75, Monday Evening

 Megan and I flew in Sunday morning. Enough time to play with the kids and go to church. Sure is good to be back with the family. Megan and I did have a good time back home. Did a little of everything, farm work, office, basketball night, lawn work, and house work. Strange to think my next trip home could be with my good-lookin' wife and 5 excited kids, but not yet.
Kids are doing great. Gage is sitting here next to me drawing the letters 'S-S-S' and 'i-i-i'.  His vocabulary has picked up since Stacy has been working on his reading. He eats okay, not great, but he is a skinny 4 year old.  He is definitely the 'class clown' of the group.
Lindsey is doing awesome. she is puffy as can be right now.  She is very conscience of it and you can tell it bugs her. We keep reminding her it will go down as she comes off the prednisone. Her blood pressures, and attitude has been great.  She has biopsy this Wednesday.
Hunter is Hunter. Loves to be a little boy.  We watched an old episode of  The Hulk from the early 80's. It was fun, but Hunter got scared and ended up sleeping in our room. Good grief!
Megan is growing up way to fast.
Sierra keeps marching along. Hangin' in there with school. She looks and acts great. You would never know she has these heart pressure issues.
Had a reality check Sunday night. For the first time in several months I helped Stacy with the all the medicine for the week. Lindsey is on 14 different meds for a total of 31 pills given through out the day. Sierra is on 11 different meds for a total of 32 pills, and Gage is on 4 meds for a total of 7 pills. That's a lot to keep track of.
But that wasn't the true reality check. For Sierra, the last time I helped with her meds she was on about 7 different meds (not 11) for a total of around 17 pills (not 32). They have added and increased a lot meds in her to fight off this antibody rejection. They will probably repeat the IV treatments down the road. But somehow, someway, we need to prepare ourselves for re-transplant.  It may not be now, maybe months or years down the road, but I need to start preparing. The thought of it makes me sick. Some people say I need to be more positive and we will be just fine.  And we will be. Maybe, hopefully, these IV treatments and new meds will eventually get these antibodies to back off. But I would be foolish to not at least introduce the thought. We will be living from month-to-month and biopsy-to-biopsy with her. Her attitude is good, but I wonder what she really thinks under that young teenager mind. I know she leans on her Mother and her Dad for strength. She has said that.
But look, I am not doom and gloom. She really is doing, looking and acting great. You would have no idea this was going on. I still think we will be going home in late May, early June. But it's just the reality of the situation, and it was helping Stacy with the meds that brought these thoughts forward.
Stacy started writing the letter to Lindsey's donor family. We will deliver our letters to Mary Burge, our social worker, and she will pass it on to the donor family's social worker.  Even though we don't talk about it much, we do think and pray for the donor family.

 A path we found down by the rope swing. This place is quickly turning into the favorite place to be.