Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our thirteenth wedding anniversary...and our gift this year is a week with NO DOCTOR VISITS! This is the first week since October that we haven't had to go in for tests, check-ups, or treatments...praise God for a day of rest! We did have the home health nurse come to assist with cap and dressing changes, but that only took an hour or so out of our day, and we didn't have to drive anywhere. :)

So to celebrate Father's Day, our anniversary, and our day home all together, I made a cheesecake, we had gourmet pizza (well, I had gourmet pizza with garlic butter sauce instead of tomato sauce, Brad and Jamison just had cheese pizza), and we set the table and even put out candles...Jamison couldn't figure out why we had candles out at dinner. It was a good day.

Nathanael started to say "Da da da" just in time for Father's Day, which was really fun, and is very cute. He just turned 10 months on Friday and is becoming such a little boy...I can't believe how fast he is growing up! Of course Jamison seems so grown up to me now: he's learning to use the toilet, is talking up a storm, loves it when we tell him stories, and is a great helper around the house and yard. His new interests are volcanoes ("When can I see a volcano outside?"), the "Statue of Livertry"

a (see the "pose" in this picture - thanks in part to a recent issue of the DTS magazine, Kindred Spirit, with its focus on immigration and its great pictures!), and the "50 states that rhyme" song. I get tired just trying to keep up!

I've also managed to miss posting a major milestone: we hit 200 days post-transplant sometime earlier this month! The 100 day mark was such a big deal (special immune studies were done, etc.) that day 200 came and went without a mention at all. I can't believe it has been 7 months since we were admitted to the hospital for treatment. Our prayer now is that Nathanael continues to recover well, gets off steroids, and starts to grow his own immune system. Of course we'd love to be able to stop giving 8 different oral meds twice a day too. (Brad actually described it as "waterboarding" the other day...a very disheartening description, but probably somewhat accurate.) The plan is to see our doctor in Cincinnati again in August when we can combine that visit with the trip to Columbus for Jeff and Julie's wedding. Fun!

Oh, and to see a video of Jamison listing the 50 states, check out Brad's Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=440105515198&ref=mf. It's a little hard to hear, since he's facing away from the camera...but it's cute. (The lyrics can be found at the link listed above.) Enjoy!