Celebrating birthday #3 at home!!

Yeah!!! We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon and have enjoyed every moment of being out of the hospital. We were able to enjoy our company; Kateli was sad this morning to see everyone leave! :(

So, today we celebrated our princess' 3rd birthday, and AT HOME!! On Thursday morning I was still a bit apprehensive that we would be in the hospital for her birthday, but the Lord blessed us with being at home. WOW!!! Three years old, and let me tell you without missing a bit--she's got the brains, the agility, the compassion and yes, the attitude of a 3 year old--which I've quickly realized is not any easier than a 2 year old...so, but we love her to pieces, and wouldn't have it any other way. I'm going to make this one short for tonight, as we're a bit exhausted, but I will write more later. I'll leave you with some pics from her special day!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a really good Thanksgiving Day, yesterday. Katherine's smile returned as she got to spend the day with her cousins here in the hospital. She was so excited that her cousins were coming to see her. She got to spend a couple of hours off of her IV- so she rode around in the wagon with her brother and cousins.

Some volunteers put together a catered Thanksgiving lunch for all of the families that were here in the hospital on turkey day. It was a great blessing to cared for by families who chose to be here serving on their day of Thanksgiving...

By the end of the day Katherine was a little bit worn out from all of the fun and excitement- so she called it an early evening.

We're not sure when we'll be heading home- waiting for fevers to subside and for her counts to come back up to normal levels. I think it should be pretty soon, since her brother has been fever free for a day now- and they both seemed to have caught this bug around the same time.

Thanks for the prayers and support. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Thanksgiving in the hospital, you say??

well, maybe. Not for sure yet, if we will be there all of tomorrow but for today we are in the hospital with Kateli. She was admitted this morning, after finding out that her numbers had dropped to near 500 and her liver enzymes came back too high. So, the doctor made a call, and while it is by no means the way that we wanted to spend thanksgiving this year, we'll take it as it comes. After all, what's important here is that she gets better and back on her little feet. Not that she's been down, oh no, she's been up and around like a champ. But almost 3 days ago both kids started running fevers--out of the blue Joshua turned up with a 100.6 and then about an hour later I came to find out Kateli was at 102.4!! YIKES!! She was NOT at all acting sickly so I didn't realize she was hot until I picked her up and felt her tummy under her shirt. So, promptly I called daddy to come home because it was most likely going to mean a visit to CHUC (Children's Hospital Urgent Care) at the least, and I was going to need help with the two kiddos. Then I called the clinic and talked to the doctor on call, who instructed us to to to CHUC, where Kateli would have labs drawn to see if she was neutropenic or not, as well as be administered the infamous Rosefan (I don't know if I'm spelling that right, but that's how it sounds to me :) ) Anyway, it's the "catch all" antibiotic used in general to tackle any bacterial infection if that is what she were fighting. And of course they did blood cultures. About 1 hr 30 mins later, we were told we could go home, Kateli's counts were actually in the 1900's, so we were relieved. But through the night and the next day and night she ran more fevers, getting as high as 104.3 at least twice. We were instructed to just administer Motrin and Children's Tylenol every 4 hours and come in on Wednesday at our scheduled appt time. So we did just that...we were in clinic this morning at 8 am. Kateli was still running fevers into this morning, and I actually had to give both her and Joshua a dose of Tylenol before boarding the van. So, the procedure that was scheduled for today has been postponed, and she was just given another round of the same Rosefan. More blood was drawn for labs, and her numbers came back...well, I already told you that part.

So, anyway we are in the hospital and need your prayers. I know you are in constant prayer for our family and I truly appreciate that, so if you could add the following specifics it would be great

• Please pray that Kateli would settle down and be okay with being at the hospital. SHe's having a real hard time and has been upset all afternoon saying that she wants the needle out and that she wants to come home. Breaks my heart to see/hear that...So, pray that she would be content.
• Pray that the fevers would finally break and that she can come home soon.
• Pray for Joshua, that his fevers would also break and that he would have some relief soon.
• Pray for Dan and I that we would be strong physically and emotionally through this, as it's a bit taxing for the both of us.
• Pray for safe travels for Dan's brother's family as they drive to Tulsa today to celebrate thanksgiving with us.
• Pray that we would have a blessed time together with family, be it here at home or in the hospital.
• Pray that we can be a witness to those around us, and that our light would shine even in the darkest of times.

officially a 'MARATHONER'

is that even a word?? well, it will work for now. Yes, we are officially marathon runners!! We managed to get ourselves across that finish line on Sunday afternoon; just a little over 5 hours after the gun went off in the morning. It's still surreal to me that we ran 26.2 miles last weekend!! I never would have imagined that I could complete such a distance, but that goes to show you that "anything" is possible, if we just put our minds to it--as well as ask our friends and family to pray for us before, during and post the event. It was quite the experience. It was fun, exhilirating, intimidating, challenging and a bit disappointing all at the same time.

FUN: We had tons of fun. We had fun seeing my family on Friday, and it was very freeing to be able to leave the kids with my parents overnight while we went on to San Antonio. The kids had fun staying with my parents, so much so, that when I called to say "night night" to Katherine that night, she barely said a few words before she told me "kateli not here no more" We had fun meeting up with our friends in San Antonio, and hanging out with them as we picked up our race packets, walked around downtown, and ate dinner at the TNT pasta party. The TNT pasta was very inspiring, although the personal story that was shared was a bit too sad for me; a definite tear jerker! But there were over 700 people gathered together, celebrating their successes in raising funds for the LLS. It was overwhelming to see so many people together in one place, all with the same drive behind their efforts in training and raising money.

EXHILIRATING: I think I finally started getting nervous about the run on Sat afternoon as we drove into San Antonio. Something about being there made the whole thing more real to me than it had been before. I was actually able to get some sleep on Sat night, I don't remember tossing and turning at all. I don't remember being so anxious about the next morning, that I couldn't fall asleep. In fact, I think I actually slept more comfortably that night than I did the night before our 20 mile training run just a few weeks before. So that was GREAT!! Sunday morning was amazing. The weather was perfect, it started out in the high 30's I believe, and was supposed to warm up through the morning rather quickly. It was comforting to me to think back to our 20 mile run. We had done that training run in similar conditions; it was 39 degrees out and remained quite cool still by the time that we were done. So, I was not intimidated by the cold temperature. In fact, I looked forward to it, as I remember feeling great during our 20 mile run. We arrived at the ATT center rather early; we wanted to make sure that we were at the start on time. It was a good thing we did that too, as the girls and I had to wait in line at the Jack in the box for about 30 mins waiting to go to the potty before the run!! Not something that I share with everyone, but port-a-potties have always been my nightmare. I was determined to circumvent a visit to these things as best I could. So, I got my "pre-race" pee break out of my system, and after that it was just a blur to get the race started. We barely made it into corral 8 before being released with the mass of runners.

INTIMIDATING...to say the least. There were so many people waiting to cross the starting line--it was crazy. 30,000 people were signed up to run in the marathon, but I found out later that only 25,000 runners ran the race. Surprisingly enough, starting in waves helped tremendously. I don't know how I would have done had we ALL gone out at the same time, I can't imagine running shoulder to shoulder for miles and miles before finally getting some distance between us and the people in front, behind and beside us. So, roughly 12 mins after the gun went off, Dan and I crossed the start line and our chip time began ticking.

CHALLENGING: Our first few miles were our--well, I should say my, because Dan was pacing off of me the entire way, and I'm sure that alone, he could have run a much faster race--strongest. We may have started out just a FEW seconds too fast, which I thought may not have been a huge deal, as I figured I would settle into a rhythm and push through, as we had done for our 20mile training run!! However, somewhere between mile 11 and 13 my stomach started to turn and I felt like I was running with a huge weight on my shoulders. Some of you may want to skip to the next section now, if you don't want to hear about potty problems!! Anyway, I think the Cytomax sports drink got to me. We didn't train with Cytomax. We trained with powerade, gatorade and maybe G2 water. I couldn't push through it anymore and I had to give in to a potty break, in the...you got it...in the port-a-potty. My nightmare came true, on my first marathon run!! But you know what?? It was fine. It was not as bad as I had envisioned it. I'm not saying that it's okay now, I'll still avoid them as best I can, but I'm not afraid anymore. I felt so much better after our little break, and actually picked up the pace for the next mile and a half. And then it wore off, and I started slacking, and hurting but pushed through it. Along the race, I also began feeling a pain on the left side of my neck and into my collarbone so I had to take it easy. But I was determined NOT to walk any miles--and we didn't. We didn't walk any complete miles at a time, but we did have to resort to running/walking for the last few miles. My husband was awesome! He was supportive, encouraging and he took it easy with me, even though it meant a slower time for him. He held my hand when we'd walk and he'd tell me "you're doing great, you're pushing through this..." through it all.

a tad DISSAPOINTING: I know...I know...you are probably wondering "why?" I should be happy and proud to have finished our first marathon. In all honesty, I am...but I was also just a tad bit disappointed with our finishing time. We were shooting to finish in 4hrs 30mins and we missed that goal, because of me. I don't know what happened!!! I was so frustrated that I got sick to my stomach, had to stop for the potty, had to walk/run in the end, and slowed down our pace so much!! We ended up with a pace of almost 11 min/miles!!! Why is that disappointing?? Because we had run our 20 mile training run at a 9.5 min/mile!! So, I knew that I could run much faster, and I felt like I had let myself down. Maybe I hadn't pushed enough, maybe I gave in to the pain that I had learned to push through during training...Anyway, I felt and thought all those things after the marathon and the next day, but no more. Now, I'm just happy to have finished!! I'm happy and thankful for a strong body to get me across that finish line.

So, that was my experience at the marathon. We are happy to be home, safe and recovered and enjoying each day with our kiddos. This post is well overdue--as tomorrow marks one week since the eventfrom the event--but I needed a few days to gather my thoughts and share best with you who have prayed for us through the training and on the day of the run. Thank you for your support. You helped me reach and surpass my fundraising goal--we raised over $4,600 for the LLS and I still have a couple of checks that I need to send in. You helped get us across the finish line with your prayers, and your thoughts. So thank you!! I'm very grateful to each one of you. I will try to get pictures posted as soon as I get some from my sister. For now, you can check out our friend's website to read about their experience and to see some pics of the group!!

So now, a week later, I can tell you that we were VERY happy to NOT have to get up at 5:30am for a 6:00 am run in 22 deg weather this morning. Instead we got to sleep in and be warm, and celebrate Dan's birthday on this beautiful morning--that's the next post on our marshy corner :) I'll try to post

Ready or not

We're going to Rock N Roll in San Antonio for 26.2 miles tomorrow. We've arrived, and are excited about the event ahead of us. On the drive, Dan asked if I was nervous, and quite honestly I was not. As soon as we got to San Antonio, though, I turned to him and said "okay, now I'm getting a bit nervous, we're actually here!" So...my nerves are getting a bit of an exercise, but hopefully I'll be able to get a good night's rest. We made it here about 3 in the afternoon, met our friends at the hotel, and made it to the expo to pick up our race packet and number. By the way, we also changed our corral number. We decided we'd be better off starting earlier than later, so we will be starting in Corral #7 rather than #16. We figured that if corrals were released every 1:30 to 2 mins, we wouldn't actually start until about 8 in corral #16...that's just too much time to just stand around and get cold. SO, while we probably won't be finishing in the 3hrs 59mins, we are starting in that group. Please pray that we will have the discipline to pace ourselves reasonably and not let the "herd" (after all we ARE in corrals :) ) dictate our initial pace. We certainly don't want to burn out early into the race (at all, for that matter). We also went to the TNT pasta dinner to carb load for tomorrow. We listened to several speakers, one of which was a personal account of battling blood cancer that had a sad ending. SO, we were reminded, once again, why we are running this race. We are running for all those battling blood cancers; that research will provide a cure and a hope for a happy future. We are running this for our daughter, Katherine. May the Lord continue to bless her and our family with the strength and endurance to continue this fight with Leukemia, day in and day out. Okay, it's late and we better hit the sack so we can be up and out of the hotel by 5:30 in the morning.

Again, you can track us online. Here is the info that you will need.

The website: http://www.rnrsa.com/
Our runner numbers: Dan #16066 Marleny #16149

Run with us!!

Well, okay not literally, but you can follow us online. They will be posting live results throughout the race, so you can check it out on the website (you'll have to search on their website :) ). So you can look us up and see where we are on the course. You will need the website, and our running numbers.

The website: www.rnrsa.com
Our runner numbers: Dan #16066 Marleny #16149

We are getting ready to walk out the door and get in the car for our last 3 hr drive to our final destination, San Antonio. We arrived at my sister's safe last night and enjoyed time with the family. We actually got to eat cake as we celebrated my brother's 28th birthday last night. Turns our we are going and both kids are staying with abuela y abuelo tonight. Tomorrow morning my sister and brother in law will come up to the race and bring Kateli with them. So, they will be at the finish line and hopefuly we'll see them somewhere along the course as well.

Please continue to pray for us. Especially for the kids; that they will be okay and sleep well while mommy and daddy are away. We're hoping to get a good night's rest tonight before the race!!

Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

a photogapher is born....

Before I sign off for tonight, I wanted to share a cute story. As you probably already know I am doing photography now, and I learned tonight how serious of an apprentice I have on my hands. Kateli does NOT enjoy being in front of the camera, but she sure shows a passion and enthusiasm for being behind the lens. She's gotten a hold of our old point and shoot camera, and it's obvious that she pays close attention when I'm on a shoot, or when I take pictures of them (Joshua and Kateli). A few times, I've heard her say "mommy, I take a picture" and she pretends to do so, but tonight was a bit more involved. Before our run this evening, as I was trying to get them dressed and ready, Kateli grabbed the camera and said "mommy, I take a picture of you?" So, I said "okay" and made a silly pose and said "cheese"...she quickly let me know that it was not up to her standards, so she said "not like that mommy, like this..." and she got down on the floor on her side, leaning her chin onto her left right hand--I just smiled and followed instruction. Promptly after that she obviously needed another piece of equipment (this is when I change my lens, or get the flash or something like that) and she said "wait a minute..." a second later she came back and said "thank you for waiting"--another smile for me. But I'm not done...keep reading, this is too funny and too cute. So, soon after (before she could "snap" another picture) Joshua happened to walk by, and she said "I take a picture of you and Joshua" and she called Joshua over and instructed him "you sit here" pointing exactly to where she wanted him in the frame. Wouldn't you know it? Joshua followed instruction to the tee and not just sat down for a second, he stayed there for a few minutes. Kateli's response to his compliance?? she backed up from her subjects and quickly said "purfect!" Another smile on my face. But this wasn't it...nope, then she called out "daddy, come" and instructed Dan on where to sit, and how close. Then she snapped the picture, looked at her camera and said "I LOVE it!" I could hardly contain myself anymore and laughed out loud...my goodness, what better photographer could you ask for?? She is friendly, courteous, gives easy to follow instructions, uses words of encouragement and is SUPER cute!! I didn't think she enjoyed photography quite that much--but she had me fooled!! :) She pays close attention, and remembers everything!! I hope you got a kick out of that!! If you didn't, then I guess it's like they say "had to be there!" Have a great night.

Celebrating...

and ecstatic that we've completed our last training run for Sunday's marathon!! Wow!! It felt awesome to finish strong, at merely 2 1/2 miles!! Yes, I say merely because it's been a LONG while since we've run that short of a distance. The kids were great, which made the run that much more pleasant. They have been such troopers during our training. I don't know exactly how many miles we've logged with them in the stroller, but I'm sure it's been well over 100 miles!! I don't have exact statistics in front of me right now, but I'll post that after we calcuate--after all it's all on the computer. I do know that we've run EVERY long Saturday run with them except our 20 miler, and Dan has run with them most every time that he's been out running. So, kudos to them!! I actually think that Katherine will miss the running once we taper down and don't do it as often. She really enjoys(ed) our Saturday runs and was up bright and early enthusiastically letting us know that "Kateli run mommy and daddy, and Joshua" So, we are done training, and we're as ready as we are ever going to be to Rock n Roll at the marathon on Sunday!! Wish us luck. Check back soon and I'll let you know how you can "run with us" on Sunday. More info to come.

We're ALMOST there!

Hard to believe that this morning was our last weekend training run before the big day. It's been quite the journey, training for this marathon, and incredible to believe that next Sunday is THE day. The thought of participating in a marathon was one that had merely crossed my mind, without much contemplation a few years ago--when my dear sister trained and completed hers (she did the Hawaii marathon with the Arthritis Foundation). Anyway, while I admired her dedication and determination to complete such a feat, I honestly thought she, and the rest of the runners were out of their mind. I was a runner in school, on the long distance team at that, but 26.2miles?? that was more distance than I could wrap my mind around. I was that person that just watches, and while admiring the runners' accomplishment, I would say "Oh, I would never do that..." Yes, that was me, still on Feb 13th this year. And then the life wrenching twist in our lives--finding out about Katherine's illness. It was like we were picked up and thrust into a whirlwind--still kinda feels that way somedays, but we've adjusted to this fight. Feb 14th still seems unreal--I think back and still can't figure out how we managed to get through it. The emotional turmoil we were thrust into is like nothing else I had ever experienced. With the news came the fears. Cancer? Cancer, in my mind, was terminal--I knew nothing else. Horrible thoughts filled my mind, unthinkable feelings filled my heart and as the days went by I seemed to numb up to what was going on in our family. And then, that first dose of chemo that I saw Katherine receive in the hospital brought me to my knees all over again. I cried, and I cried, and I hurt again. It was so real, this was really happening. The nurse came in wearing a special gown and special gloves to protect her hands from this drug that she so calmly injected into our baby girl. And I knew that was only the beginning. We had a long road ahead of us. Katherine would have to endure over 2 years of this treatment, and our attitude had to change. We had to come to grips with this and we had to be strong for each other, but most importantly for Katherine. We prayed for strength. We prayed for endurance. We prayed for wisdom. We prayed for understanding, and peace. We prayed and prayed and prayed. And we continue to pray ceaselessly, because we can't do this alone. To you, our regular blog readers, THANK YOU for YOUR prayers. Thank you for your continued support through this. For caring enough to come back time after time to read our blog, to stay up to date with Katherine's progress and to find out any specific prayer requests that we may have.

So, in the midst of our own education about Katherine's illness, I kept coming back to the LLS and the fundraising opportunities. I found myself pondering the thought of training for a marathon. Suddenly, 26.2 miles didn't seem impossible. In fact, it seemed insignificant compared to the journey ahead. Dan and I both committed to doing this. I signed up with the LLS to raise the funds for the foundation and we've been training for the last 16 weeks or so. We've certainly logged in the miles, each one of us has a couple hundred miles under our belts--or is that shoes? :) and while it's been fun training, we are both anxiously waiting to finally cross that finish line. Neither one of us could have done this and be where we are at without you. So, THANK YOU!! Thank you for your prayerful support and for your financial support towards my fundraiser.

So, next Sunday we will be two people in the middle of a mass of runners--specifically 30K runners. Yep, you read right. The race was closed at 30,000 people. It will begin at 7:25 with wheelchair participants taking off. Five minutes later, at 7:30 they will begin the wave start for the runners. There will be 30 "corral" groups, with 1000 participants each that will be released every 15 seconds or so. Our corral grouping was determined by the estimated elapse running time we put on our form. We estimated about 4:30 hours, which happens to be average time for this event, so we're in Corral 16, smack in the middle of the sea of people. There will be 14,000 people in front and 14,000 people behind our group. I don't think I've ever been in the middle of such a large group, so I'm a bit nervous about it.

• Please pray for us, as we are getting nervous and anxious.
• Please pray that we all stay healthy, through this next week especially.
• Please pray for our travels. We will be driving to my parents, and then on to San Antonio.
• Please pray for the kids. The plan is to leave Joshua with my parents overnight, and take Kateli with us. We couldn't NOT have kateli at the finish line so she will be hanging out with Tia Marta during the event and hopefully be at the finish to greet us.
• Please pray for our bodies to stay strong, and in one piece before, during and after the event.
• Please pray for quick recoveries from the run.