Savannah is doing very well...especially her spirit. We are all praising God on a continual basis. Every time a problem or situation comes up and I start to get stressed about it...all I have to do is think about all the blessings we've received lately (and always) and...it just doesn't matter anymore. She looks so good and healthy it's hard to believe that she has gone thru so much. Even though we know the treatment is working, she will still have to return to NIH every 4 weeks for tests. She also has to take a breathing treatment to prevent a specific type of pneumonia that chemo can cause. We would still appreciate your prayers that the Til Cells will continue to work like crazy and also for safety traveling back and forth.

Yesterday I had a lovely day with my girls. It was my birthday so they took me to lunch and a movie and shopping. What more could a girl ask for? I enjoyed them both so much and of course I had already received the best gift of all....Savannah's good news!

Corinna is off with one of her friends at her lake house for a couple of days. When she returns she will not have much longer here in the states. She will be taking her driving test on the 26th of this month. Getting her license here will save her 2 to 3 thousand dollars in Germany. Can you imagine?
Shelby passed her driving test and now has her permanent license. Of course she still has to wait until she turns 16 to drive by herself and that won't be until March 15th of next year... (thank you Lord!) :) I have been trying to teach Shelby and Corinna to drive at the same time...that's a whole other blog story..... :-O

Shelby will be playing at the West Fork River Show Saturday night. It starts around 6:30pm. If you have not attended a River Show before there are several young talents that perform there. They play mostly country and bluegrass. So...if you want a really casual evening of good music and fun....you're invited. :) Remember your lawn chairs and bug spray.

While I'm inviting...might as well mention VBS again!
Any of you that have kids or grandkids....This Saturday, (20th) from 10am to 2pm Sang Avenue Baptist Church will be having a Kids Fun Day. Games, free food, a bouncy house, sports, face painting and lots more will be available for anyone who wishes to come. We will be pre-registering the kids for our VBS that starts on Monday the 22nd from 6pm to 9pm and runs thru Friday night the 27th.
We always have so much fun with the kids at VBS and it is amazing how much they learn and retain.
Please continue those prayers. We Love You ALL! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Our many prayers have been ANSWERED!!! God has heard them and the treatment has worked.
The DR. read the scan and found no new Tumors and the Tumors that are there have shrank significantly. WOOHOOOO!!!!

Glory be to GOD!!!!

Oh my word! It's been a crazy couple of days! Savannah and I both flew out of XNA on Tuesday evening. She flew United because that's what NIH booked for her. I flew Delta because it was the cheapest. Her plane switched in Chicago and mine in Atlanta. In the end I was going to end up waiting on her at Reagan National for an hour and a half so we could take the shuttle together to our hotel. Well, when we got on our planes in Atlanta and Chicago, we had delays because of the storms in the DC area. Savannah said her wait wasn't too exciting. I, however, have a different story. I was on my plane, along with 200 other people stranded on the runway, waiting for clearance for 1 hr and 45 minutes. I was o.k....I had stuff to read and I watched a movie but some people got really cranky! There were 4 southern ladies from Alabama sitting next to me and they entertained me with stories of their traveling escapades and crazy friends and family.....(reminded me of my friends and myself). Anyway, one of them was a diabetic and she started feeling shaky so she pulled out a bag of peanuts to eat. When she did, the lady in front of her that was traveling with her disabled husband and son came unglued and jumped all over this lady for having peanuts out. It seems her son is deathly allergic to them. If he even smells them he starts swelling up all over and can't breath or swallow etc.........he's almost died 4 other times.. The only thing is...no one but the mom and dad new this. They hadn't told the airlines, the flight attendants or anyone sitting around them. It was a huge ordeal, the boy started crying because his mom and dad were so upset and he thought he was going to stop breathing, the flight attendants were trying to keep peace and attempting to keep the southern lady (Joy) happy by moving her and giving her free drinks...but I can tell you right now...free drinks were not the answer for Joy considering she had a very vivacious personality and wasn't afraid to speak her mind! The flight attendants were flittering all over the place trying to settle the mom and dad down, making sure the boy was still breathing, trying to keep Joy off the ceiling and all those other cranky people happy. It was a very eventful hour and 45 minutes on the ground! :)

Savannah and I finally met up at baggage claim at 2:30 am. By this time, I had become "phone friends" with our little shuttle driver, Boris who is from Russia. He had been waiting on us for about 3 hrs or so. He picked us up and $60 later we were at our hotel.

It was 4am before we were in bed. Needless to say, yesterday was a blurrrrr! We were both zombies. We went to bed at 8:last night but....we had to be here at 7am this morning for Savannah's blood work. To be here at 7, we needed to leave the hotel at 6am because we had to take a taxi to the metro, then from the metro take a shuttle to the hospital. I don't know how these people do it. Besides being SO expensive, it is such a hassle. I guess it explains why there are a lot of rude, impatient people here. I might be too if I had to deal with transportation issues all the time. :) It really makes me SO thankful for home and our calmer lifestyle.

Savannah is getting a blood transfusion right now. Her numbers were low. They say that happens to about half of the patients. Later today she has clinic with her doctors. That's when they will tell us the test results. I'm excited! I know they are going to be good!

She is starting to eat a few more things so hopefully she will be gaining strength.

David and Aparna (and maybe Donna) are meeting us this evening for dinner. We're not sure where we are going but we trust them to make a good choice since they live fairly close by.

Love to ALL!

Sunday, 7th

Today was Decoration Day at Baptist Ford. We went down and visited with some of the family and friends. We got to show off Lilly and Rose (my nieces) that are visiting from Virginia. There wasn't as many people there as usual...not sure why!
After that we sat lazily around on the front porch , drinking ice tea and watching the girls play. It was a nice afternoon.
After church tonight, we had a little wienie roast and s'mores party. Lilly and Rose love them and Corinna has never been to one so we thought we should give her that experience before she returns to Germany. Did you know that in Germany they don't have graham crackers or marshmallows or HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE!!!!??? Can you believe it...a country without s'mores??? They also don't have peanut butter! :0 How do they survive???

Savannah ate a little tonight. That made us all very happy! :)
I am so proud of her and the way she is handling all of this. She has stayed positive and kept her sense of humor throughout this whole ordeal. She knows God is taking care of her and if she has any fear, she never shows it.

We leave Tuesday. Wednesday, she has an apheresis (sp?) and Thursday they will be doing all the tests and scans so PLEASE pray for shrinking tumors and healing.
Also.....a safe flight out there and back. Thanks MUCH love!

Hey!

Everyone tells me to post daily but I'm afraid our lives are not that eventful! :)
Right now, We are waiting to go back to NIH on the 9th for Savannah's tests. We should be home on the 12th. She is doing very well. She has not been nauseous for almost 5 days but is still having trouble finding her appetite although she takes a few extra bites each day. She looks great and feels good enough to have a bit of a social life.
I'm still trying to catch my breath before we have to go back to Bethesda. Danny will stay here to work and I will go with Savannah to NIH. We will be there from the 9th thru the 12th.
I can't believe we are already in to June. Being gone for 3 1/2 weeks makes it seem like we've totally lost a month. It's a little scary!
When we get back we will just have a few days left with my nieces, Lilly & Rose.
After that we have to make sure Corinna is ready to take her driving test before she heads back to Germany. Then, we have Vacation Bible School at our church starting on the 22nd thru the 26th.

That reminds me....Summer VBS at Sang Ave. Baptist Church, June 22nd thru 26th from 6pm -9pm. Open to kids ages 3yrs old and up. We always have a very good Bible School so PLEASE pass along the info to anyone that might be interested. There will be teaching time, missions, songs, snacks, CRAFTS (that's me) and many more activities the kids will enjoy. Saturday the 20th, there will be a Kids Fun Day. You can bring the kids by....pre-register them, have snacks and play games. This will help the registration process be much shorter on the 22nd.
Hope to see all the kids there.

Back online

The other day I had a very long, lovely post written and ready to send. Just before I hit the publish post button our Internet went haywire and deleted the whole thing. Considering how long it takes me to remember what has happened and type it all in....I was a little frustrated. Danny worked on it a while and seemed to fix it until....I typed another lovely post and it crashed in the middle of it also. I gave up. So, no more lovely post...I'll just state the facts.
Savannah got home Wednesday night and Susie and I got home Thursday night. I'm still trying to recover from being away from home for 3 1/2 weeks. The pile of paper work and mail alone could keep me busy for days.
Savannah is doing good. At first, we were very concerned because of her lack of appetite. She was nauseous and couldn't keep anything down. She is taking nausea medicine around the clock now so that has helped but she still has not put more than a couple of bites of food in her mouth for several weeks now. It is getting a little better day by day.
We go back on the 10th of this month for tests to see if the til cells are working. Of course, we believe they are! We know that God has had His hand in this from the beginning and He has a perfect plan for Savannah and the rest of us.
My nieces...Lilly (12) and Rose (6) are coming at the end of the week for their summer visit.
We are looking forward to spending time with them. We always have so much fun. Savannah and I will miss out on a few days with them due to our trip back to NIH so we'll have to make every minute count. I know there are a few things on their To Do list we'll be taking part in like....Gator Golf, the Drive-in movie, shopping etc....
So...for now...we're just trying to catch up and hang loose. :) Love to ALL!