Howdy from Houston

Well, here we are. Amanda and I are having our first night alone in our new apartment. Earlier today Larry, Caleb and Abby flew back to Columbia after making the trip down to help us get moved in. We enjoyed our time here together. Amanda had no appointments on Wednesday and so we all headed down to Galveston and spent the day swimming in the gulf and eating crab legs at Joe's. It was a great day. Tonight is quiet here without them and we miss them already, but we are doing well.

Larry did a good job sharing the details of the first day's appointments, so I won't repeat those. I thought you might like to know a little bit about where we are staying and how we got here.

After learning that we would need to spend the next couple of months here in Houston, one of our first concerns was finding living arrangements that would be both affordable and comfortable for us. While looking into various options, we received a message from our friends, the Teague's, telling us about a special ministry here in Houston. A group of churches, looking to find a ministry that would meet the needs of people here in their own community, rent a block of apartments near the MD Anderson med center. Any family who must travel here and stay for an extended time are welcome to utilize one of their apartments. For a reduced daily rental, families can stay as long as they need treatment. Although the apartments are less than two miles from the med center, they also provide a shuttle that runs back and forth throughout the day. Can you imagine what it meant to us to learn of this? Not only do we have a nice, safe place close to the med center, but its an apartment prepared for us by Christians who furnished it with such thoughtfulness and care, it felt welcoming from the moment we came in.

The apartment complex is gated and comes complete with three (yes, three) private pools. The kids really enjoyed evening swims together. Thanks to the map(s) that Larry created and a couple days of his guidance, Amanda and I are finding our way around quite well. So far we can get back and forth to the med center, we found a strip mall with Chinese food, a street called Dr. Suess, and we know the directions to a large mall (which we will check out soon) but we are still looking for the painted cow Abby saw on Greenbrier. :-)

Today was significant in that Amanda had her first radiation appointment. I am thankful to tell you that it went very well. A female technician was very kind and helped to put Amanda at ease. The process only took about 10 minutes to complete and Amanda would like to report that she is not required to wear a hospital gown - shorts & t-shirts work fine. (For those of you who may not be aware, Amanda has very strong views about hospital gowns. We all choose our own battles...I don't think I need to say any more...) Amanda felt no discomfort and was in great spirits to have it start so well. One down....

Thank you to each of us who have helped to support my family during this move. As I sit at my computer, I see each of my six angels that came with me to Houston, standing here on top of my monitor, one with each of the names of my six children. I ask that you keep each of them in your prayers as we all adjust to this time of separation and treatment. Next to the six angels is a little skunk. It's tummy has this message, "Childhood Cancer Stinks". Yes, it does. It really does. But it does not change that we are family and that near or far, in my heart they are all with me always.

from Houston,

denise

If any of you are interested in having our mailing address, please feel free to contact Larry or I and we will be happy to share that with you.

Also, if you are interested in knowing more about the ministry that helped provide our housing, you can visit their web site at http://www.smbc.org/ There you would click the heading "missions" and under that click Sojourn house apartments.