Do You Hear What I Hear?

Two posts in two days?  Whoa!! Just I thought I would share a few little happy things.  

This morning Forester & I were playing with Slade on my bed and my timex watch alarm, which was on the stairs in the other room, started going off.  After a couple seconds Forester asked"what is that noise?".  HE HEARD IT! It's a high pitched noise & rather quiet from the other room and he heard it!  As you well know I am always praying protection over his ears from permanent hearing loss. I know you are too.  We still have four more rounds to go but I really want to give God the glory for His protection over his ears.  At the end of these 6 months I want Forester to have perfect hearing.  I want to hear people say, "you're so lucky" so I can say "no, we prayed and prayed and God answered"!  Let's keep praying!  I know there are some of you who read this blog who are not Christians and you think I'm acting a little freaky. You're right, I'm freaky!  I have seen and witnessed what God can do.  He has proved Himself to be faithful and trustworthy over and over again.  Will everything turn out just like I want it?  Maybe, and most likely not.  Will God take care of us and continue to give us joy and peace in every circumstance regardless of any outcome?  YES.  Does He desire for us to be healthy and whole?  I believe He does.  I'm going to keep praying and keep giving Him the glory for every good report that comes my way.

Now for a really human moment....I find myself thinking if I post what I just wrote above will that mean that Forester will lose some hearing? Just so I have to eat my words?  Such a dumb way to think but you know how you might say, "that will never happen" and then it happens so you don't want to say "that will never happen".  Basically it comes down to some silly superstition, right?  I also want this so badly and I want others to see what God can do - if it doesn't happen does that cause someone else to doubt God? Those are my thoughts. But this is the truth.  I am not responsible for TRYING to make God look good.  He doesn't need my help by any means.  So that's why I'm ignoring those silly thoughts and posting this!  (Now my non-Christian friends really think I'm crazy!)

Okay, for more happiness here are a few cute videos of Slade waving Bye Bye and giggling at Micah being silly.  She'll be 8 months old tomorrow! 

*Remember to scroll down and pause the playlist so you can listen to the video.

HAVE A WONDERFUL  WEEKEND MY FRIENDS! ~Whit

Sorry it's been so long...

My apologies to all of you who have been wondering what the heck has been going on with us the last week or so. I decided that family is family and regardless of Forester's counts we would stay the week out at Seabrook Island with Mom & Dad, Paris & the kids. I took a mini vacation from life at home & the computer. It was a great week! We had to take a few 6 hour long trips to the hospital but Sam went with us which made it more fun for Forester. We had a wonderful time just being together.
Foresters counts bottomed out last Friday & he had to get a blood transfusion which was expected. His white blood cell count bounced back up from 40 to 24,000 on Monday. Thank you Neupogen shots! So we made it through round 2 without an additional hospital stay or fever. Forester seems to be doing pretty well except for the neuropathy in his hands and legs as a side effect from the Vincristine. He struggles to walk normally and has some pain. He is now on Neurontin 3 times a day to help with these side effects. So far, we haven't seen much change & it really ups his daily pill count! It also makes him very sleepy so he's taking more naps each day. We hope the benefits will kick in soon. Amazingly, his weight is up to 74 pounds so we were able to stop the Megace liquid (so nasty!) which is an appetite stimulant. Forester was very happy about that! Round 3 begins on August 10th.
Many of you have been asking about Pete. And once again I'm sorry I haven't updated you sooner. There really hasn't been much to tell until this week. We have no concrete conclusions but all tests have come back with good results. Including the sleep study. No sleep apnea. What has been discovered and confirmed 3 times now is that Pete does have an arrhythmia in his heart called ventricular bigeminy. It's a very consistent arrhythmia and doesn't seem to be cause for concern but he's going to follow up with a cardiologist in August. The last "non-breathing" episode happened almost a week ago & Pete seems to be feeling better with each passing day. It seems whatever was happening was related to some kind of virus that was in his chest & possibly in his heart. Don't know if we'll ever have an official diagnosis but the closest one we have is Myocarditis.
I know there is more to post but this is all I have the energy for today. I've been feeling pretty worn out emotionally...I'm not sleeping much these days as I tend to be so worried about my guys during the night. My brain is suffering the consequences!


*Still trying to work out details on the Braves game on Sept. 6th. More on that soon! Thanks as always for your love and prayers. ~ Whitney

*pictures from last week at Seabrook & the hospital.

Bald Stud

Micah - loving every moment! He's like this all the time. He loves life!

Maddie & Forester ....Forester could only get his feet wet which was sad & then I found out later we should avoid the ocean altogether for a while. Boo.

Sam & Forester at the hospital. Waiting for blood to arrive so the transfusion can start.



With a transfusion comes Benedryl so Forester sleeps through most of it.






A beautiful night at Seabrook Island's Pelican's Nest. I declared this day my birthday since it was so much better than my actual birthday.






Forester & Madison. Forester has a blue mouth from a blow pop.




Slade being adorable as always.



Having fun while waiting for the food to arrive.

Pete & Forester - always close together.

Me & Slade.

Pop & Slade

Pop showing the boys something cool on the computer.



Cousins! Baby Nicholas & Slade (she looks huge! sniff sniff)