Amy Update

(From Jeff)

It is April 28.

According to the phone calls and cards that I’ve received today, it’s my birthday. Now, before you rush out and buy me a Starbucks gift card or small pony, let me suggest instead that as a gift to me, you focus your energies on another date looming on the horizon. Wednesday, May 2. This is the day Amy goes in for the big MRI, the one that will show us what’s going on in her brain, the one that will reveal if six weeks of chemo and radiation have improved her situation. The picture will be snapped at 10 AM. At 11:15, we’ll be meeting with the neurosurgeon to discuss the results.

Specifically, here’s what we’d like you to pray for:

*the eradication of all cancer cells;
*the eradication of all cancer cells;
*strength for Amy and I to trust in God, regardless of the outcome of the MRI;
*and finally, the eradication of all cancer cells.

We’re a little nervous. There’s been some renewed wrestling with mortality. But put it this way: it hasn’t stopped us from laughing very hard at “The Office,” or gotten in my way of cooking up crazy “Lost” theories, or doing yard work as a family. Life goes on. Clearly, the issue of what life looks like for us could undergo some tweaking and modifying on Wednesday. But we’re content to table the deliberation and conversation until that time.

And so… I work. I’m back in the office, wrapping up a cover story that will come out next week. Amy and the kids have done well adjusting back to “the old way of doing things.” Ben is getting over another ear infection. Amy has finally beaten back a cold that included a horrible, hacking cough that last for two weeks. There was some speculation that the cough was a side effect of the chemo; nobody’s sure. But I do know that I have a cold right now. Happy Birthday to me! Ah, but the least of our worries, to be sure.

We celebrated the end of Amy’s chemo/radiation by taking the kids to the La Brea Tar Pits. I’m not sure how we’ll celebrate the good news we’re confident we’ll receive on Wednesday, but I’ll make sure you’re all part of it by immediately asking Mike to post something on the blog. And while we’re at it: thank you, brother, for giving me the space.

We love you and thank you for your prayers and support.

We’ll talk on Wednesday.Jeff and Amy