Day 2

We hit the ground running today. I can't even begin to describe how busy we have been all day working on Christen's care. We spent a lot of time on the phone with Stephanie, Patty, and various hospitals, trying to get information from our local doctor, and getting flu shots and a myriad other details and conversations. Getting the flu shots turned out to be an exciting process in itself. Just imagine 9 of us sitting in the doctors office. And then add on top of that 2 of the kids fainted during the process. Isaac would have fallen off the table if someone hadn't been standing right there with him. I actually thought he was having a seizure. Needless to say that was more "excitement" than we wished for today but God was with us and there was no harm done. One nurse said that she will never forget Isaac since she never had anyone faint on her before. :-)

While we were getting the flu shots, Patty and Lisa hand-delivered a document with the flow-chart of the progression of care that the doctor will give Christen. Talk about knowing what to expect!! Thank you Patty and Lisa!!

Flowers arrived anonymously this morning from someone in Jesus' name. We say thanks to a special someone out there!! You brightened Christen's day, and gave her a mystery to solve. :-)

Christen also received a phone call from Michelle in England. She is getting prayer from friends in England and from her friends in Japan, as well as the church there where she was this summer on the short-term missions trip. What an awesome God we serve!!

I had to go back to Panera today to get information off the Internet. I was in such a hurry that I walked in sat down and started working on the computer and making phone calls. The line was so long that I didn't bother to buy anything. While I was sitting there talking on the phone with someone at one of the hospitals we are considering an angel walked up and sat a strawberry smoothie down on the table for me. Then a little later the same angel returned with a coffee mug and a note inside which said to go ahead and get some coffee. I found out later that she (Megan) actually wasn't supposed to be working today, and was only there for a few hours pinch hitting for someone else. Thank you Megan!

I returned home after running some more errands after the flu shot episode and found the house a whir with activity. Several folks were working at cleaning the house (Wendy, Christy, Shaye, Abigail, Laura) and probably others that I didn't actually see. Then they started rearranging the bedrooms which took a number of hours to complete. Christen has been sleeping downstairs but we decided that she really needs to be upstairs now so this necessitated moving the boys room downstairs and Christen and Hannah moving up. You can imagine that is a LOT of work. Many thanks to Wendy and crew for taking on this task for us!!!! We knew it needed to be done but just didn't have the time to get to it. Now we are all set.

The phone kept ringing and we spent more time on the phone scheduling, giving insurance information, etc.

Jack visited with us late this afternoon. Thank you Jack for that.

After much discussion and thought we finally decided to meet with doctors at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins. Christen has an appointment at 10:30 AM on Monday morning (12/31) with a specialist at the hospital in Philadelphia. They told us to bring enough clothes to stay over until Wednesday in case they decide to do the biopsy. We also have an appointment at Hopkins on Wednesday. Obviously all that can't happen on the same day so we have some decisions to make. We plan to drive up to Philadelphia on Sunday evening and stay overnight.

Also when we went to bed last night, we found a bag in our room with a "traveling medical briefcase" with all the necessary accessories (folders, pens, labels, etc.) to keep Christen's many medical documents organized. Many thanks to Mary Ann. You are amazing! That was just what we needed. We actually had shopped yesterday for a good way to organize the documents, but had not found anything which really fit the bill. The organizer is perfect.

Christen is taking all this better than could have been expected. God is answering your prayers. There are possibly many difficult and painful days ahead, and she is aware of this. Please keep her in your prayers. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for her. She is such an amazing young lady, and we are very proud of her. We love you, Christen!

Please pray that tumor will turn out to be benign against the odds.

Steve, Debbie and family