Thank you, Danika

It's Easter today. I have been SO looking forward to Easter! We were so excited about this year...Danika is just at such a fun age...I got her an adorable dress...we were going to go to the 9am service at our own church and then join Doug's Mom, Dad and Grandma at Bethel for a special Easter service, then back to his Mom and Dad's for Easter dinner.

Where am I now? Well...not doing any of the things we planned on.

Yesterday afternoon, I started to get sick. It hit full force last night...Doug refused to sleep with me and slept on the couch. I was so sick...and woke this morning to find Doug is sick as a dog as well. Danika? She is GREAT! She's finally feeling good and really, really hungry. :) Three days of barely eating will probably do that to you. So...Doug's Dad picked her up and took the only healthy member of our family to church with them and over for Easter dinner while Doug and I wallow in our misery at home today.

Thanks, Danika. Mommy and Daddy are so glad to share your germs!

Pray for us...I have to leave early tomorrow for a long business trip and Doug will be home alone for the week with Danika...he really needs to get better quick!

Some not so good news...

As many of you know, Doug's Mom, Susan, has been dealing with ovarian cancer for about 4 years now. We got some pretty crappy news on Thursday, so we would appreciate your prayers. Here is Susan's latest update e-mail that she sends out to her prayer partners. I thought it pretty much says it all, so I just cut and pasted it in here.

Please keep her, Dana, Doug and our whole family in your prayers...we appreciate it!

From: Susan Bierer
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:04:01 PM
Subject: chemo? 3/20/2008

Isaiah 43:2 “You will pass through deep waters. But I will be with you. You will pass through the rivers. But their waters will not sweep over you. You will walk through fire. But you will not be burned. The flames will not harm you.”

You might wonder why I chose that verse. I believe the Lord gave it to me, as I read it this morning before leaving for Pittsburgh . I thought that it was meant for me to share with my sister, Barb. Just knew it was for her, but when I finished asking the Lord if that’s what He had in mind, I knew it was actually a message for me today. So He prepared me beforehand that my news might not be so good today. I didn’t get chemo today. DOXIL is no longer working for me. The Phys. Asst. asked if I had been told my CA 125 and after responding, “no, what is it”, she told me it had gone up to 131. Wrong direction. She put a call into Dr. Krivak and he came immediately. Now I know why my appt. had to be at 8 AM this morning. Having to get up at 3:30 AM was a good thing after all. He would’ve been gone, if it had been made for a later time. He was visibly upset, thinking that the surgery he had done wasn’t successful. However, after the exam, he found that the tumor hadn’t grown back. He did a biopsy of the area to see if the tissue surrounding that area was cancerous. That was fun! He decided that since I had been so sick with the flu recently, he wanted another CA125 blood test done to see if the numbers had been skewed. So after he was done with me, I went for blood work. Also, to add to my enjoyment today, I was given that special treat of getting a CT scan, too. I got to drink 2 of my favorite banana smoothies. YUMMO! I may get some results tomorrow from the tests done today. Then they’ll decide the next step. They talked about a chemo treatment that would actually be 3 drugs administered every 2 weeks. This would really knock me down…as it dumps your blood counts and doesn’t give you time to recoup. The other treatment is a trial drug. It’s actually about 10 years away from being offered to the public, but they are getting good results from it at the trial stage. I’m leaning that direction right now. This one would be every 4 weeks. He also talked about radiation again, but hoping he’ll rule that out. He said he’d want me to stay in Pittsburgh to have it and this would take 6 weeks of treatment every day, then I’d have to go back on chemo. I really don’t want radiation. So, right now I don’t have a lot of information…just have to wait for test results and for Dr. Krivak to decide the next line of treatment. On the up side… I don’t have to deal with the after affects of chemo this weekend. I can enjoy Easter Sunday at church and with my family afterwards. However, that probably means I’ll have to do dishes and I was hoping to get out of that.

I would appreciate your prayers for my sister, Barb. Many of you know already, but for those of you who don’t, after almost a year of being cancer free, it has returned and hit her lung. She had her medi-port put in this week and will be starting chemo treatment very soon. Her past experience with chemo has not been good. They had to stop it before they finished the prescribed round. So we’re praying that this will go much better. My mom will be leaving Monday to spend about a month in FL with her. Her husband is still stationed in VA and will hopefully be home for good come June. She has 2 teenage boys, 14 & 16.
I guess the verse hit me because it didn’t promise that you wouldn’t have to go through hard times, but it did promise that we wouldn’t have to go through it alone. The Lord is with us and this trial won’t overtake us.

Thank you for praying…
Love,
Susan

Princess Puke

Our poor little Danika has been really sick since Wednesday. It has been so sad. She isn't running a fever...but she keeps barfing and other lovely things and acting really lathargic. We have been cautiously pumping her with pedialyte and trying to keep her hydrated, but the poor little thing is NOT herself. For those who are worried...yes I took her to the doctor. It seems we just have to wait it out. I just feel bad. Not to mention having a 1 year old permanently attached to my arms is really cutting down on my productivity. I don't think anyone is as worried as Doug. You see, I leave for a business trip on Monday and won't be back all week. He is panicked that he will have to handle this alone...and judging by the gagging reflex that was activated this morning when he merely picked her up out of the crib and smelled the diaper, I'm thinking he is in for some real trouble. :( Pray for him!

Girly Camo

As you all know by now, my husband is an avid hunter. So...no big surprise that we got quite a bit of girly camo clothing for gifts. And, might I add, we loved all of it! But the most entertaining of the camo gifts would have to be a real camo onsie from Cabella's that we got from my friend Nick. He gave it to us when she was born and it came complete with lace attached to the collar, both legs, and the butt. Doug has been dying to put her in it since we got it.

We have been waiting....and waiting....and waiting for her to be big enough to fit into this thing...and the day has arrived! Much to Daddy's joy, Danika is in real camo today. :) Thought you would like to see the pictures. :)

In case you were wondering, that is Doug's coyote pelt that is keeping her company in the chair. She thinks it's soft...the cats are scared to death of it. :)

Josie's Announcement

My sister is sending out her birth announcement for my niece. I thought they turned out pretty cute. :) Just wanted to share.

Daddy's Girl

Daddy's girl loves to play with Doug's camo hat and cell phone.

Thought you would enjoy seeing some recent pictures. :)

Josephine Rose Hoffman

Josephine Rose Hoffman was born Thursday, February 7th in Toledo, Ohio. Everyone was healthy, my sister Joanie and her husband Cory were thrilled and it was killing me that I couldn't be there!

Doug and I were planning to drive to Detroit to see my new niece, but Joanie and Cory decided to come visit Cory's parents in Cleveland, so we met them there instead. Brock is adjusting to his new little sister already! He is becoming protective and can't stop kissing her head. It is so stinking cute! And Danika wasn't quite sure what to think...but she wasn't a big fan of her mom holding this other creature. :)

Welcome, little Josie! Your Aunt Andrea loves you!