Valentine's, another birthday, and beyond!

Hello! Here's an update from your friendly neighborhood Beata.

This chunk of time since the last update has been pretty interesting. It started off with a quick trip to the mall on Saturday with Dad to get Mom a Valentine's Day present. The family celebrated loving each other the next day, and ate too much candy. Erica had secretly found little presents for the rest of us, and I had secretly gotten her one! Perfect.

February 15th was Peter's 16th birthday. We celebrated by taking the birthday train down to the nearest Sonic (one of Peter's favorite places for a hamburger), which was an hour away in Kingston. He was so confused about where we could possibly be going! It was a satisfying surprise. Thanks, Mrs. Weiner, for staying home with mom so that we could celebrate Peter's birthday! (Peter followed this milestone birthday by acing his learner's permit exam on Thursday. Look out Albany!)

A breath of fresh air was a visit from Jennifer Hansen, another of the stalwart friends from the early days at Dartmouth. She really blessed us by showing up, making our home smell amazing, and by singing to mom. Thanks for stopping by!

On Wednesday, we took mom to the hospital for a follow-up CT scan. The appointment was late in the day, and among other things, they found a significant amount of fluid in her abdomen. They can easily remove this with a quick procedure, but it was past closing time and they wanted to do it early on Thursday instead. Since it had taken a WHILE to get mom out of our house (and I'm talking hours here) and to the hospital, we decided not to repeat the performance but to just leave her there overnight.

Well, one thing let do another, and she's still in the hospital! Items of discussion have included whether or not the chemo has been working (seems like it's hurting more than it's helping!), whether or not to discontinue chemotherapy (consensus is yes for the time being), how to help her become more mobile (she's not really mobile at all), how to outfit our home to accomodate her growing needs (we're in touch with the right people to get some equipment), and how we can help her be more mentally present (not sure on this one yet). We're glad her doctor is back from vacation, and while some of us have appreciated the slight break from constant care the hospital has given us, we all agree that we want her home! Pray with us that everything will fall into place for getting her back, and that she will wake up with enough energy to walk into the house from the car.

Through all this, mom's personality shines through. She saves a significant amount of energy every day for that moment when dad walks through the door -- her whole face lights up when she hears his voice. She loves her kids and makes us laugh often. We know our God's power is not limited by her current state of being, and we are learning how to trust him with her.

As always, many thanks for your cards, emails, meals, and hugs. I'm not sure how we'd be managing without our strong support network, and I'm sure glad we don't have to find out! We'll try to keep this more current for all you people who like to be on top of new info! Sláinte!