Chemo is over.....for now!

Hello friends and family! We hope you are having a great week!! We are having a good week here at the hospital. Dylan is 16 weeks old today, but Daddy said I cannot say he is 4 months old until the 16th, because he was born on April 16th and he doesnt count in weeks like me! HA! Regardless, our little man is getting older!! We are excited that Dylan finished his last chemo treatment from St. Joes yesterday!! YAY!! Praise God for answering our prayers! Its not the end of chemo, but its the end of one journey to begin with another in Tucson!! Dylan is doing surprisingly well with the chemo--well, it does not really surprise me because he is such a trooper and has the power of God behind him! He has not gotten any side effects besides a little bit of throw up, and his bum is rash free!! No sores in the mouth and most of the hair is still in tact! GO DYLAN! He does kind of have an old man hair do on top, but not sure if its from chemo, his head getting bigger, or just normal baby hair loss--whatever it is, he is still stylin! He is gaining weight well and is about 12 1/2 pounds now! Although he has not been feeling well the past few days, he has not lost his spunk. He is still a kicking and smiling machine and for that, we are truly thankful :)
God has done some awesome things this week and I want to share a couple of them with you! I mentioned before that I was praying for a friend to have down in Tucson because I would be alone a lot during the week because Erik has to stay home for work. Well, God has provided a friend!! A sister, actually!! Erik's sister Karyna is going to selflessly give up her time to come and spend it with me and Dylan! I was sooooooo surprised and I cannot wait to build our friendship and have a companion while we are away!! That is PRAISE #1. Praise #2 is that God has provided another 3 months of leave from work for me! At first I was told that I would only get approved for 1 month at a time. My first month was coming to an end and we were all anxious to see what the verdict was for the second month, and we were approved for an additional 3 months!! Such an answer to prayer and one less thing to worry about :) As an employee I am eligible for 6 months of unpaid personal leave and so far I have taken 1 month. Please pray that I can get approved for the whole 6 months! That would give me time off until January, and then hopefully Dylan will be healthy enough for me to go back to work part time. God does amazing things when you give it all to Him and stop trying to take care of it on your own. Why do I even try sometimes? We are thankful that we are able to see God providing so tangibly and are looking forward to what the future holds. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and we will talk to you later!

Love,
Michelle, Erik and Baby Dylan


Mellissa and I were trying to get him to smile, but he was very intent on just staring at the camera!! He is my little bobble head, but getting stronger everyday!!