I'm back! I know... can you even believe it? It's been a LONG time coming but my new website and blog are up and going without a million bugs and WITH my old blogs. I can't believe how hard it was to get everything back to how I wanted it. (That's a whole other story I won't go into right now...)
Anyways, it's great timing because today is Carter's TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! I canNOT believe that it's been TWO entire years since I got this horrific phone call. It all seems like a dream now. It seems like it happened yesterday and like it happened a lifetime ago at the same time. Our lives have changed so drastically. It's been two entire years since I have gone to sleep NOT worrying about my son's health. It's been two entire years since Bryan and I have NOT talked about childhood cancer. It's been two entire years since we haven't had daily concern about how this is affecting our daughters. It's been two entire years since we took our little, tiny seemingly healthy boy into the hospital thinking about how on earth we were going to explain to him that he had cancer... and wondering how much detail to give him, not sure if he would grow up to tell people about his experience.
I can say, without a shadow of a doubt that our family is stronger because of what we have been through. We rely heavily on each other (we rely even on the girls, believe it or not). We rely more heavily on faith. Without our knowledge of eternal families and angels and prayer, I think I'd be much more of a wreck than I currently am.
There are still days (frequently) that I cry because of what Carter is going through. I don't know that it will ever get "easy". Most of the time we are use to what we are going through. Sometimes, we are even grateful. And always we are at peace with it.
In the past year Carter has been hospitalized three times. (One time we were on vacation in Utah!!) He has had countless shots, tons of X-Rays, several Priesthood blessings (including one from President Uchtdorf!!), had his chemo held more than I like to think about, had numerous G.I. issues, had a bit of a rough summer, and has struggled through Maintenance, when most children thrive.
But, all that being said, he is doing great. His attitude is amazing. He deals with his lot with maturity and peace. He loves going to chemo and never complains about taking his nightly oral chemo. We are all use to his steroid cheeks and the ever changing side-affects. We thank our Father in Heaven every day for our health, including Carter's, because as I have said a million times before, it could be SO much worse. He WILL beat this. Next May I will write a post that is titled "Carter is Officially Cancer Free!!" and I CANNOT wait for that day to come! He's such a fighter and God truly chose wisely when he gave him this trial.
Seems only appropriate that he got to spend the day down at the clinic getting his big monthly dose of chemo today, on his two year mark. We took the kids to breakfast to celebrate and tonight we will have spaghetti and donuts, as he has requested. :)
