Cole Turns 3

On Saturday, November 1, Cole turned 3!

As I write this I thank God that I'm not saying "Cole would have turned 3". Dalynn and I have been thanking the Lord for the fact that we've had one more year with our precious son.

Thank you all for your prayers and help. They have seen us through such a difficult time but days like Saturday continue to drive home to us just how blessed we are. Blessed that we can still celebrate the life of our sweet son.

I'll try to get some pictures posted soon. If you haven't seen a picture of Cole recently (and only have pictures from his initial treatment to go on) then you may thoroughly enjoy some new pictures. He looks like a typical (if somewhat chubby) 3 year old.

We had a party for Cole and invited some friends over. Unfortunately, as is normally the case with us trying to plan birthday parties (we seem to suffer from a birthday party curse), something happened that prevented a lot of folks from coming (that being that half of the folks that were supposed to come, including my mom, got sick). Despite that, though, we had a rousing good time! Cole received many fun toys and he and Rayanna (sorry if I butchered her name, Camille!) played until about 9 that night (having started at 3).

It was so much fun to see Cole interacting with another 3 year old. At one point, they were running around trying to rescue pretend animals from a pretend tiger and dragon all the while calling Diego and Dora on their cell phones. It was quite cute.

All in all, we had a really good weekend and I'm so thankful that we got to throw a party for Cole.

Things So Far

I wanted to put up a couple of pictures to illustrate what chemo and leukemia have done to Cole thus far.

The top picture is from Cole's birthday party. At that point, he probably had active leukemia, and he does look a little sick. He'd had something going on for a week, whether it be croup or nose bleeds. This picture was taken on 11/4.

Cole was admitted to the hospital on 11/12 and was diagnosed on 11/14. The second picture was taken on 12/6, so over a month after his birthday pic. So far, he's put on about 6 pounds. Most of the visual change is from the steroids he's taking, and from what we understand, he should shed the extra weight and puffiness quickly, within a month or two.

However, it is still difficult for me to see, obviously. I look at Cole and wonder where the sweet boy who used to run to greet me at the door with "Daddy!" went. I miss his sweet smile. We haven't seen Cole smile in over 2 weeks, now. He mainly sleeps and eats. We're forcing him to get up and walk and play. It's just heart-breaking to watch.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that there's less than a week of induction left. Less than a week of steroids. As a matter of fact, he's already had his last dose of vincristine. Hopefully, soon after, I'll get to see my little boy smile and play and laugh again.

On a positive note, we went to the first Qdoba fund raiser tonight. It was wonderful to see all of the support for Cole. There were so many people there, from my work and from church. It was very bracing to see so much support, and to talk to everyone.

Thank you to everyone that came. You not only helped raise money for Cole's treatment, but you certainly made things easier in mine and Dalynn's hearts.