This is about 3 weeks late in coming… Sorry Andrew I am a slacker.
I have quite a few cousins. The boys Corey, Andrew, Steven-sons of my mom's brother Allen. Then all the girls- Amy, Lare, and Rachel my Dad's sister's kids. And my quasi cousins- My Dad's cousin Lois' girls-Alison, Karen, and Jennifer. That's the family tree.
Amy is the oldest Smith daughter and she has some cutie kids. Well, Andrew found out he had leukemia a few weeks back.
He has a caring bridge page she has set up for posts, and photos, and such. And It has been amazing to read. The courage to face such uncertainty, crazy tests, never knowing if you will spend 2 hours at the clinic or 8. Or get admitted to the hospital.
Well, I just wanted to honor him as he fights the good fight. And for his parents as they lead him through this road. I love to read Amy's posts. She's got an ongoing list of "things I have learned" that cracks me up. It makes me feel like I am not the only one that notices crazy things in the world. (you know…what happens when you leave fruit in a hot car, elevator stories, "secret" hospital tunnels etc)
One really cool thing they shared about is his beads. He strings a new bead as he encounters new things- This is what Amy shared-
Andrew has started his Beads of Courage. Andrew chose to string the beads in (approximate) order of occurrence. Each time he has a poke (IV start, port access, injections) he gets a black bead. If he has a blood or platelet transfusion, he gets a red bead, and so on. Each bead represents a treatment or procedure. Each time we come in for outpatient treatment he will get a bead, or beads. The large round bead is for an Act of Courage that he earned for enduring his port problems yesterday evening. He and I had fun, remembering what happened each day since he came in, as we strung the beads. We took a picture of the guide, not sure how well you can see it. It is in the photo album since we can only put one photo with each entry.
I don't know if he is still keeping up with it. But I thought it was really cool. And unfortunately if he is keeping up with it…it probably will end up being a mile long.
I cannot help but think of all the kids, and the adults that go through this stuff everyday. But I am always amazed new when it is someone I know. And to see the grace and courage so many have in the middle of it all.
Please pray for Andrew and his family as you may think of them. And if you want to join their journey post a comment, message me, or email me your address (aalongest@gmail.com) so that I can get Amy to give you access to his caringbridge site.Or I think you can request it if you go to his page. He loves getting comments on "his" webpage. So please take a second to give him a shout out.
On behalf of Him and His (immediate) family. Thanks.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewisaac
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