We ARE back :)

I guess I haven't really said much of how it all ended in Houston. Yes, we have been back for two weeks now. I can't believe it's already been that long. We never did get to do anything in Houston. Megan just felt sooo tired that all she saw was the inside of our room at the Ronald McDonald House. She didn't really get the chance, or really want to, get to know some of the people who were staying there with us. I have to say that so many of them touched me greatly. I know that doesn't say much about the treatment, but it affected me so much to hear so many stories of what families are dealing with. Mom's and dad's who fly back and forth taking turns staying in Houston. Grandma there with her teenage daughter who's baby is so ill. The African woman who's baby was born at 1 pound 10 oz with heart and lung issues. The teenage girl in a wheelchair waiting for lungs who spent Christmas at RMDH. Amazing people doing amazing things for their children. My friend Kelley said to me that I'm such a good mom. All I could think was how could I do anything else but get the best for my daughter, and wouldn't everyone do the same thing? I watched "My Sisters Keeper" this weekend. I highly recommend it. A story about a family living through luekemia. I cried and cried. So many parts I could relate to. So many I don't want to relate to. Yes, I've really been processing and internalizing so much of the emotional parts of cancer...it's been hard.

We did actually fly home with Wings of Hope in a small 4 passenger airplane. I was SO nervous. Megan was excited. We flew out of a small private airport Ellington Field where the Air Force Base is in Houston. The take offs and landings were rocky, but with wearing the prescription patch, it worked great. Once we got up around 8,000 ft, it was really smooth flying. The one time when we were staying low going out of Houston, a wind blew so hard it really put us going sideways and I was SO scared we were going to flip upside down. It was freaky! We stopped in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is so beautiful. We had just been there over a year ago with our good friends, Rhonda, June, Kelton and Kaylor, who live in Arkansas so it was kind of fun to be there - so beautiful with the hills and forests. We filled up 30 gallons in each engine and headed back home. We got to fly over 6 Flags which was pretty neat. Megan layed down on the very comfy stretcher the whole time and rested fairly well. The people at Wings of Hope were awesome. The two pilots were volunteers - flying on their own time to help others. They were so nice to us. We got back and Aunt Marie and Kelsey were waiting in Chesterfield to take us home. Their coordinator and other staff showed them all around their hanger and let Kelsey get in a pilot's seat. I took their pictures with the plane and the girls both got Build-A-Bears and an art set. So very sweet. I of course was kind of ready to get home. :)

We came back home to the house having a first coat of paint and not really liking the color once it was on the house. So it was a whole process of new color, convincing painter to do more coats, test painting new colors, etc.

Then to get the new trampoline up for Kelsey's birthday party sleepover, two Girl Scout April Showers days, interviews with the Suburban Journal, trying to work, the floors a wreck from the dogs, muddy paws all over my carpets, dining room chairs falling apart, a third tree in the backyard dead, the deck falling apart, the flower beds need to be redone, the grass is nothing but weeds, Megan wants a desk for her room and new clothes and shoes and everything else she can find on Craig's list, doctor's visits, Megan feeling like crud, more barfing, vision coming and going between fuzzy and wavy, not wanting the tutors to come, afraid to go back to school, head pain, stomach pain, nausea, nose bleeds....ugh.

Yes, I'm tired and overwhelmed. But hopefully before too long we will have a period of somewhat normalcy. Do I know what that is?? :)