smiling hearts

Once again our hearts are filled with light.  With relief.  With great hope.  Andy’s scans of last Tuesday showed continued shrinking of the tumors.  It was so good to get that news, again.

And so on a whim we called our dear friends in Minneapolis who agreed wholeheartedly to meet us for the weekend in Madison.  To celebrate, to decompress, to talk and play and rejoice (oh, and get Iris a new violin too- those monkey arms are getting so long!).

And so we went and it was good. For the kids: time to swim in the hotel pool, play babies, and jump on the beds while yelling “gerbil pee” at the top of their lungs.  (Don’t ask me, but they sure thought it was funny).  For the adults:  much needed time to reconnect, talk and eat good food.  It was perfect.

Now it’s back to waiting for Mayo docs to call with a plan for what next.  We suspect more chemo but we have questions, as always.  We’ll keep you posted.

Thank you, thank you for your prayers, your intentions, your gentle unending support.  You all make this long road so much easier.

this moment, this week

Holding the warmth of this season in our hearts as we go in for more testing this week.   Lifting our hearts up in intention and prayer.  Feeling the love in this moment pulling us forward.

two days: lanesboro, mn

Two days away.  Two days of bikes on the trail, poking around town, eating out, staying up late in the hotel and watching these awesome movies (you can see them on netflix or amazon too).  Two days to laugh and smile and relax in ways we haven’t been able to for months.  Two days to get out of town and celebrate.  

Yes, celebrate.  Andy’s scans last week showed that the tumors are shrinking. Something is working, everything is working!  The docs are happy with the response to chemo, so more of that to come.  But in the meantime Andy was given this fourth week between treatments off.  And he was feeling well enough to ride! We breathed in the crisp fall air, knowing that so much is still ahead, but still this. After 10 months of not-good-news, we’ve had to keep reassuring each other that we heard it all right.  It’s hard to believe in some ways, it’s hard to take it all in.  But here it still is, each morning when we wake up, this easy breath, this bit of comfort in our hearts, this sign of healing.  

This week it’s back to the clinic for three days of chemo, and many days of feeling yucky after that. But now we hold this new knowledge close and it helps.  We hold hope and gratitude and positive intention.  We hold all your prayers and loving support.  We hold each other and these two girls with so much love in our hearts.