Half Way

We recently (yesterday) returned home from finishing our round of chemo that marked our half way point.  I know!  It seems that we have been at this forever and I know most of you are worn out from having extra children, cleaning my house and running my grocery errands for me.  (Aren't you thankful for winter because you haven't had to help take care of my yard for almost 4 months!)  It has taken us 8 months (well in two more days it will be) to get to this point.  Fortunately it shouldn't take us 8 months to finish up the second half of the treatment because it is the "easier" chemo.  (The doctors say easier, but after last week I don't know that I would agree with that.)  We should be home for all of the treatment except for another two week visit in April.  For this I am really excited.  Maybe we can actually be a family again and be done with this "divide and conquer" craziness.

 I have given up on counting how many transfusions and tube replacements Odette has had.  All I know is it is a lot and I am going to need to be donating blood as often as possible for the rest of my life!  I am just grateful that we have lived through stuff this far and are able to tell the tale of our fighting princess, who wakes up with a smile each and every morning.  (That is hard to do even without a lot of crap going on in life.)   I am thankful to all of you who have helped us make it this far.  It definitely isn't a short or easy road to walk on with us.  (If you get tired and need to take a break I completely understand! )  I am also very grateful for a supportive husband who tries hard to help me with all that Odette requires and all that I don't accomplish during the day and three other little kids that are trying hard to be patient.  I also am very thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who compensates for my weaknesses and gives me the strength I need to make it through every day when I usually don't have the energy to even get out of bed (or off the couch).