A new season....

School has officially begun. Tom and I both had to be at school yesterday for opening devotions and meetings start today. Yes, I am still a staff member at BVCS - apparently there is a category of special ed funding for seriously ill kids, and Noah qualifies, so the school has hired me to be his EA. And I deserve it. Seriously. The amount of effort that goes into getting that kid to do school work is crazy. I don't know what he was like before, but his attention span is significantly diminished. Unless, of course there is some sort of screen involved, but I think that is fairly typical. ; )
It is really quiet around here today. We went to Terrace on the weekend to visit my parents and my brothers and their families were there as well, which was super awesome, because I see my brothers so rarely and our kids never get a chance to get together. We had a lot of fun together. In fact, three of our kids enjoyed their time in Terrace so much they decided not to come home! Noah, Miranda and Alyson wanted to stay and Emily thought she would love some alone time.

My mom was a little nervous about Noah's meds; he is still on antibiotics for the c. Difficile, and he had one oral chemo med he had to take until last night. The antibiotics are tricky - well, not really, but he needs them every 4 hrs and it is hard to remember that for some reason, lol- and the chemo med has to be taken two hours after eating and then he can't eat for one hour after that. That one is a real pain. He often ends up having to stay up until around 10:30 or 11 to take it, because we always forget that he can't have a bedtime snack or, more often, because he has taken so $#@&%%$* long to eat his supper that by the time 2 hrs are up it is is 11:00! I am happy to report that they are handling it fine. (Thanks Mom, I never doubted you for a second!)

Yesterday Tom and I worked all day to get his classroom ready. It is not quite there, but by the end of today he should be good to go. Our school has undergone some big changes in the last while; the Elementary Campus has closed and everyone has moved over to the High School campus. At the end of last year, the kids helped pack up Tom's classroom and move it over there and it was a disaster. So many boxes....until yesterday. We were gone all summer, of course, so he didn't go to school at all and truthfully, I think he was a bit scared to, lol! Now it looks way better!

Noah's next treatment begins Sept 9, which means he can go to the first few days of school. He was supposed to go back for the 6th, which would mean he would miss the first few days, but I think that with everything going on, he needs to be part of that shared experience with his classmates. The excitement and nervousness the elementary kids will feel at going to school with the big kids, figuring out where everything is, etc. He will be going back to school in the spring, and if he isn't there for the beginning I think it will feel even stranger than it would have. So, I asked his doctors if they could delay his treatments a few days and they gave me 3. Which will be just fine. He will have time to meet his new music teacher and possibly have a trumpet lesson or two before he goes back to Vancouver! It will also be nice for the girls because I can be there for their first day and take all the usual photos, etc. (and nice for me because I hate to miss that stuff....)
The next round is supposed to be pretty nasty. He will definitely lose his hair, and he will be quite sick, from what I've heard. He will also be starting the leg injections again. Poor guy. He isn't complaining, but I know he is a bit worried about that. Please pray for strength for him the next while and that he doesn't get toooooo sick.... Please pray for our family, too; we are also going back to the 25 days away, 7 days at home cycle, so that will be hard on us. We are so thankful that we were able to be together all summer, but it will be hard to go back to being apart.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support. We really appreciate you and everything you have done. In fact, we have been overwhelmed by your generosity and kindness! It is so wonderful to know we have such an amazing community of people (and not just in Smithers) walking this road with us.

Bye for now....