Thank you!

After developing a fever and severe pains following a blood transfusion last week, Drexel was admitted to and spent the last week in the hospital yet again. Poor thing.  He absolutely hates it here, though it is obvious that he is feeling better now than when we brought him in - he is ornery again.  : )

Anyways, I wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you.  We were not expecting to be walking the journey of childhood cancer with our precious little boy.  Our plans for this summer included Drexel going fishing at his grandparent's cabin "up north", possibly going to Alaska to visit my family, fully settling into our new role in Lake City, etc.  They did not include hospital visits, possibly being trained to do IV infusions on Drexel at home, chemotheraphy, etc.

Our plans also did not anticipate being completely and totally blown away by the amazing amount of support that we have received as we've begun this awful journey.  It is an awful one, I'm not going to pretend that we are somehow appreciative of Drexel's cancer.  No child should ever have cancer.  What we are appreciative of is how many people have sent us notes of encouragement, prayed over our little family, checked in to see what we need, provided financial help/gas cards, and such.  People from every network in our lives (work, school, friends, etc) have pulled around us in support.  I have been blown away, and thank God every. single. day. for the amazing group who has been with us on this journey.

What amazes me personally is that 10 years ago the fingers on both hands could have counted the number of people I actually knew who have stood with us in some way during Drexel's ordeal.  Since I moved out of Alaska in 2005, I've met an amazing collection of friends, professors, colleagues, church family members, and many, many others who've made footprints on my life in one way or another.  I've even got family members that I didn't even know existed whom I've gotten to know and adore since moving to MN who have pulled around us in an amazing way.  What I'm trying very uneloquently (it's been a long week) to say is that 95% of the people who have supported us are people we've met in the past 10 years.  I simply didn't know many people before then because of growing up in such a secluded spot in Alaska.

Anyways, thank you.  Thank you for all of your support no matter what form it has taken.

Words are meager things.  They don't do justice to how incredibly grateful we are for the many ways in which you have made this awful journey just a little less awful.  THANK YOU.

I'd write cards to you all, but that would take too many stamps.  :P