day I walked in on him while he was studying his new "Charlie Brown inspired" do in the bathroom mirror. He quickly shot a smile, and asked nonchalantly...
"You think it would help if I part my hair differently?"
Despite a couple of hard punches, round one goes to Shawn. Cancer just isn't going to win this fight.
On to other news...as it's summertime and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer all the time on a blog meant to serve as memory book for the girls...we've have lots of fun times despite being consumed by all things medical.
For starters, our little Leah had a birthday. In that first week of being a six year old, she made leaps and bounds in the growing up department.
1. She took off the training wheels and rode off into the sunset
2. Jumped off the diving board and swam across a junior size Olympic pool
3. Read her first chapter book with no help
4. She made no complaints and gave up her dream of a "friend party" in light of her Daddy starting chemo treatments.
And the way she handled that disappointment--which is everything to a little girl with a bazillion friends and who has gone to birthday parties nonstop over her first year in school--we were most touched by that over anything.
While I'm in the mood I just have to get this blog up to date with some memories I cherish!
Baby Jack's 1st Birthday Celebration
I adore my little brother Rich, always have, uh...that is, after I got used to the idea of being a middle child.
He's 9 years younger than me, and I've gotta give props to Mom because this kind of age difference really is a perfect balance to not fight much as kids and but still close enough in age to foster a strong relationship as adults like we so easily do.
He's handsome, caring, wise, gregarious, give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back-in-an-instant-kind-of-guy. And he married beautiful, brainy, talented, ultra-funny Rachel. And now they have a son, Jack...who is perking up to have those same wonderful qualities of both of them.
I'm so proud to call this family my own. And lucky us to have this little guy in our lives. I'm going to enjoy cheering him on in life just as much as I still love to do for my brother.
Our family gathered together in late June to celebrate his first birthday, and as the official family photographer, I'm always there to capture the action. I'm going to apologize in advance for the amount of photos...but I wish you knew just how dang hard it is to pick and choose the piddly amount of photos that make the blog cut. I decided, ah..what the heck...to just throw a lot up on here to make up for all the lost time until I get into a regular rhythm of adding posts.
So....here we roll...
Did I mention how much I love my whole family? Can you tell? Cause I do. I do. I do. I do.
Please ignore while I get this blog back up to date and record some wonderful summer memories with my family and friends.
Seaside Vacation--May 2010
We visit Seaside, Florida every year as family and have been for the past 10 years and Shawn many years before that with his family. It's a little slice of heaven to me and the memories made there are precious beyond words. This year, we stayed in beautiful Seacrest, just outside of Seaside and met up with our beloved Nana & Ye (Shawn's parents), Aunt Jennie (seriously, hands down the best aunt in the world), and absolutely ADORED Uncle Day-Day (David).
These are just a small sampling of the many photos I must take (like it's a drug), there's a lot. Every year, I make these photo memories into a little book for the girls to treasure and we love, love, love to look at them at bedtime and dream of the next time we get to visit our second home.
Nana performing a very serious operation on "ChipMUnk".
We are nuts, but just barely a year after bringing our Kate home, we decided to adopt again. He was just too sweet and gentle of a little guy to pass up....introducing our 2.5 pound fluff ball, Rudy Hercules....
As you can imagine, the girls are ecstatic. We've teased Leah that we should have named him "George" after that bugs bunny cartoon. She loves him in that ever-loving, but smothering, I just want to squeeze you tight and dress you up" kind of way.
And yes, while puppies are a tremendous amount of work...and I have had so many people say to me...full-time job, side photography business, two children, and you added...a dog? What are you thinking?!?!
My gut told me I needed something on my lap late at night to keep me company while I edited photos, that my girls would need that unconditional love that only a pet could give you, and that adding this little guy would bring us a lot of joy. I'm so happy to report that I was right.
On a side note, holy cow...I'm loving all these new updates to blogger. It's a good excuse to start adding some more bits and pieces of our life on here. I miss blogging sometimes, especially when I go back and see what we were doing on a particular day, such a great way to capture and preserve memories.
and it was all that I wanted it to be for our newly-formed family of four. Much needed R & R, bonding time for all of us, lots of sunshine, laughter and absolutely beautiful memories made.
On Thursday morning, we finally reached what we missed so much after two and a half weeks away...home. Really....is there anything better than your bed? Precious little Kate was greeted by family and friends that got up early on that morning in the rain, wow. Holly & Brad, Carolin, Kelly...we love you all so much, thank you!
This trip was really hard, I'm not gonna sugar coat it. In the short time span of our the journey, we logged thousands of miles on 10 separate airplanes, stopped in several countries and states along the way toting two children under four. It nearly did us in.
Here's a funny TMI, that wasn't so funny at the time....my perfect little angel (that would be Kate that I am referring to this time)....who rarely had anything but smiles after we got to know each other in China, decided to have the mother of all meltdowns during a security checkpoint in the Guangzhou airport as we were leaving for Japan. She was terribly upset because I had the nerve to put her in the stroller earlier when she had wanted to walk, but since we needed to get past security and on to our gate to make the next flight, there was no time for dillydallying. So she was letting us HAVE IT and doing a fabulous job making it known to everyone in the airport her displeasure. When I pulled her out of her stroller at security to walk through the detector, I noticed she didn't smell too hot, so I turned her over to discover that she has poop all the way up her back.
In her battle with the stroller, she had made herself human toothpaste.
Peachy.
Holding my stinky, screaming child, I walk under the security detector, and get flagged to have one of those really fun extra security probes. Except I don't know it at the time because I don't understand Chinese and my child has poop all over her, so I walk through quickly, concentrating on finding a bathroom and move on with my life. Luckily for me, there is a bathroom less than 15 feet away, so I get to the bathroom and look up to see I have 5 Chinese security guards surrounding me as I attempt to change my daughter who is now writhing in tears and anger and definitely won't be sitting still for a quick diaper change. I realize that I am now a security risk in communist China. Really peachy.
After 15 minutes and the battle of the century, I finally get Kate cleaned up and changed. I'm sweating, worn out, embarrassed, horrified at her tantrum and wanting to pause the whole scene so I can quickly skim some chapters from a book on handling the "terrible two's" temper tantrums in public. Leah can be dramatic, but has yet to produce a performance like this, so I was totally unequipped to know what to do.
I look down to see I am covered in poop. The guards have looks on their faces that you don't need a Chinese translation book to figure out... "Ewwww....that's just gross."
I have it on my shirt, in my hair, on my body, on my pants, on my shoes...everywhere. At this point, our plane is getting ready to board in 20 minutes which begins a journey of 15 hours in a slender, silver tube with recirculating air. And I still have to go back with all my new friends and do a security check with poop all over me.
Thankfully, they made it quick.
After I got Kate changed and out of the bathroom, she instantly was her happy little self, like the last 20 minutes had not transpired. Figures. That's motherhood for you.
Enough about that, this is about Kate.
She is home and I think she knows it's for good. And after two full days of exploring her new nest, she is having the time of her life, and so are we. The next chapter has begun.
The photos above are provided by our wonderful friends, Brad & Holly.
Mom to two beautiful girls, married to one of the nicest guys on the planet, friend and family to some absolutely amazing people, and have a fantastic job in the tourism industry. I feel very blessed and even though the road has never been easy...that's taught me to truly appreciate the beauty of life!
