Through The Waters

    It's a rainy April morning... the last Saturday in April already...how times flies and how much we try to pack into our days.  Yet, it's good to sit and to meditate, to see the flowers throwing off their coats of dirt and leaves and rearing their yellow flowers to the warmth of the sun, stretching their limbs after a cold winter of being all tucked up in a little ball and somehow, someway, only our God truly knows how that miracle of life makes itself known...brightening our lawn and our house and our hearts with such beauty.  Yes, our daffies seem to make themselves known very early on in the season, probably because they're leaning against the bricks of our house and our house faces east and so there's lots of warm sun on them and radiating towards them that they are eager beavers to get out and catch some rays.  So if you need a taste of spring, c'mon down and have a peek.     It's been a busy few weeks and hence no major updates. ...

An update on how things are going – Danielle was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday and will likely remain there over the weekend.   She has been experiencing increasing abdominal pain and eating has been difficult.   In the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, her friend Laura took her into the ER with a fever and in a lot of pain.   They started her on fluids, antibiotics, and pain meds and did a CT scan, which showed inflammation in her lower colon, possibly remnants of the multiple antibiotics she was on early in the year.   Initial bloodwork seemed to be ok, and thankfully a C.Diff (Clostridium Difficile) infection was ruled out, although they were keeping her in isolation in case it was a different tummy bug causing all this extra trouble (she is no longer in isolation).   Wednesday afternoon she was moved from the ER to a private room on the ward.   Since then she has been battling continued abdominal pain, intermittent fever and exhaustion, althou...

    Maybe a few minutes to squeeze in a post before Ava decides to wake up and realizes she's been cheated half a bottle since she fell asleep drinking it - then the tears will roll and the baby injustice meter will be running over time.  Yes, our sweet little babe can at times make her wishes and displeasures known at very high decibel levels.  For the most part, I'd say Ava is a much more mellow baby, though not to say inactive - she loves to be in her exersaucer so she can see what's going on around her, she'll happily kick and stretch on the floor for long periods and she smiles oh so much!  She brings us so much happiness that at times I say to Timothy that I think she maybe needs a second middle name of Joy!  Not only to us either, but to our whole family and extended family and friends.  This precious little miracle girl, who made it through surgery and chemo and all else and appears for all accounts to be in perfect health.  What a mirac...

     Wowsers, it's been a while since I've sat myself down without babe in arms (she's sleeping in Timothy's arms over on the far side of our living room - we are both quietly working away on our own things, yet remembering to have time together, the two of us, the four of us, whatever that means.  In the midst of the busyness and schedules of the day, it's so good to turn the lights low, gaze across our newly rearranged living room and find my eyes laying on our newest piece of furniture.  A bookshelf and a baby swing made room for a piano - a wonderful gift from a new friend and certainly I never believed that we would be a piano owing family but there is in, in all it's ivory and wood glory, just waiting to be played.  Our afternoon Ava-cuddler was the first one to wring an actual song from the instrument, hopefully with time and a lot of patience I can learn a little more about music and playing it.  Martha is very musical and we'd love to be able ...

It's early evening and the girls are asleep. Martha's had her bath, Ava's just fed, and Danielle's also made her way to bed. She's been dealing with a lot of nausea since she had chemo on Monday... Yes, it's Timothy, Danielle's husband, writing this post. After we met with the oncology team at Sunnybrook there was about a week where we were waiting for another CT scan, bloodwork, an ECG - all of the stuff that needed to happen before they could tell us whether Danielle was in the trial. We went in on a Monday for all those appointments and we were told that it was then a matter for them to input our data into a computer, answer a few questions, and then the answer would come back as to whether we would be included in the study. Tuesday came and went and we learned on Wednesday: Danielle had been selected to participate in the study. Since it was an open study we knew that Danielle was receiving the experimental drug, a stem cell inhibitor in pill form th...

       Puzzles.  Something I have always enjoyed.  The very almost hypnotic, comforting and very process full rummaging through the open puzzle box in order to locate the edges, to find that elusive last edge piece, to put together patterns and blocks of colour and eventually to fit those pieces together bit by bit, sometimes painstakingly, sometimes easily, sometimes frustratingly to create a total image or picture.  It's so super satisfying when you finally push in that last piece and you see the picture whole in front of you, after hours or maybe even days of trying to figure out the pattern.  You run your hand over the completed puzzle and it's pretty neat and tidy and organized....and by now, I'm rambling on with the best of them.  The last few weeks have really gotten the puzzle bug in me to work.  I'm not sure if it's been due to the weather, so up and down or due to the fact that I've been waiting by the phone (not always so p...

     It's early Saturday morning, and we've been up in our household here for at least an hour.  It started with a basket full of baby gurgles and happy laughter beside our bed, which triggered the all familiar door squeak of Martha's door handle as she dragged her stuffies and blanket into our room to attempt to worm in between us in our bed and aah, yes, the blissful idea of a Saturday morning sleep in is dashed into pieces.  But I must admit, I love sleepy snuggles and soft breathing and a hug from our oldest daughter.  And the lovely smiles that are happy that Mom has finally brought a bottle after sleeping mostly through the night.  Yes, she's getting a little more reliable as far as sleeping - will go from 10:30/11-anywhere between 4:30-7:30.  So not quite the middle of the night, endless exhausting every two hours feeding.  And you can tell she's getting fed enough, the rolls are getting bigger, cheeks are filling in and she's s...