The Move - Report

Let's just get it out there - moving stinks. Nobody likes it. In fact, I have often thought that moving for all of eternity might be what hell really is. Moving is bad... except when it's good. Here's a brief rundown of some key events from Kelley Move '08.

9 am - People begin arriving and immediately begin to throw stuff in cars and trucks.

9:15 am - Reassemble to officially start the organized portion of the move.

9:18 am - Jana takes a crew of 4 to the new house to clean and begin unpacking the previously moved kitchen.

9:18-9:50 am - People divide up into 2 teams, half loading furniture in the U-Haul and the other half pulling up cars one at a time to load boxes.

10:10 am - Doors to the U-Haul close because the house is done.

10:30 am - Unloading begins at new house.

11:15 am - Doors close on truck a second time cause it's done.

Amazing. Some 25 generous friends joined us on Saturday to pack and unpack. All went above and beyond the call, staying until boxes were unpacked and beds were reassembled. Thanks for making Kelley Move '08 one for the record books. See you in '09. (Just kidding. I hope.)

Here are a few photos of the finished product. All boxes unpacked and all pictures hung.

Treatment Day Yesterday

Yesterday Joshua went in for his normal monthly treatment. The appointment went well. Doctors and nurses were, as usual, personable and caring. Joshua's counts were a bit lower than normal, but not alarming by any means. Joshua even woke up this morning feeling great.

For the past two months we have been overwhelmed by how well Joshua has recovered from his chemo and steroids. I guess that is why I wasn't too worried about how this week would go. Honestly, I didn't blog about treatment coming because sometimes I feel overdramatic when I ask you all to pray and then our week goes so well. That is some very messed up theology if I do say so myself. 

So, this morning, when I took Joshua and Andi to the park and Joshua said, "I don't want to play. I feel so tired. I want to take a rest" I was completely surprised. We got back in the car and came home so that Joshua could eat and take a long nap. He has now been asleep for about 2 hours. My hope is that he can wake up feeling better, but I'm afraid that he may be in for some tough moments in the next few days.

So, here I am asking once again. Please pray that his little body will recover quickly, especially since this is moving weekend for our family. He's got enough on his plate to adjust to without feeling crummy because of his chemotherapy.

Move '08

This weekend we are moving; this branch of the Kelley family is heading north to our new neighborhood. We've been planning to do so for a while, and the truck gets packed on Saturday. Love the new house and the fact that we're moving; hate moving itself. So I'm focusing on the positive stuff about the move to get me through the process of moving. Here, then, is the list of the top 5 things about the move.

1. We are moving to a neighborhood with mature trees. This will be awesome. Lots of shade to guard our albino-like son. If you haven't noticed, Andi is the only tan one in our family. Not sure where that came from.

2. The backyard. It's large flat, and completely shaded. It's already got a tire swing and enough room for more furniture, fire pit, hammock, and that car Michael's been wanting to restore (just kidding about the last one).

3. The commute. Trips to the clinic will be cut by 2/3. The gas implications for those trips, as well as Michael's commute, are really good.

4. The new house adds a playroom to our children arsenal.

5. The scooter. This is still in doubt, but my husband, the professional editor, the published author, the preacher, the guy who occasionally wears jeans with holes in them, now has a route that allows him to get to work without getting on the interstate. He is considering buying a used Vespa. Pictures to follow if this actually happens.

Old House

New House

King Who?

Joshua and Andi's uber-cool babysitter and our very good friend, Sarah, posted about a question / answer time she had with Joshua the other night. What we have long suspected is now proven true - Michael and I are the least holy people in our house.

Check out the blow by blow here.

A New Pool and My Second Thought

The Maryland Farms YMCA in Brentwood completely revamped their outdoor pool* this summer. Initially, I was very overwhelmed with both kids and everything that is there, but now that Joshua has figured out his boundaries, we are having a great time. Also, every time I go I get to see friends from church, from my days of teaching or from some other phase of our Nashville life. It's like a little reunion every week. Last week, I ran into Tiffany. It had been nearly two years and two kids since we had seen each other last. Today, I saw my new friend Beth and her three sweet kiddos. All in all, this new pool has been a load of fun for us. So, basically what I'm saying is if you want to join the party, Maryland Farms is where it's at!

*This is not the pool I referenced in the last post. I want to thank all of you for all the kind and thoughtful comments, emails, and phone calls. They were all very encouraging. I also walked away from that post with a new verse to memorize. Psalm 141:3-4a Set a guard over my mouth , O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil. Not a bad thing to take away from a day like that. Both my self-doubt and my frustrations with the unnamed woman were not drawing my heart to righteousness.

One last thing, I was serious about not being afraid to talk to me. You can now all stop with the apologies for what may or may not have been said over the course of the last year. If that is the case, I need to start calling everyone I know.

Hold That Second Thought

Why oh why is it so hard to say the right thing to someone living in crisis, or in our case, living on the edge of crisis? I know that I have done it, too. You want to say the thing that makes the person in crisis feel cared for and loved, but then you keep talking. It is my observation that the second thought is always the one that could be left out. The initial reaction is kind, considerate and full of understanding. The second comes with a level of comfort that may not have been granted by the one in crisis. Take for instance the encounter we had today.

The woman I met was very kind. She talked and asked probing questions about our lives and our children. Very kind. Then, Joshua took off his life vest (we were at the swimming pool) which revealed the spot where his port is placed. This kind woman asked what that was for and I explained the last year and a half of our life. She was kind enough to listen. She said she was sorry and mentioned she knew someone else going through the same thing. Then, it hit, the second thought. She said, "I have read about all the things that people feed their children that causes leukemia." What I heard was, "You fed Joshua things that caused his leukemia."

Once again the second thought gets someone in trouble. I know that this poor woman did not mean to do it, but I have spent the rest of the day going over what I fed Joshua in the first two years of his life. Did I start formula too soon? Did I start table food too soon? Did I then and now let him have too many sweets? These are the unnecessary questions that happened because of a second thought, even though I know the answers.

The lesson? Sometimes it's more about quality than quantity. Words are powerful things. I hope I'm learning to choose mine more carefully.

PS - nobody be afraid to talk to me any more, please.

Hooray!

We love summer!

Lesson Learned

Yesterday it made a week since I had run. It has been about 8 months since I went that long without running at least a few miles. Now that I am finished training for the half-marathon I have been trying to keep running in my routine. This past week it just didn't happen. I set the alarm twice to run before Michael left for work, but I just kept sleeping. Two other times I chose to watch TV instead of leaving for the gym at night. So, this morning I did it, I got up and ran very early. Each step reminded me I should have run those other times. It occurs to me that when you run consistantly, you body forgets that running hurts so much. I guess the lesson I learned is that if you don't want it to hurt, run more often.

Here is a little video that sums up running for me.

Forward Progress

I have been pressing Michael for about a year to start his own blog. He has such amazing ideas and insights into what he is reading, what he is watching, and mostly what God is revealing to him. Our family's blog has been a place for him to talk about some that, but there a twinge of constraint that we exercise when you know that about every third post is going to be about Joshua's health. My hope for Michael's new blog is not only that he will be able to share more of his thoughts, but that it will be a conversation between him and all of us thinkers. There is nothing Michael loves more than to sit down with a few friends and discuss movies, culture, theology, questions, television, you name it. Now he has an avenue to do that with people across the street or across the globe.

So this blog is going to be pretty much our family blog, and that one is going to be Michael's "professional" blog. But this one about our family will still continue to be updated by both Michael and I.

You can find his new blog here. The title is Forward Progress. Michael's first post explains the title. It is a worthy read. I would encourage you to link to it from your blog, subscribe to the feed, or put it on your Google reader. He tells me there will be something new every day, but we'll see...

My Beautiful Girl

Our dear friend, Andrea Rhodes, snapped these great shots at the park last week. She is obviously very talented, but she is also very affordable. This is just five of the hundreds she took. If you are looking for a family photographer, we highly recommend her. You can view her website here. Thank you Andrea for capturing Andi so very well. We look forward to Joshua's in July.

The Good Cancer

Please read this blog by my friend and fellow cancer fighter, Renee. She speaks clearly about a a phrase we have heard from some well-intentioned people. She also tells about Matthew. A young man we were in-patient with on several occasions. He needs your prayers right now.

Another Month Down

So apparently praying works. Go figure, right?

Joshua had a spinal tap along with his regular dose of intravenous chemo on Wednesday, and we buckled in for what is usually the worst 5 days of the 12 week cycle we're on. And people prayed. And Joshua didn't cry. He didn't throw fits. He didn't lay on the couch. He played, laughed, and even mowed the grass (man, can't wait till he can do that himself). How about that - God doing what He does - answering a mass of prayers from His people for that random kid in Tennessee.

Thank you.


We also passed another mile marker without calling much attention to it, but in case you're counting, we are now past the halfway point in leukemia world. Actually we're well past it. Joshua has now been in treatment for leukemia for 19 and a half months. Halfway point was 18 months. And now, sitting on the back half, maybe there's room for a few more reflections. I don't think God wants us to be thankful for leukemia; I don't think that's what giving thanks in all circumstances means. However, He has been faithful to remind us on a near daily basis what the true meaning of redemption is.

To redeem - to buy back. That's what we see happening here. We see our good God buying back Joshua's sickness in a thousand tiny ways. He's teaching us to laugh more, cry more, hurt more deeply, and feel joy more fully. He's teaching us to hold loosely to stupid things and grip tightly those things that are significant. He's teaching us about the nature of hope, and that hope by its very nature involves a measure of pain. He's teaching us about contentment and joy. And we are doing our best, sometimes better than others, to listen.

And maybe that's one of the best things any of us can do. We don't respond perfectly, or even very well, when the days are trying. But maybe we're learning to listen better.