August 11 - Monday

Debbie's best friend Brenda from high school came to visit with her husband Don, and 3 of her 4 children. Shortly after meeting each other , Sam, Karly, Jordan and Connor were playing frisbee and having fun together. Later Jordan asked, "Mom, where is the boy that has cancer? Is he sleeping or something? Is it Sam's brother who has cancer?" He didn't think a kid that could play outside like that could possibly have cancer. So, needless to say, even though his blood counts are approaching the lowest we've seen, Sam rose to the events of each day and has had a great week. His energy has been very good, he's eaten well, and has had very little naseau. PTL!

On Wednesday he'll have another big day because it is likely that he'll need a blood transfusion and he gets Vincristine and PEG Asparaginase (3 shots to the legs) on Wednesday. Then next Wednesday he'll get another round of Vincristine and then that's the last treatment for Consolidation and we're on to Interim Maintenance as soon as his blood counts recover.

Today we had fun touring around with the Mabbott family in Vancouver. First we had a great crepe breakfast (Connor set a new record for the most eaten and enjoyed) and then we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was an exciting walk on the huge suspension bridge, walking high up in the tree tops adventure bridges, and hiking along the cliffs in the beautiful rainforest.

In the afternoon we rode our bikes around the sea wall at Stanley Park with their family while Don met with Psychologists at BCCH. (Mrs. Macdonald is a Stanley Park expert and found us a bike shop that has excellent rental bikes for half the price of all the other shops :) Don works for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto and had some meetings to attend. After that we had a delicious dinner and said good-bye to them as they had a long drive ahead of them to get to the Kootenays tonight.

It has been wonderful for Debbie to spend time with Brenda in person and have our families meet. Talking on the phone and emailing is ok, but not the same as spending time together in person. On the way home from dinner, Karly said, "You know that family was really nice, perhaps Mom, you should try to see some of your old friends more than once every 10 years!" God continues to give us special relationships with our friends from the past and present.

Our friends said, "I can't believe how well you all are handling this illness!" And we just have to say, that it isn't us handling this thing alone... it is a whole group of people from many places who help us through this challenge. God uses his people to give strength to the weak and joy to those who mourn. And that's the biggest part of why we are doing well. It is because we have such a great group of people surrounding us with their prayers and practical help.

We have much to be thankful for as we look back through the past 3 months. Someone asked us, "Do you ever just think this ISN'T fair... that Sam got cancer?" And really we haven't thought about it in those terms before. We have an opportunity in all things - good and bad - to see how God will use these situations for his glory through our family. That's a much better way of thinking about the difficulties we face each day.

Five more days here with the family together and then I'll head home to begin a very busy time at school. One of the biggest challenges for a principal is getting the school up and running for another year and this year looks to be one of the most challenging as we face record numbers of new students and some very significant challenges for space.

It's been a strange summer, one we never could have imagined having, but we have had many memorable moments. The highlights have been time spent with our families who live here and friends who have come to visit, being at the cabin, playing and walking along the beaches in White Rock and Jericho, enjoying the great weather and feeling so richly blessed to have had 2 fantastic places to live these past 3 months. It's not been our typical, relaxing holiday, but we've tried to live many "normal" moments for Sam. We've enjoyed every visitor and phone call, every day we've had together as a family, every walk to the beach, every chance we've had to spend time with Sam and Karly and Kate. While we work toward helping Sam get better, Kate has been busy serving at Camp. We get these snippets from people she works with up there (like the camp speaker) who tell us what an amazing leader Kate is at camp. We are encouraged to know that she has risen to the challenge of serving kids, even while her family is so far away. It has been a different kind of summer, but God has been so very good to us in the midst of our trauma. And the fall, a new school year, is coming soon.

Ger