Sorry we haven't written in a few days not much has been happening. Brenn is feeling generally well and is having very few problems during this round. Her ankles and legs are a bit tired so physio came and saw her today and encouraged to do more stretching, her counts are pretty good except her ANC (immunity) dropped from 6.99 to a staggering 0.98, what this means is that we were encouraged today to go away for the weekend to a safe, non populated place if we choose as Brenns counts and ANC will only go down from here and this will undoubtedly be our last trip away until we go home in November/December. Our friend has graciously given his house to us on the lake for the weekend. We will be alone for two whole days, cooking, cleaning,playing, and enjoying each others company without running into other people living in the same place . The thing that Brenn is looking forward to the most is having her own room, she says she "doesn't have to put up with anyone waking her up for a couple of days" or "Samantha bugging her". I think it's safe to say that the Dex(steroid) has kicked in and running strong threw her veins. Brenn's attitude and coping seems to be the biggest difference throughout the last month, I am hoping that this is just the meds and that we as family can support her in anyway that she needs. I pray to God frequently that she will be spared of any negative emotional and psychological effects of this journey that we are on, I am confident that physically she will be great but the other stuff I worry about. Scott and I are doing the best that we can to provide her with everything she needs to get through this and now we leave it to God to see that it is enough.

We have been very blessed throughout the last 4 plus months to have been able to be together as a family and to have taken a few small trips away that we otherwise would have been to busy to do if we were at home. The togetherness has brought us closer as a family and made us really get to know eachother in a different way. This journey has showed us how we ultimately have no control over what the outcome is but only the choices we make. It`s taught us more patience (this is not my strong suit...lol) and understanding because it's not only about ourselves and the biggest lesson is that Brenn's illness could always have been worse in one way or another or that getting caught up in her diagnoses is detrimental to her recovery as well as our own coping. We've learned to lean on eachother, our family`s, old and new friends and our community as we are not an island and we can not do this on our own. I was told by a mom who had befriended me when Brenn was first diagnose that " Brenn will be fine, You will be fine, your family will be fine" at the time I thought she was nuts and how could things ever be fine again......now everyday a little at a time I get what she was saying :) I`m tired of trying to look for the reason that this has happen to our daughter and our family, it has and it is what it is, getting through it the best that we can is what we are doing now. Thank you all for your thoughts and Prayers for Brenn and our family, we see and feel the affects of it daily.

Much Love Christine