Writing just before a major holiday is becoming a thing, I guess. In a way, it’s grounding for me to stop and reflect before them, so it’s been good for me. On the other hand, I’m going to need a new way to remember to do this going forward.

Jennings continues to do very well. The trip back to Memphis and check-up there earlier this month went great. He saw the pulmonologist on Monday morning for a follow-up stemming from the fungal nodules he had way back. Despite his ever-present cold, his lungs sounded good and he earned a six month pass from pulmonology. 🎉

Wednesday morning, he had his labs drawn and saw Aimee and the rest of the BMT team. After racing his nurses around the unit, Aimee said he looked great (duh) and that his labs looked as good as could be expected. His IVIG level was low, which is not a-typical at this point post-transplant and just shows that his bone marrow and stem cells are still in the process of recovering. He got a boost of those antibodies last week when we were back in Charlotte (it’s a 3-hour infusion and would have meant missing our flight home).

After the BMT visit, he saw Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy and got a six month pass from both of them as well. Based on how everything looks, we established a plan for him to be seen twice in Charlotte over the next few months for lab / chimerism checks and then to come back to Memphis in the spring for his one year post-transplant follow-up.

Due to scheduling constraints, we had plenty of spare time in Memphis. We flew in late Sunday night, he had one appointment Monday morning, then nothing until Wednesday morning. We rented a car this time so we could get around and do all our Memphis things. We were able to see some of our dear friends and spend time catching up, which was the highlight for me. All in all it was an easy trip and provided for some good quality time together. And we found out last week that his chimerism is 100%!

Left to right from the top: bachelor’s night out for pizza; Central BBQ with Ms. Lee and Mr. Dave; Jennings and Miss Cafween; fake snowball fight at Sock-a-feller Center at the children’s museum; His Royal Highness at My Big Backyard; Jennings in the captain’s seat of our Boeing 737 before taking off for Memphis…the super nice pilot let him sit in the seat and then encouraged him to flip some switches and press some buttons to cause alarms. A short time later, after we had settled into our seats, that same pilot came over the intercom to inform us that the ground crew was headed out to check into some maintenance issues. Coincidence?

Well, Thanksgiving was a success and now we’re putting the finishing touches on Christmas preparations. You’re right, you’re right. We is disingenuous; Lauren puts all the touches on Christmas. The twins turned four(!) on Monday and we celebrated them with a typical kid birthday party. For them, it was really their first real party and anything but typical. Only one of their other four days have been celebrated under “normal” circumstances. In many ways, they are a living marker of our journey with pediatric cancer.

👆 Minnie and Mickey themed party at Playland, complete with: 60 mins of fun on the jungle gym, 9 friends / cousins / siblings, 0 injuries, 1 ginormous cake (thanks Nana!), and 2 Happy Birthday songs.

Looking back to last year, we weren’t sure we would all be here for this Christmas, and so, we are incredibly thankful to be at home living in the chaos of the season with our four kids. But we are weary too. And that’s ok. This season holds a lot of memories for us and the memories remind us that the future in this life is uncertain. As my counselor puts it, the veil is a lot thinner for us between this life and the next.

I’ve seen quite a few cards with it and there’s a book that makes its way from table to table in our house with it as its title: The Weary World Rejoices. The easy-to-sing-without-thinking-about lyric from “O Holy Night.” We are weary, yet we rejoice. We are thankful, blessed, and joyful…yet we are weary.

This is not unique to our family or our story. Many, or more likely everyone if given time and space to think & evaluate, find themselves weary this time of year. Or at least find it hard to feel like the Hallmark commercial tells you that you should. And that’s ok. If we have faith, we can rejoice in the “thrill of hope” of what is to come, for “yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”

Thank you for reading. You can pray with us for two things:

1) continued remission…always and forever, this is our prayer.

2) protection as Jennings goes back to in-person school after the winter break…physically, mentally, emotionally. It’s been over a year since he’s been in a classroom environment with a teacher and peers.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Pet 1:3-7

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll talk to you in 2022. But before you go, check out this obscure outtake from the filming of Home Alone that we found 👇

#allinforjennings