Ready to Rock n Roll...

Shawn is on day three of his very aggressive and intensive Chemotherapy treatment of five days a week for six-seven hours at a time. He will have two weeks off to recuperate and then start the treatments over again...this schedule will remain until the end of summer.

As of now, he has had little effects other than some dizziness and mild fatigue but the nurse said next week is when he will likely start feeling bad after multiple sessions of chemo start taking effect.
 

The medical team is OUTSTANDING. We are in good hands with both the Oncologist and the nurses that administer the chemo.

and...

We are in awe of the beautiful, sacrificing hearts of those around of us...to receive so many cards, letters and notes of concern, meals provided for, offers to help with the girls, the lawn...anything we might need...it's just flat taken our breath away. Thank you so much.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

A few months ago, the girls were batting around the word "hate" in the back seat of the car...and I explained to them that word was only allowed to be referred to something very, very bad...like cancer. The girls were happy that they now had permission to direct that word to a "thing" and have repeated the phrase quite a bit, because in the minds of a 5 year old and a 3 year old, it's like getting away with saying a bad word in front of your parents as long as it was said correctly.

In a million years, I would not have guessed this chapter in our lives happening now. Shawn...my kind, gentle, perpetually positive husband, was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of testicular cancer. He's had one surgical procedure down, one to go, and then is embarking on a healthy dose of chemotherapy all summer long in great hopes of clearing the cancer from his body. Then five years of c-scans and check-ups, and the fear of it coming back to haunt us for the rest of our lifetime.

Sitting there, hearing a doctor say "...it's cancer" just sends your mind right into a tailspin, and as you pull yourself out of that fog over the next couple of weeks, you realize the only thing you can control in the midst of all the unknown ahead, is your spiritual walk with God.

And suddenly, time just becomes unbearably precious. Man, oh man, I really do, from the bottom of my heart, hate cancer.

Leah...my wise, old soul....upon hearing the news of daddy's cancer and what was going to happen over the course of the next few months summed it up quickly...

"So it's going to be like a movie, Mommy?"

What do you mean, Le Le?

"You know...good in the beginning, scary in the middle, and then good again in the end..."

"Yes, honey. That's it exactly."

Our family blog has been used to document our most important journey's in life and this is definitely no exception. Please feel free to follow along with us. We greatly appreciate your support and prayers to give our family the faith, strength and courage to face the challenges that lie ahead. 

Summer Recap: Part 2

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.

Summer Recap: Part I

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".

Sunday Snapshot

Perfect case in point of why I need to document better for my family....I'm in the midst of organizing and editing photos from some sessions I've been doing lately and ran across a folder on my computer dated an exact year ago today. I couldn't resist opening it up to see it was filled with my little Kate running around the backyard, playing hard as she always does. Look at what a little baby she still was just a year ago....

 and now look at her...

She's so stinkin' funny. She spends literally half of her time getting sheer joy out of trying to make us laugh, singing songs and dancing, smiling these million watt smiles like she is above, and then the other half of her time she spends just as mad as a hornet at the world, because it takes very little to set this firecracker off. She's unbelievable headstrong and so.....two. She wears the age like a fine wine.

And as I look through an impromptu photo session that took just minutes to produce, how can I not chuckle at her little personality coming out  frame by frame. Because I get just as many of these kinds of looks....

 That would be her going "....UGH!" at me....

   as I do these...

in a matter of mere seconds.  It's hard in those tantrum moments to deal with as a mom, but in hindsight, it's so hilarious of how absolutely psycho this age is. "This too shall pass." I say that a lot.

She's beautiful, courageous, fearless and unstoppable. Before I even knew this little gem, Kathryn Mei Lin, I had a strong feeling she was a powerhouse. Something told me, that her special need wasn't really going to be so special.....

I just knew she was going to set this world on fire with an inner strength and strong belief in herself that there was nothing she couldn't do if she set her mind to it....

 and so far, so good. 

Our Latest Addition to the Fam...

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.

Must. Do. Better.