The man behind the blog and an unexpected surprise...

Aside from the use of certain words in my blog postings like "we", "us", or "our"... you haven't really heard from the man behind the blog who is known as my hubby and Ethan's daddy. So allow me a minute to express how proud and thankful Ethan and I are of him.

Since the night we found out Ethan has leukemia (19 days ago) our lives have certainly changed. And though you only hear from "Ethan's Mommy" in this blog, I wanted to take a minute to shine some light on "Ethan's Daddy".

Since I've known Adam, I've thought he was the most honorable, loyal, diligent, funny, caring, disciplined, and thoughtful man I'd ever met. And in our 3 years of marriage, I have seen those characteristics stay true, and I've seen even more. I knew that Adam was a strong man. Among all of the other qualities that I mentioned, he has the type of endurance and steadfastness that you can't often find in a person. I point this out, because since we found out about our baby having leukemia, nothing about those qualities in Adam has changed. His tenderness towards Ethan is precious, and his strength/endurance/diligence to keep the rest of our lives afloat while I am at the hospital all day leaves me so grateful. We both have our moments of reflection and sadness about what our little family is going through, but he continues to get up every day, go to work, make sure our bills are paid, make sure that my needs are met as best they can be, and so forth. His nights are later than they used to be, since he commutes to the hospital right after work, and stays until I fall asleep.... but he's still him. He's not jaded, grumpy, angry or discontent. He's wonderful. And I'll stop now before I embarrass him anymore, but I just wanted you to know that there is an amazing man, husband and dad - behind the blog.

I do also have an Ethan update! He has been taking his chemo medication (by mouth) perfectly each night. Thank you so much for praying! Also, his blood counts over the last couple of days have gone up (which is a good thing!). Since being here, his good blood cells haven't gone up at all without a transfusion... they've either stayed the same or gone down. Well, the last 2 days they have gone up without a transfusion at all! It's a good sign that the medicine is working, and a good sign of continued answered prayer. So basically, he's not getting any type of "intervention" here at the hospital right now, except his medication at night. SO.... we get to go home today! They've trained me on how to give him his chemo at night and how to flush out his lines/tubes in his chest, so we're all set with that. We have to come back on Tuesday for a blood check, and if he's still good then we can go home again until Thursday. That process would continue as long as he has no fever or did not need a blood transfusion. We could be re-admitted at any point, but I'm so happy to have some positive news right now that we can be at home a few nights a week as we continue to wait for the bone marrow transplant to be ready. They've not updated us about any potential matches yet, so continue to be in prayer for that. But at least for the next two nights - mom, dad and baby will be at home together! Pray that we have no complications with his tubes or his medication while we are at home.

In everything, give thanks....