Disappearing Soon... Just for a while! :)

Hello dear ones...

I am praying you've had a blessed day with your families and friends, and that you were able to take a quiet moment to prayerfully thank all the men and women who have given of themselves to give us the opportunity to live in freedom and peace and safety.

Rob and I will be without internet and phone after this evening until we are all settled in our new apartment by the coming weekend.  We have a few busy days in front of us, but nothing we can't handle!

Thank you to all who have offered to help in the move... your offers have been such a blessing to us!  However, with all my methodical packing (putting it nicely) and the fact that for the first time in my life there will be movers and a moving truck to do the brunt of the work, we are aiming for smooth sailing and a soft landing!  Really, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  The packing every waking home hour for the last month have been therapeutic for me, and the days have disappeared in a flash.  

Though I still don't know how I fit all this stuff in this place... :)

The chemo treatment last Thursday really sent Rob into a downward spiral that he is just (barely) starting to come out of.  Remember how his veins shut down in his right arm after the first treatment?  Well, it happened in his left arm after last Thursday.  You can see the veins in his arm, dark and hard... a defiant "in your face" that they are tired, and sick, and done.  So, we will try to work around the bad ones left in his right arm for this Thursday, just for one more dose of the chemo... just one more.  Then he is DONE.  And you can believe we will be REJOICING, for as long as we can!!!  No matter what the future brings, on that day, we will be FINISHED with this chapter in our lives!!!

Rob has spent most of the days sleeping more than awake, but it's good that he's able to go away to that nice, pain-free place where the time can pass quickly for him.  Even through it all, he continues to laugh and joke, and remain mostly positive, even though his eyes are usually half open, and his focus not direct.  It's okay.  At least he's still here.

I'll be dropping him off in the early hours before the movers come, where he will be able to rest and relax in a lovely place with central air, with a dog and a cat, and peace and quiet.  (Thank you Mike, Colie, Izzy, and Ally!)  I will have my three favorite girls with me during the packing and unpacking and organizing, and then Rob will come home to a new and happy, somewhat organized *home*... a new chapter beginning!

I will try to get our nurse Carolyn's 'Happy Dance' on video, or at least snap a few pics, and post them soon after we're back online.  Just thinking about it is making my whole being smile!  I want to be that kind of a person... the kind that when people think about me, they smile.  That's my goal. :)

I ask that you keep Rob lifted and surrounded in prayer, that his last chemo treatment goes well, that his blood counts are still high enough pre-chemo that he is able to forego that scary injection again, and that his veins are able to tolerate, without pain or frustration, the last dose of poison that Rob ever wants to feel.  And that the side effects are few and fast-fading, and that his strength returns, and that the cancer doesn't.

Your prayers have meant so much to us.  

So much that just thinking about all of them that have been raised on our behalf brings tears to my eyes even as I type this note.  You have no idea of the power behind your simple and kind gestures...  We have literally felt the power surrounding us, helping the days (and nights) to go smoother than what they should have.  And God's peace that has become a part of us... it's amazing, awesome, indescribable.  

You have clothed us, washed us, in peace and in love, in calmness of spirit, and in strength to endure.  As I think back over the last 6-7 months since Rob was first diagnosed, I know that we would not be in the good place that we're in without all of you loving us and helping us.  And I'll never be able to thank you enough for it all.  

But I will do my best to pay it forward.

May God richly bless you all... I love you!


In Love and In Peace,

Cheri ♥