So Much to Report!

It has been quite awhile since I last posted and so much has happened since then. The biggest news is that Amani started chemotherapy yesterday. He also had surgery to put in a port to make the process easier for him as his veins are small and very hard to get an IV into. We will be going to UCSF once a week for IV meds and have a number of pills and liquid medications we have to give him three times a day at home. His official diagnosis is LCH or Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. It acts like a cancer, is treated like a cancer, but isn't a cancer. I haven't quite figured that one out yet. It is very rare. He has it on his scapula and his skull. It eats holes in the bone. The prognosis is very good - there is just a chance that it can become very chronic for awhile and need ongoing treatment. We are hoping to kick it the first time.

I will write more soon, but I will leave you with a few photos.

Mother's Day, Prom, Rope Making and More

In an effort to keep up with this blog, I want to share some photos from Amani's first weeks home. In this photo montage you will see our beautiful daughter, Lauren, and her date, Max, before her senior prom. Our baby is graduating from high school in three weeks!



Here are a few shots of Amani having fun with his siblings. It is so much fun to realize, "Oh, wow, he's probably never played in a cardboard box before!"




We are home schoolers, and one of the things I like so much about it is the things you can be doing midday when everyone else is in the classroom. These are photos of the kids at a beautiful coastal property where they learned to make rope and shoot a bow and arrow. It was a fantastic day and Amani loved being outside and having his first picnic.






Mother's Day was lovely. We spent the first part of the day with my side of the family and the second with Bret's. My only mother's Day wish was that I would be given time to shower and put on make-up. My family made my wish come true! Here are some photos of Mother's Day fun, including Amani taking a nap on Sissy.





Lastly, some photos of our cute little 15-month old guy. He is just so precious and photogenic! He thinks I am so funny. I wish everyone in the house got such a big kick out of my antics.

Long Overdue 3am Mini Update

Things have been SO busy since we have arrived home. We have been swamped with doctors appointments and just catching up with life and the kids. I had forgotten how consuming it is to have a little one in the house again! We are having fun and Amani is adjusting very well. All his blood and stool tests came back great - except that he is a little iron deficient - so we are working on that. Our amazing new pediatrician wants us to do one more blood test and one more stool test. We have started his immunization catch-up - poor guy starts screaming when we walk through the door of the doctor's office. We will have to go one day and not have anything hurt him. He does have a somewhat enlarged spleen and liver so we are working to get to the bottom of that. His diarrhea is finally getting a little better, but boy has that been a challenge!

I need to post about our trip to Ethiopia. I think I am still processing. It is also so hard to blog since I usually have a baby in my arms or on my back in the Ergo during most waking hours. Right now it is 3am and Amani woke up and needed to be soothed back to sleep -so I came in here to have a minute at the computer afterward!

Here are some of the photos that we used to create our announcement.

A Few Photos

We Are Home

I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it home safely on Saturday. The baby is doing great - I however picked up a bug on my way out of Ethiopia and have been sick since the customs line at SFO! I think the Cipro is kicking in, but Lauren and Bret have been taking care of the little guy without me. I will try to post photos later today. Thank you for all your love and support. It was an amazing and trying trip and I want to tell you all about it as soon as my head stops spinning! :)

News!

Tomorrow, when we wake up, we are going to take a six-hour drive to meet Alazar's mother.
We are also coming home earlier than expected: the 18th instead of the 21st! And, we didn't even have to pay for the new ticket because the other flight had been cancelled. Just one more day before we go back home to the family!

Ethiopia

We've been here with our little boy. He is very sweet and won't let me out of his sight.
Unfortunately, we do not have running water or electricity. We hope it will come back soon!