adamupdate.com

site donated by TotalWeb.biz

04/07/09 - All,

April 7, 2009. Happy 6th Birthday my beautiful son. I hope you and Aunt Jessie are celebrating your birthday in Adam style. A good game of bowling and alot of smiling faces.

It's funny how we got all this snow around his birthday this year. The year he was born, we received alot of snow on his birthday. In fact, we beat the storm to the hospital. Thank goodness, Doug driving in a snowstorm while I was in labor? I would have had a heart attack on the way!!! I remember driving home from the hospital with snow still on the ground. Not something you want to see in April. I feel as though I must continue with some more birthday memories of him. When he turned one, we had his birthday party at Marino's on Parnall Rd. He was the cutest thing!! His second birthday was spent in Dayton, Ohio with Grandma Var and Aunt Sara. We took him to Chucky Cheese's and though his pictures don't show it, he did have a good time. When we got home to Jackson, we had another party with family here for him. Toy Story was the theme. His third birthday, Anne was a baby. I feel guilty, I think I was too preoccupied with her to remember specifics of his birthday. His fourth birthday, again with three kids, the party was a blur. His last birthday before he got sick, why could we not have paid better attention? And then there was last years party. A lot of people came to help celebrate it at Little Caesar's. He had an absolute ball. Of course Spongebob was the theme. He looked so happy and truly enjoyed himself the whole time. I am so glad that so many could share with us that birthday. A birthday that will forever be in the forefront of my mind. And yet I sit here tonight, the night before his birthday and have to wonder what he would have wanted his cake to be this year. Would it be Power Rangers or would there be something new he was into? Instead of buying him presents this year, we get to go pick out balloons to take to the cemetery to send up to him. There is something so wrong with that picture. 

The whole month of April is a struggle for us. We have his birthday, Easter (last year we spent in a hotel on our way for a visit to St. Jude's) the beginning of baseball season. I sat here tonight watching opening day without him. That sucks. And finally, the beginning of Little League. This woudl have been Adam's third season. It's going to be very hard driving past his ball fields this spring. Again with the would have been's. Would he have been just as excited this year to play? His big growth spurt last summer, I wonder if he would have caught up in height with some of the kids. It tears at my heart to wonder.

Our minds just cannot shut off from thinking of him-Adam we miss you, we love you, and we hope you know just how much your still a part of our lives. 

We'd give anything for a hug and a kiss. Happy birthday Mr. Man.

Praying for a cure, 3 more children have passed away in the last 2 weeks from this horrible monster,

Sara and Doug

03/29/09 - All,

We arrived in Myrtle Beach around dinner time last night. The kids wasted no time in going down to the beach to check it out. We think Anne is officially over her fear of the water. She not only got in the pool at the hotel on the way down here, she has already commented on wanting to put her feet in the ocean. Even a year ago, taking a bath was a huge ordeal for her. There were many times last year at the Ronald McDonald house, that everyone in our hall knew when she was taking a bath. We are very glad that she seems to be overcoming that fear. Who knows, maybe swim lessons are next! While down at the beach, I watched Doug staring out into the ocean, knowing he was remembering his time with Adam on the beach in Treasure Island. Collecting shells, and walking in the sand where some of his best memories of Adam in Florida last year. I hurt to watch his pain. 

While this is our first vacation without Adam and we feel that huge loss, Anne has seemed so excited to come here. I am determined to make her memories of here good. I don't want her to think back and say all she remembers is mommy and daddy crying on the beach all the time. She has been so excited in fact, that of the 14 hour drive in two days, she slept maybe an hour and twenty minutes. That leaves alot of time for a very talkative 3 year old to tell alot of stories and sing alot of songs. God Bless the movie Annie and Miss Hannigan, she now knows every word to just about every song. I do believe that was a blessing in disguise, not a lot of time to go crazy in thinking about things that bring constant tears.

While sitting here watching Spongebob Squarepants. I can almost picture Adam sitting here glued to the TV waiting patiently for us to get around and go do something. He never wanted to sit long when there were things to do-so with that said, I'm going to go do something with the kids. 

Enjoy your cold weather, it looks like you might get snow? We'll stick to our 70 degree and sunny day. Have a good weekend.

Searching for a sign that Adam is on vacation with us,

Sara and Doug

03/21/09 - All,


You soon will be able to tell, this isn't Doug writing this entry. I have never written an entry before, but Doug is much busier than I am, so here it goes. 

Today marks the 6 month anniversary since I lost my "mr. man." This is the worst anniversary to have in life. Some days it feels like it was yesterday, some days it feels like 5 years ago. Either way the pain has not eased one little bit. My heart aches so much to hear a silly knock knock joke from him. Or have a body slam contest. He had gotten quite good at giving body slams and we would take turns with each other. And I never thought I would say it, but I miss the music from the tank game he played on the Wii for months and months. I hated that music but would give anything to hear it, if it meant he was here playing it. 
This whole nightmare has forever changed my family. Each one of us are a different person now. We are really starting to see the effects of this on Jenna and Anne more and more. Some of it good, they both seem much more compassionate of other people now. Not that they weren't before but if it didn't affect them, they didn't notice. Now they do. Some of it hurts to watch, I see Jenna breaking down and crying, hurting so much for her little brother. I see Anne still talking of Adam daily, so confused on what has happened. How do we help them? 

I still find myself going through the why's, and how's, this new life just doesn't seem real. I feel angry, numb and overwhelmed still by our situation. Doug and I feel that views on life and pretty much any decision made are different than before. Life sucks. I have discussed this with many people and I continually comes back to this phrase-life sucks. This sucks, everything about this whole thing sucks. I guess I'll leave it at that.

We are getting some pictures updated on here. Some of them are the bowling fundraiser and I'm also trying to get our baseball diamond pictures on here too. I also am going to include some pictures of Adam from the last couple of months before we lost him. I read on another child's website that they finally added pictures that were from right before they lost her, even though she didn't look very good. They felt that so many people had supported them and deserved to see her. I guess I feel that way also. These pictures are all I have now and I want everyone to know, that he still made the best of the situation. Deep down he knew, he wasn't getting better but he still found something to smile about and he gave me memories that I will hold forever.

I love and miss you very much Adam,

Praying for children still fighting this horrible disease,

Sara and Doug

03/13/09 - All,

It's been a long couple of weeks, we apologize again for being slow on updates. We did have alot going on so we'll bring everyone up to speed.

First, we spent last Friday morning in Columbus Ohio visiting Sara's friend, Sarah. Then later that afternoon/evening we spent time with Doug's sister, Sara in Dayton Ohio. Hope your able to follow along. It was nice seeing Sarah, Bryan, Sara and Greg. Thanks for having us.

Second, on Saturday morning we headed to Cincinnati, Ohio, to attend the Once in A Lifetime Gala sponsored by The Cure Starts Now Foundation (www.thecurestartsnow.org). The event had a silent auction, live auction and dinner served by Cincinnati's celebrity chefs. They were able to raise money to continue their mission of finding a cure for pediatric brain tumors specifically DIPG (what Adam had) While there, we were able to meet other families that experienced losses of their child as we did. We pray for those families.

Third, we returned home Sunday and upon checking our mail, discovered an envelope from the IRS informing us that we were declared a non-profit corporation and furthermore a public charity. We were very excited about receiving this news due to it being the last milestone involving governmental paperwork. This classification means that any money individuals donate to A.D.A.M. are tax deductible and opens the door for us to pursue grant funding from corporations. We will also be searching for grants through local and state government. 

Fourth, we had our first fundraiser for A.D.A.M. on Sunday night. We consider the event a success and extend a heartfelt thank you to all whom participated. In addition, we are grateful to Ron and his staff at Suburban Lanes for their hospitality. We also express a thank you to all donors who did not bowl or could not attend the event. We encourage all of you to visit the silent auction donors, to include: Bone Island Grill, Daryl's Downtown, Gap, Swanscreek Candle, Jackson Coffee Company, Bob's Country Store, Casler Hardware, Schupachs Sporting Goods, B&H Electric, Peeks Services, Weatherwax Pharmacy and individual donors: Jerry Beiswanger, Sue Schroeder, Brent Sanders, and Rick Beiswanger.

Lastly, we have begun to market our services through personal communication to the general public. Now that we have our classification from the IRS, we will have pamphlets, and the new website soon. 

Staring at the stars,

Doug and Sara

02/23/09 - All...

The five month anniversary of Adam's passing came and went. Everything we read and hear says it will be two years before we have the same level of energy that we once had. Fatigue is evidently part of the healing process. Based on the level of fatigue we have, we guess we must be healing. We take tired to a whole new level.

We have found that the smallest of "triggers" can uncork an uncontrollable amount of emotions locked within us. We ran into one of the "triggers" when we came across Adam's baseball cleats. Wow, this one blind-sided us and took quite of while to get under control again.

On a brighter note, we did go the fish store for the first time in a very long time. Jenna and Anne picked out some new fish for the aquarium. We know Adam would want us to keep the aquarium going, so we have begun to add to it some more.

Anne won't leave our cat alone, so rather that getting rid or Anne, we have decided to get rid of the cat. If anyone wants an indoor de-clawed cat, current on all shots, please let us know. The cat comes with a free covered litter pan, litter, food, travel caddy. Doug promises to remove his foot from the cat's rear end prior to giving it away.

We are getting closer to the bowling fundraiser and still have some open spots. Be sure to email us if you would like a registration form. 

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

02/19/09 - All...

As always, so it took so long to get an update out. Between working and volunteering, time is cramped. 

We saw that the IRS cashed our check for the non-profit status we applied for, so hopefully we will have that back soon.

Spots are filling up for the bowling fundraiser, so anyone still interested that hasn't signed up yet be sure to email us we can get you the form to fill out. If anyone knows of any businesses that might want to donate door prizes, please let us know. For some teasing, here are some of the items that will be won that evening....a generator, a hand-made wooden picnic table, and two exquisite quilts. All of these items will go at great prices.

We will be attending an event is Cincinnati, OH, in March that benefits children with DIPG (what Adam had). We pray for safe travels.

As part of our counseling each week, we mention a high point and a low point of the previous week. Thought we would share one of each of these with you. For the high point, the snow melted and we can see the baseball diamond we made in the backyard again. For the low point, we are coming up on four months since losing Adam and we miss our son horribly. God, we pray for peace, the pain is excruciating.

We have run into some of you in the last weeks. Thank you to those that said hi. For the others, please don't be afraid to speak with us, it's okay not to know what to say. A simple hello goes a long way.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

02/06/09 - All...

Sorry for the lapse in updates over the last week and a half. Doug has been busy at work with the ending of the fiscal year. We are excited to share some updates with you.

First, we are still awaiting the final piece of mail from the I.R.S. After this, we are 100% set with everything that we need to really get going.

Second, we are doing our first fundraiser for A.D.A.M. on March 8, 2008. This will be a Doubles Bowling event, held at Suburban Lanes at 8pm. We have registration forms, so if anyone wants one, please get with us right away. We have a limited number of spots for bowlers and would like to fill up all the spots as soon as possible. The night promises fun, a 50/50 drawing, Strike Pot, Door Prizes, and a Silent Auction. If anyone would like to contribute to the event, but cannot attend it, we appreciate any support that we can get. 

Third, we now have two counselors that are going to help us out with the meetings and in some other support capacities. We would still like to add on some more counselors, so if anyone knows of one, please let us know so we may contact them or have them contact us.

We still struggle with our days and our nights. The kids are starting to let us know they miss Adam more and more each day. We so wish everything could be different for all of us, and all of you.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

01/26/09 - All...Another week passes and we do what we can to occupy our minds. We continue to find ourselves unable to control our emotions at times that we wish we could.

Sara has a new hobby. She has taken up scrap booking. Anyone with pictures of Adam that we might not have please consider forwarding them to us either electronically or printed out. 

In an effort to "find new things to do", we took ownership of a time share in Myrtle Beach, SC. A co-worker of Doug's was looking to unload it and the free price tag sealed the deal. We hope to maybe spend Adam's birthday there this year. If not in April, we are shooting for Halloween. 

Paperwork continues to slow our new grief support group, A.D.A.M., from being 100% created. This week we hope to get more paperwork completed for the IRS and new paperwork for the State of Michigan. We found a web-site designer to help us create the charity web-site. Rather than reinvent everything, we will be using this web address. We plan to still have a link to this blog so everyone can check in on us. So don't think you have the wrong web-site when we switch it over. 

Jenna continues to do well in school, and Anne adjusts weekly to having to go back to school each week. 

To grow awareness of children with DIPG (what Adam had), we wanted to share that two more children passed away in the last two weeks. We fear another will pass this week. We all need to encourage our politicians to fund more research for cancer in children. Two bills are going to be reintroduced to Congress this Spring. We hope they are passed.

Focused on Faith,

Doug and Sara

01/15/09 - All...Another busy week yes indeed. We continue to move forward with mounds of paperwork and running from one place to another still getting everything in place for Another Day Another Memory to begin support group meetings. We will continue to keep all of you in the loop as we keep moving forward with our efforts.

We have received offers of help and support for many of you. Thank you for continuing to help our families and helping us start this non-profit organization to help others in need.

Work has been slowing down for Doug and between the Michigan economy and the harsh cold weather, they are fighting for as much business as they can secure. Solid planning should help keep them on target.

We stop and visit the cemetery a couple times a week now with the cold weather. We had to shovel a path through the snow so we can get to Adam's marker without getting lost in the snow. The pain is still overwhelming when we go there. We know Adam forgives us for being so upset there. We miss him so much.

The house still seems too quiet. Anne has begun to play more by herself. Anne let us know today (again) that she is ready for Jesus to bring Adam home so he can play with his toys. Jenna still has high and low moments with the rest of us. There is no amount of fairness in the world for these two sisters to lose such a remarkable brother. The pain they feel hurts us something awful. 

We wish we could burn the memory of Adam playing outside in the snow into our minds so we would always have these memories. For all of you...take pictures of your loved ones. When you think you have enough pictures, go take a couple hundred more, someday you'll wish you had them.

As we approach four months from the day we lost Adam, we pray for continued strength to win the small battles that rage within each of us. We pray for all those families going through or will go through what we did. We pray for all the families that have lost children for all the other senseless reasons. Someone will receive news of their greatest fear today and everyday. For all of these families...we pray and will continue to pray.

God Grant Us Strength,

Doug and Sara

01/09/09 - All...What a couple of weeks. We have been busy working on A.D.A.M. We only have one step in the process of achieving non-profit public charity status from the IRS. We also now have an accounting firm on board and the liability insurance just about finalized. We have the trust account and the operating account open at our financial institution. We hope to finalize even more items we need to take care of next week.

We also hope to move forward with some marketing and networking aspects of growing our organization next week also. We will be calling in some favors as soon as we have a packet of information to hand out.

For the rest our time, we started back up at the group counseling we attend out of town. We find this helpful and hope that we can offer help to others in the future.

We have found that the smallest things can trigger our uncontrolled emotions regarding the loss of Adam. Simple shows on television, items in stores, a toy of his, or simply something we think he would have wanted can "pop" the top off the can of emotions we try to hard to keep closed each day. 

We again hope to do a better job of keeping everyone informed on where we are going with A.D.A.M.

May God bless us all,

Doug and Sara

12/30/08 - All...We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We wish for ourselves a blessed Advent and a productive new year of building our charity. Beyond that...we wish for better sleep, no more bad dreams, more good dreams, fewer headaches, the ability to control our emotions, and the mind-set to give forgive ourselves from what haunts us. For all of this, for all of you, and for so much more...We Pray.

We received our Federal Tax ID Number for A.D.A.M. and are now in the process of finalizing the bylaws for the corporation. After that, we await the Charitable Status from the I.R.S. and then onto forming the Board of Directors. We hope to also begin marketing and networking through local counties.

We know several are wondering how Christmas went for our families. We were blessed to have time spent with both of our families...this was very nice. Besides that, the holiday was extremely tough for us and we think we are still recovering from it.

The bases for our baseball diamond came in today and Doug will have them in place tomorrow (weather permitting). We really do hope to have pictures of this up soon for everyone to see. The bases really do look great.

As the year comes to end, we can't help but wonder how we will get through the upcoming "firsts" for us. More holidays and birthdays. More endless pain.

We have been slipping a bit with updates, but hope to continue to keep all of you in the know with us.

With trust in God,

Doug and Sara

12/22/08 - All...Yesterday (Sunday) Jenna turned 16. She is happy to finally achieve this milestone. We had a nice gathering with the family and made the most of the day.

Doug had some co-workers over for dinner on Sunday night after Jenna's party. We were blessed to have several of his co-workers join us for dinner. 

Sunday had its tough times. The house felt still felt empty, even with all the people we had over. We also were called when Sara's great-grandmother passed away in the afternoon. We were saddened by her loss, but know that she is with Adam now. 

We are three days from Christmas. We wish we could begin hibernating now and come out after the first of the year. The days seem so much longer this week and the pain is much harder to hide this week. Holding it back till the end of the day isn't working well this week, and the week isn't close to being over yet. God grant us strength.

Praying for strength,

Doug and Sara

12/17/08 - All...We miss Adam terribly.

With tired minds, and exhausted souls, we still push forward the best we can. A second doesn't go by that we forget, no minute go by that we don't grieve, no hour goes by that we don't wonder, and no day goes by that we don't cry. For more seconds, minutes, hours, and days...we Pray to you Lord.

Our attorney forwarded a copy of the paperwork filed with the State of Michigan. Our Articles of Incorporation were accepted and we have been recognized as a Corporation in the State of Michigan. Next step...Corporate Bylaws. Then on to the US Government for a tax identification number and classification as a non-profit corporation. All this will most likely take to the middle of the summer. We can however move forward with necessary steps to begin meetings before then. Another Day Another Memory (A.D.A.M.) was officially brought to life December 11, 2008.

We did receive a very nice letter from President George Bush and his wife Laura. They thanked Sara for her letter to them and expressed their condolences for our loss of Adam. We were honored to receive this piece of mail today.

We are a week away from Christmas. We Pray for God to grant us strength. We know we will need it. We apologize in advance for our swollen eyes, increased irritability, and inability to focus on much of anything.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

12/10/08 - All...Only 21 days till January 2nd. A day that simply marks we made it through the holidays; a day that simply means we have somehow gotten stronger than we ever thought we could; another day that reminds us of the hole left in our souls.

We miss our little man.

Doug and Sara

12/07/08 - All...As Christmas approaches, so does an increased amount of heartache for all of us. Songs of holiday cheer for children bring us to tears. Songs of children in the presence of God do the same. Our eyes ache nearly as much as our hearts. Our bodies are tired, and we long for the day we can hold Adam again. May God grant us increased peace.

We put up one of the two trees we will put up for Christmas this year. The one that went up today (Sunday) was the tree we purchased while staying at Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, TN. Merely opening the box for the tree was overwhelming and left us in utter sadness. We put the tree up and decorated with ornaments that Adam had picked out during his short time with us, along we some we made in his honor since we had lost him. This tree sits in the foyer of our home, nearly across from the door to his bedroom. Finishing this one today collapsed us emotionally, leaving our second tree, the normal one we would have set up if our lives were more normal, to go up tomorrow (Monday).

We did start paperwork last week to establish Another Day Another Memory (A.D.A.M.) as a Non-Profit Business. We should be finished the paperwork for the State of Michigan early next year and the U.S. Government paperwork mid-year to the fall. This business will be primarily a grief support organization for children that lose a sibling and parents that lose a child. We hope to be able to continually share updates on our progress as time goes by. Our goal is help others, and create a legacy for Adam that we (and all of you) can be proud of.

We continue to urge everyone to better the lives of those around you. Whether that be some you know or someone you don't know, please make a difference in someone's life. You all made a difference in our lives, please don't stop there. Others still need your love and support.

May God truly bless all of us.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

11/29/08 - All...Thanksgiving Day came and went. We are sure Adam was proud of us for going to both of our families celebrations on that day. While we visited a short period at both, we did make it there, an accomplishment none the less.

We did begin our Thanksgiving Day the way we wanted to. We went to Mass at St. Mary's and then went to the cemetery. Adam's marker is in place, and we will get pictures on the web-site soon. We should get these pictures along with the tattoo pictures posted that we haven't done yet.

Doug is coping the best he can at work. Being surrounded by thousands of people each week so full of happiness and in the holiday spirit, not feeling it yourself, leaves one emotionally crashing at the end of each day. Thanks to those between work and home that have allowed him to express this emotion in person or over the telephone. 

We have got most of our holiday shopping completed and decided to take on two other children through the "Angel Tree" sponsored by the local Social Services office. We have a new understanding of life, and wanted to improve the lives of some other children. 

We have pressed the "pause" button in our lives and evaluated where we are were headed. While we can't press "rewind" to correct everything that we wish we could, we can press "stop" and change where the story was headed. We are striving to write better chapters in our stories. We encourage all to do the same.

A family friend visualized a picture the other day with Doug. He visualized Adam sitting on the lap of Jesus, free from any pain and worry. What a beautiful image. Emotional, yes, but somewhat peaceful.

Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

11/22/08 - All...The Holidays are upon us and seem as they are a big blur. Our heartache dominates our days and nights, and we have no real idea of how to ease our pain. Our Faith grants us some level of Peace, but Peace only takes part of the sorrow away. We miss Adam terribly.

May God grant us continued Peace; the Peace we need to understand what we do not know, and the understanding to accept that this is all part of God's plan. For this, we Pray.

A.D.A.M.

A.nother 
D.ay 
A.nother 
M.emory

We miss and love you bud.

Doug and Sara

11/19/08 - All...Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and we wish it could just be over and done with. Only forty-two days left in the year, and counting them down each and every day. Not that next year will be any easier, but at least we don't have all the extra stuff to deal with.

Work for Doug is busy. He can't wait for his next vacation in the spring. He is very appreciative of the team that he works with. On his good days, they are there to stand behind him. On his bad days, they do an excellent job of standing in front of him, shielding him from what he doesn't need to be a part of. We are grateful for each and every one of you.

Sara is busy keeping the house together and continually defining the "new normal". Having her home is a nice change for the family, providing some stability that we hadn't had before.

Jenna and Anne are still working through their grief in their own ways, both using age appropriate means of getting through it. We wish them any form of peace they can get at their ages.

We read something at church this last weekend that we thought we would share. "Help keep Christ in Christmas". Wow, so simple, but so true. We want to keep Christmas awesome for our children, but also want them to better understand what the Holiday is truly about.

Searching for more Peace,

Doug and Sara

11/14/08 - All...One year ago today (Friday) Adam was diagnosed with the brain stem tumor that took him from this world less than two months ago. With that, you can guess how our week has gone.

Sara had a good dream about Adam last night. We again believe that Adam was letting us know that he is still with us. As he knows, we so miss holding him.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

11/12/08 - All...Work is getting busier for Doug. All the Christmas decor, toys, and Holiday music at work could all go away and Doug would be fine with it.

Sara has adjusted to Doug being gone more now that he is back to work full time. The house can get very quiet and this will continue to take some getting use to. 

We did attend another support group meeting last night (Tuesday). There was another couple there that we met for the first time. Scott and Melissa lost there son in a traffic accident earlier this year. We could feel their pain as they told us of their story. Our prayers go out to them.

We meet next week with our attorney regarding the setup of our support group as a non-profit corporation. We want to make sure we do everything right so Adam's legacy continues, without any oops.

We still hope the bases for the diamond come in soon. We want to get them in place and then share pictures with all of you. Hopefully Adam's marker will come in quickly too. We really want that in place too.

Thank you all again for the cards, email, and prayers.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

11/05/08 - All...I want to share something from another father that lost his son. Thank you for taking the time to read this and feel free to pass it on. Doug

I have tried to make the lies, damn lies and statistics posted a bit more user-friendly:

We have all been lead to believe that childhood cancer is rare. And, when you look at the number of cases, it is. But, is the number of cases the only number we should be looking at when comparing it to other cancers? I don't think it is. I think we should also look at the total number of years of life lost (Person Years Life Lost or PYLL) for each cancer. And then compare funding based on the number of years of life lost for each cancer. Basically, a method to "level the playing field" and compare apples to apples. 

So there are two questions:
#1 - How many years of potential life are stolen by each cancer?
#2 - Are the funding dollars per life year lost fair and equitable?

For example, the average age for a new case of prostate cancer is 68 years old, and the 5 year survival rate is 99%. That means that 1% of those new cases will die within 5 years, at or before age 73. The average age of death from all causes in the US is 77. So, on average, each case of prostate cancer results in a loss of 4 years of life (PYLL). 

So then we calculate the total number of years of life lost (PYLL) for prostate cancer. In 2007 there were 186,320 new cases. The latest 5 year survival is 99%. So, of those new cases, there will be 1,863 deaths from prostate cancer within 5 years. As we said above, each case represents 4 years of life lost. So, 1,863 deaths x 4 years of life lost = 7,453 total years of life lost (PYLL). 

Then we look at funding. Prostate cancer received $15 million in 2007 from the American Cancer Society. So, $15 million divided by 7,453 years of life lost = $2,013 per year of life lost. 

Is that good or bad? Well, you have to do the calculations for each cancer and compare the answers. 

First, lets look at the number of life years lost for the 10 most prevalent adult cancers and include childhood cancer.

Childhood cancer results in the fifth highest number of life-years lost to any type of cancer. This FACT alone should eliminate any discussion of the "rareness" of cancer in children. A total of 178,750 potential life-years are lost to childhood cancer.

These are life's that NEVER get a chance to VOTE or ADVOCATE for more funding! Life's that NEVER get to DEMONSTRATE and PROTEST in front of the White House on September 13th......you in?!

Ok, so now to be fair to everyone with cancer, let's make sure the funding for each potential life year lost is equal.

Surprise, surprise, it's NOT! And guess who's at the bottom of the list? So, after "leveling the playing field" we can see that funding is simply NOT fair and equitable for all types of cancer! And childhood cancers get the lowest amount of funding per year of life lost when compared to the 10 most prevalent adult cancers. Guess who votes? Guess who advocates?

So, don't ever be swayed by the "rareness" of childhood cancer argument. And don't ever let them tell you the funding is appropriate based on the number of cases. Those are the lies they want us to believe.

I mean if you compare the number of rifle and machine gun bullets expended in World War II, the number of atomic bombs dropped was "rare". But the effect was just the same.....

All data is directly from the following sources:

National Cancer Institute (NCI) - 2007 Fact Book and "Snapshot of Pediatric Cancer" 
Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) - SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2005 
American Cancer Society (ACS)- Cancer Facts & Figures 2008. 
CureSearch 

11/05/08 - All...The weather here has been nice the last few days. Hitting seventy degrees in November is a real milestone. We have been able to catch up on some things in the yard with the comfortable temperatures outside.

We have been slowing taking down Halloween decorations this week. This was the holiday Adam really helped us decorate for this year. We took pictures of where everything was so we know where to put it back next year.

We have run into some friends over the past few days that we haven't seen or spoken to in some time. It was nice to catch up with all of you.

The holiday season is upon us now, and work for Doug has begun to pickup somewhat already. The holiday music is quite annoying, listening to it all day long leaves you wanting to wear ear plugs...all day long.

In closing, beyond all of this, we miss our little man. Adam...we miss you bud.

Doug and Sara

11/03/08 - All...This horrible disease has caused four more children that we know of in the past three days to earn their Angel Wings. Another family, in Lansing, MI, learned of negative progression in their son's prognosis. Our hearts ache for all of these families and so many more. This causes us to continue to strive for ways to "Wake Up Washington". These are children we are losing and more research must be done. Stories of these children can be found on www.icouldbeyourchild.org. 

We caught Anne kissing our digital picture frame over and over tonight, as each picture changed, she would kiss Adam and the other family members in it. Finally she turned to us, smiling from ear to ear, and proudly let us know she was kissing Adam. She goes to bed each evening praying for Adam. We know she and Jenna miss him so much. We wish we could take some of their pain away.

Today was the first day someone totally blind-sided Doug with the "How's your son Adam doing?". It wasn't their fault, but that really sucked.

Overall, the last couple of days have been very tough. Do yourself a favor; go find someone you love and tell them. Hold them, simply because you can. 

With Hope and Faith,

Doug and Sara

11/02/08 - All...The weekend had great weather. We did our best to enjoy it. Halloween was Friday night and we all dressed up. We know Adam is proud of us for doing so. 

Saturday was a long day filled with work for Doug and getting some last minute cleanup done in the yard for Sara. 

Sunday was a full day. We had Mass in the morning, Anne's birthday party in the afternoon, and a service for "All Souls Day" back at the church in the evening. We learned that Adam was one of three children lost during the last year from our church.

We struggled with the loss of Adam all weekend, this being the first celebrated "holiday" since we lost him. We are sure Thanksgiving and Christmas will be worse, but have begun to learn to slow our lives and what we are working on down when the need arises. Slowly, and with support, we will survive.

Some pieces of the puzzle to start a support group in Jackson have already come together. We have the support of a licensed counselor and a facility that will sponsor our location to meet. After the holidays, we really want to move forward quickly with this project. We will let you all know more when we can.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

10/28/08 - All...We are doing what we can to stay busy and cope in whatever ways we find helpful. The house, and our lives feel so empty. 

We did go to the cemetery again today. We sure wish Adam's marker comes in before the snow starts coming and covering the ground. Starting the first of November, we can put flowers and greenery back out at the cemetery. For now, we still use cut flowers for Adam.

We have joined a new organization in the fight against childhood cancer and raising the awareness of childhood cancer. The web-site is http://www.curechildhoodcancer.ning.com if anyone would like to check it out. There is also access to a petition there that we are asking everyone at least read, and of course sign the petition if you support it. Also for anyone that doesn't mind, please email those you know so we can all continue to grow awareness and support for this cure.

Anne's birthday and Halloween is Friday. We are not having her birthday party Friday, but are inviting anyone that needs a place to trick or treat to come with us. Adults are encouraged to dress up. Maybe we'll see some of you around.

Tonight (Tuesday) we are attending a support group for the first time in Ann Arbor, MI. We are nervous for some reason about going, probably just anticipation of grieving with others. 

We are still looking at organizing a new support group in Jackson, MI, in January, 2009. For anyone that lost a child, knows someone who lost a child, or somehow was affected in a different way, please share our email address with them. We will be looking for others interested in helping new families with tragedies, as well as people looking for group support. I'm sure we will need all forms of help that anyone has to offer.

Lastly, we truly hope all of you and your families are well. Remember, don't be afraid to help someone else out if you think they need it. Even if they didn't need the help, at least you know you did the right thing by offering.

Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

10/22/08 - All...The weather has been changing and fall is certainly here in Michigan. We miss Adam helping in the yard and playing with the leaves.

Doug finished his first partial week of work since he went back. Focusing is such a chore and he finds himself lost throughout the days. All part of searching for our new "normal".

Sara is learning to cope with the house being much quieter, especially when Doug is at work and the kids are both in school (Anne for part of the day/week). Again, searching for our new "normal".

Anne has her birthday next week. She is very excited about turning three. We want to make sure she has a great day and are trying to stay focused on assuring she does.

Jenna had a choir concert last night and sang well. We hope she gets the opportunity to keep singing and works her way up to doing solo performances.

We continue to struggle throughout parts of each day. We continue to be grateful for the support you all have provided.

Focusing on Faith,

Doug and Sara

10/20/08 - All...The lights are all set and hooked up on our memorial rock garden. As soon as the bases are done, we will set them and get pictures up so everyone can see them. Having family in the electrical business has sure paid off, the lights come on and off automatically now. The entire project give us another place to mourn our loss and remember the inspiration Adam gives us daily.

We wont make it to group counseling tomorrow on its scheduled night because Jenna has a choir concern. For anyone in the area, it starts at 7PM. Feel free to come if you need something to do for an evening. We hope she does well tomorrow and has a good time.

Anne is adjusting to preschool very well and has her favorite teacher to hang out with. She has stopped getting really upset when we drop her off. This has made it much easier to leave and reduced the amount of worry we had while she was there. 

Focusing on Faith,
Doug and Sara

10/18/08 - All...Thank you all for the positive thoughts and your continued prayers.

Doug has made much progress on the memorial baseball rock garden. He has put a total of approximately four and a half tons of rock there. We hope we will have the electrical done in the next few days. We then hope to post pictures of the rock garden in the daylight and night hours. We can tell already much time will be spent here reflecting on our thoughts.

We did go to Ann Arbor, MI, this week to meet with a support group. Of course Jackson has nothing to offer, so we are forced to go elsewhere again. On a good note, we may be deciding to start a support group in Jackson for ourselves and others that live this nightmare. We hope to decide on this after we define what our new "normal" lives will be like.

Doug did return to work at Sam's Club today (Saturday). He would describe today as one of the toughest days in his fifteen years with the company and did manage to make it home before the pain overwhelmed him. Day two comes later in the week. God grant him strength.

Struggling,

Doug and Sara

10/13/08 - All...We returned from our trip yesterday (Sunday) and Doug spent the rest of the day working on the memorial in the backyard. Monday Doug and Jenna finished the trim work and began laying stone. We hope to have the baseball memorial finished by the end of the week.

Adam's Uncle Rick got together with a family friend named Kevin on Saturday and constructed a full size bench for us to put at our baseball memorial. This was truly awesome to receive. We wanted a way to sit at the memorial and now we have the perfect way to do so. Thank you to Rick and Kevin.

Doug goes back to work on Saturday. We hope his day goes well. He is taking a couple of short weeks going back and then will step into things full tilt for the holiday season. A very long, tough season it will be.

We hope to be in some group counseling this week. We have to travel to Ann Arbor, MI, for this. We wish there was a group locally, but we unable to find one. As with Pediatric Hospice, Jackson, MI, lacks this also.

We continue to appreciate all the support we have received. While we may be slow to thank all of you, please know that we are grateful and very appreciative.

Deep in reflection,

Doug and Sara

10/11/08 - All...We took off for the weekend, landing in Mackinaw City. We are spending two nights here and then returning home on Sunday. We are sure some time away is somehow good for us, but our thoughts remain lost. We spent some time on the beach this evening listening to the waves and staring up at the sky. 

Jenna and Anne stayed in Jackson so we look forward to picking them up and returning home tomorrow. 

With heavy hearts,

Doug and Sara

10/09/08 - All...Today (Thursday) we spent much of the day cleaning out the garage and the shed. The last time we did this semi-annual chore was two years ago. While a clean garage always looks nice, the task was tough, and we found ourselves remembering all the times Adam played with his toys.

We planted the last of the flowers we needed to get done from the funeral home today. Adam would be happy that we got this done and made the yard look better. We wish he was here to help us.

Missing our little man,

Doug and Sara

10/07/08 - All...Today (Tuesday) had its ups and downs for us. We did spend some time with a Hospice Counselor and have all but decided to take part in some group counseling for grief. We have decided that grief sucks. It really, really, sucks.

Doug will be returning to work shortly and will begin the process of defining a new "normal" day. 

Anne is adjusting well to preschool and has made some new friends to play with there. We are glad to offer her some routine a few days a week.

Jenna is still trying to get over her annual cold. We hope through medicine and wearing seasonally correct clothing we can keep her cold away for the rest of the upcoming months.

We have received some more mail and email from several people we have never met. We are grateful for all the support and positive thoughts you have shared.

Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

10/04/08 - All...Yesterday (Friday) we finalized Adam's headstone and ordered it. The headstone should be in place in the next six to eight weeks. We hoped it wouldn't take this long, however, this is the standard time frame. As with everything else we have done thus far, we strive to honor Adam with his headstone. His headstone will honor him as a Power Ranger.

Mass with intentions for Adam was held tonight and will be held next Saturday night also. We went to Mass tonight and spent much of our time thinking about and praying for Adam. We feel close to him when we are there. 

Doug spent part of the day working on the memorial rock garden in the backyard. He guessed short on some of the pieces and will be searching Menards surrounding Jackson for what he needs tomorrow. In any case, progress was made and the work so far looks great.

Sara is starting to put the house back together. What a painful process this has been. Adam made an impact on every room in the house.

We also started working on Thank You cards today. With each one, we have memories of Adam. These are going much slower than we had hoped. We are going to try to get these all done this week.

We think the stress has increased this week over last. We don't really know why, but it lurks in the back of our minds, and rears itself more that we would like. 

Hoping for more Faith,

Doug and Sara

10/02/08 - All...Adam passed away eleven days ago and the pain we feel is agonizing. We feel an emptiness that has no end. Blank stares into nowhere consume parts of our days. We have given up on focusing on anything that we don't have to, simply because we can't concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. 

We did spend some more time tonight visiting Adam at the cemetery. We should have final plans for his marker completed and ordered this week. We hope by some chance we can get it in place before snow accumulates on the ground.

The tree that Sam's Clubs in Detroit purchased us was delivered on Monday. Doug came up with the idea of building a memorial around it. He is in the process of building an eighteen foot by eighteen foot memorial surrounding the tree. We will get pictures up when it is done. 

Consumed by grief,

Doug and Sara

09/30/08 - The following is what we wished we had the strength to share with all of you at Adam’s Mass. With Faith, Doug

Adam… 

Adam Douglas…

Adam Douglas Beiswanger… was an “old soul”. My wife and I knew this but until this last week did not know the term used to describe someone with the mannerisms of Adam at such a young age. So smart, so caring, so thoughtful, and so compassionate. 

My son was born into this word in Jackson, MI, on April 7, 2003. At the time, Adam had already been blessed with an older sister, Jenna that was 11 at the time of Adam’s birth. Two years after Adam’s birth, he was blessed with a younger sister, Anne. He now had an older sister to look up to, and a younger sister to protect. Now they both look up to him and protect each other.

Adam was reborn to eternal life at the age of five. Adam taught those that knew him or learned of him several lessons throughout his life. Although Adam was so young, he still taught me several lessons. I will share five of these lessons I learned while loving and caring for him:

First, children can be ill and can be healed through science and prayer. I learned this twice when Adam had surgeries at age five weeks and at nine months. Through science and prayer, he did extremely well with both of these surgeries.

Second, there is nothing stronger than the love between a parent and their child. I love Adam indescribably. I also learned that moms are blessed with the gift of being able to smile, even at the worst moments, when their child needs it most. Sara used this gift often and Adam was a happier child because of it. Adam has the best mom.

Third, that love is meant to be shared. Adam and all of you taught me this lesson. While Adam may have been my son and we loved each other dearly, our love was meant to be shared with all of you. Adam received messages from several of you that contained words of love and encouragement for him. While your message was for Adam, I believe your messages also reminded you yourself to focus more on loving others close to you.

Fourth, share in your good fortune. Fortune does not mean great monetary wealth. Fortune represents the things you are blessed with. Adam taught us that it is ok to make or purchase a gift for someone, without any official reason such as a holiday or a birthday. Adam used his creativity and drawing to make small gifts for others. Adam would love to mail or deliver these gifts. These gifts are now priceless. Making a meal, sending a card, calling someone, or giving a gift to someone less fortunate are ways Adam taught us to share good will. Adam was always so thoughtful of others, even asking if we could have his sixth birthday party at Little Caesars so everyone can come again.

Lastly, and perhaps the most painful, children can sometimes be ill and not healed through science and prayer. I believe that millions of prayers were said for Adam. While they were all heard, we all were left to remember that sometimes our loved ones are called home to God for reasons unknown to us.

While these five lessons share so much with all of you, I remind all of us that Adam’s legacy is not just impacted by us as his parents, but rather his legacy is impacted by all of you. As you think of Adam, improve the lives of those around you. Whether for a friend or a stranger, strive to impact the lives of others. By doing this, you also keep Adam’s legacy going strong.

I pray God grants peace to our families, to our friends, and to all others that need it. 

Thank you.

09/28/08 - All...Our hearts are heavy and we miss our little man every minute of the day. We still struggle with the simplest of things. We pray that time will lessen our wounds.

We have thoughts of Adam to share later in the week, but we did want to say thank you to a few people today. 

Wetherby Funeral Home did an outstanding job with Adam and all the little things behind the scenes to make sure that we, along with our families, were taken care of. Chris and his team there were very respectful and allowed us all the time we needed with Adam each day. Thank you all.

Father Reilly at St Mary's gave Adam a remarkable service and we know Adam was proud to be a member of the Parish. Thank you Father Reilly and team.

As many boys are, Adam was a huge fan of police officers. Adam always thought it was great when Doug and his partners would stop by the house so he could see the police cars up close. As an unexpected honor, Adam received a police escort to his final resting place from the Jackson County Sheriffs Department. Thank you to the Command Staff, Sgt. Wayne Bisard, Sgt. Andy Anderson, and the others that expressed their condolences. 

May God keep us strong.

Doug and Sara

09/26/08 - All...Yesterday (Wednesday) was a very long, tough day for us. Adam had so many visitors we couldn't remember all of them. At least we will have the registry books to remind us of who could make it out of see us. 

We received so many great comments from several of you and your continued prayers are greatly appreciated. 

This morning we met with Father Reilly and planned the Mass for Adam. We think Adam will like what we planned for him. 

The afternoon and evening left was filled with visitation times at the funeral home. The evening session was extremely busy with people coming and going.

There will be no eulogy tomorrow at Mass. Doug wanted to speak about Adam but knows he wouldn't be able to make it through the speech, so we will be sharing what we wanted to express to all of you by placing it on this web-site. We should get this up in the next couple days.

Overcome with grief,

Doug and Sara

09/23/08 - All...We ran a couple errands today in the morning. We were able to go to the funeral home after that and spend some time with Adam. Even though we didn't see him yesterday, we took him some items so he knew we were there to make arrangements for him. Today we took him even more things we think he would have wanted there.

Our little man looked very sharp. 

We miss him so much.

Doug and Sara

09/22/08 - All...Our hearts ache like we cannot describe. Thank you all for the words of encouragement. Here are the basic arrangements for the services of Adam Beiswanger.

Visitation
Wetherby Funeral Home
Wednesday and Thursday
2pm - 4pm
6pm - 8pm (Rosary 7:30pm Thursday)

Funeral
St Marys Church 
Friday
10:30am

God Grant Us Peace,

Doug and Sara

09/21/08 - All...At approximately 5:30pm this evening, Adam went home to our Lord. We know that he feels no pain and suffers no more. May God bless our little man.

Adam Douglas Beiswanger
April 7, 2003 - September 21, 2008

Doug and Sara

09/21/08 - All...Adam has begun to prepare himself for his journey to everlasting life. We are doing everything that we can to keep him comfortable and let him know that we are here with him. An evaluation of him today leaves him with hours to days before he will be in the presence of God, with no more pain and no more suffering.

Concerned for Adam, we contacted his on-call nurse this morning to have Adam evaluated. The nurse let us know of Adam drastic decline in his condition.

Father Reilly came to the house today and Adam received Confirmation. Father Reilly also prayed for us and with us. Father Reilly, we are grateful.

We know that so many of you have been and are now grieving with us. We greatly appreciate ALL of the support, care, love, and prayers given to our family during these horrible and trying times. We are forever grateful.

We ask God to protect our memories and give us guidance while we hold Adam and help him along this journey. We ask God to grant us Peace and to provide us the Faith we need. We ask our family members that went before him to welcome him to everlasting life, hold him for us, and comfort him. More than all, we ask God to hold Adam in his loving arms and free him from all that ails him. For this we pray.

For all that pray...Please Pray For Adam.

Doug and Sara

09/20/08 - All...Adam has been sleeping the last 24 hours. We hope he wakes us up in the middle of the night and wants to at least drink something. God give him strength.

For this we pray,

Doug and Sara

09/19/08 - All...We send this update with tired and heavy hearts. Adam is fighting. He went yesterday seizure free. We made a quick trip to Jackson Crossing and had us decorating the house for Halloween the rest of the afternoon. 

This morning he started the day at 7:00AM with seizures. We had to use his second medication to stop them. His nurse made her scheduled appointment about noon and he had more seizures shortly after her arrival. We had to use his second medication again to stop the seizures. This was the first time we had to do use this medication twice in the same day.. This second dose, along the with seizures, left Adam drained and very tired the rest of the day. We hope these seizures were just due to him adjusting to his new medications, but are very worried none the less.

Dr. Taylor made another house call this evening to check on Adam and the rest of the family. We are grateful for his support through our situation. We discussed Adam's medications and overall quality of life to assure we are doing all that we can. 

Anne finished her first week of preschool yesterday and we think she had fun. She is adjusting to being left alone at school. She cries when left but is fine after we are actually gone. We think this structure will be good for her.

Struggling,

Doug and Sara

09/17/08 - All...Yesterday (Tuesday) we expected that Adam would have seizures due to not taking his medicine on Sunday night and all day Monday. We were right on this guess, Adam had four seizures. We were able to stop with his second medicine. We now have a different medicine that we can give him for seizure prevention if he doesn't want or can't drink his normal medicine. We also now have his steroid in a cream form that we can put on him if/when he can't drink that either. Although Adam's seizure medication is not built up in his body still today, we pray that he can go today without any of these.

We still need to make some decisions regarding the rest of Adam's medications and his chemotherapy since he hasn't been able to these in a few days also. We pray for peace of mind in making these decisions also.

Today (Wednesday), school was to start for Adam and Anne. Anne went but we want to get Adam's seizure medication under control again before taking him. We hope to be able to take Adam next week. Anne was excited to go, that is until the time actually came to do so. She was a bit nervous, as expected, but we think that she will do fine.

This week has been very tough for us, with changes in Adam and school starting for him and Anne. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We think of so many of you often and believe this is when your prayers are reaching us.

May God Bless Us All,

Doug and Sara

09/15/08 - All...Adam didn't make it out of the house this weekend. With the weather from hurricane Ike coming to town and him being so worn out we left shopping up to him. He didn't want to go shopping. 

Adam did get some craft projects completed this weekend, primarily having us do most of the work for him. He is struggling with coloring as he once did and has some more weakness in his arms and neck. We pray for him to regain strength.

We are pretty sure we made it through the weekend without any seizures. Even without these, Adam is more tired than the past weeks.

We had a nice surprise on Sunday. Adam's Great-Grandmother Nancy delivered dinner for us so we didn't have to cook. A great meal and we didn't have to do a thing. Thank you.

Adam struggled with taking his medications Sunday night. We hope he has an easier time today (Monday). 

Praying for more Hope, Faith, and Understanding.

Doug and Sara

09/12/08 - All...Thursday Adam remained worn out most of the day. He took a couple of naps to catch up on some energy. The day did go seizure free. For this we are grateful. Thank you to all that prayed for him to stop having seizures.

Today (Friday) Adam remained seizure free. Adam still seems worn out. He is eating some meals much better than others. We continue to feed him whatever he wants to eat, trying to keep his weight and protein up.

We hope we can end the week tomorrow on a good note. We hope Adam is up to leaving the house so we can take him shopping somewhere. He hasn't been out of the house in week and we hope some fresh air will be good for him. 

Jenna and Anne are doing good. Jenna is glad to be back in school and being entertained by all it has to offer. Anne is still "crazy Anne", running all over the house and letting her imagination run wild. On our most stressful days, these two can still make us smile.

We are tired, worried, and just plain worn out. We hope maybe the weekend can provide us some time to catch up physically and mentally.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

09/10/08 - All...Tuesday Adam spent much of the day recovering from the medicine we had to give him to stop his seizures from Monday. The seizures also take a physical toll on him. He was in good spirits most of the day but didn't eat real well due to being so worn out. He looked very tired. He did go Tuesday seizure free though.

We saw Zak (Sam's Club Jackson) and his wife Heather this afternoon at the our house. We had a good time visiting. Thanks for stopping out to the house.

Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jerry brought over dinner tonight. A great meal and we didn't have to make it. Thank you. Adam slept through dinner and woke up as we were cleaning up. We were hoping he would have a good appetite to compensate for his light lunch. 

Unfortunately, Adam had three seizures and we had to give him his other medicine that pretty much knocks him out. This really sucks for him. His stomach will growl all night now. Our hope is that he will wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat. We will gladly make him whatever he wants.

Worried,

Doug and Sara

09/08/08 - All...We received the answer to our concerns from the weekend. Adam had four seizures today. We stopped them using his second seizure medicine. After meeting with his Hospice nurses and conversing with Dr Taylor, we have increased his seizure medicine one again. We pray this increase in medicine resolves the issue and doesn't bother Adam.

Stressed,

Doug and Sara

09/07/08 - All...Adam had a good weekend. Saturday he saw some family here at the house. Sunday, he attended the baptism of his cousin Alex and the birthday party of his cousin Jonah. Both of these events went well. Congratulations to Alex and Happy Birthday to Jonah.

We are concerned with the strength of Adam's arms. He seems weaker in the arms and his dexterity seems to have worsened. He wasn't able to color as well as he has in the past or write his name today. 

Adam also had about three times during the weekend when we are not sure if he was just upset, or if he may of had small seizures. We are still trying to figure this one out.

We should get Adam's blood test results tomorrow some time. We hope with him being off his chemotherapy for most of last week that these numbers are better. He should be starting chemotherapy again Tuesday night for a period of three weeks. We pray for him to have strength and benefit from this round of chemotherapy.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

09/02/08 - All...Adam is still stable. We did receive his blood work results from last Friday and were pleased to learn that his numbers improved. Adam doesn't seem as worn out this week either. 

We made our decision regarding Adam and school this year. When we first discussed kindergarten with Adam, he became upset and withdrawn. This is where our initial concerns came from. After speaking with Jackson County ISD, we have decided that Adam will be attending the preschool at Jackson Area Career Center again this year. When we took this news to Adam, he became very excited and emotional. With all that is going on, we feel this is the best decision to support Adam's positive atmosphere and quality of life. We thank the Jackson County ISD and the Career Center Child Development Staff for helping us with this tough decision.

Adam has been busy this week working on his arts and crafts projects. We have ordered some more online due to having completed all that is available at the retailers in town. 

Jenna goes back to school tomorrow. We are glad that she will be back on a routine to occupy her time. School, sports, and work should be good for her this year.

Focused with Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/29/08 - All...Adam has remained stable and seizure free this week. He has continued to spend much of his time on painting and artwork. We now have a need to put up more shelving to show off all of his work. 

Adam had blood work again today. We hope his numbers got better again this week. He had chemotherapy until Tuesday and then has a week off it. We hope and pray that the off week will give his body some time to get better also.

This week has been very tough and emotional for us. The week before school is to start and we have some tough decisions to make. Adam points out what he wants to buy in the ads for school but shuts down when we talk about going to kindergarten. We want him to go, but not if it is going to make him depressed. We spoke with the school district and they are willing to do whatever they can, wherever they can. We are very thankful for this. We will make a final choice of what is best for him on Monday morning. We think we know what we are going to do, but we pray for peace of mind in our decision.

Sara went to get a tattoo two weeks ago. Doug went this week. Sara picked one of Adam's artwork pieces and had it put on her ankle with her signature. Doug had Adam portrait put on his arm, along with some wording. We will get pictures of these up on the web soon.

This weekend will be our seventh wedding anniversary. With all that is going on, we don't have anything planned, but do hope to have a peaceful day with the kids. Maybe some take-out so we don't have to cook. Maybe a bottle of wine to go with it. Maybe a simple wish that it could all be the way we want it to be. Maybe.

With all our Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/24/08 - All...Adam had a good week. While we couldn't be around too many other people, we passed the time working on all kinds of special projects. We painted what we built and will have them on display around the house soon.

We should hear back on Adam's lab work tomorrow. We hope his numbers come back higher than the previous weeks. In any case, Adam had high spirits most of the week and we were glad for that.

Jenna, some of her friends, and Doug returned today from Columbus, OH. A quick overnight trip to go to the Jonas Brothers concert. This was a nice chance for Jenna to get away and the girls had a blast. Doug was fortunate enough to be entertained by Adam's Aunt Sara and her man Greg that drove over from Dayton, OH, and a couple of friends he worked with in Columbus, OH. An early start this morning had them home about lunch time. 

We hope to have another calm and uneventful week. 

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/19/08 - All...Adam's blood work came back worse than the previous week. Based on these numbers, he is currently vulnerable to viral infections, so we have locked him in the house and visitors can only see us through the windows and doors. We hope we can gets these numbers to improve this week. More blood work on Friday.

On a brighter note, Adam has a loose tooth. At first this worried us, thinking it was related to his chemotherapy or radiation. After gathering our wits, we noticed a new tooth coming in under the loose one. We relaxed and realized this was all normal. Yea...A visit very soon from the Tooth Fairy.

Our Hospice team has been great, checking in on Adam three or four times a week right now. We also had a visit from the Hospice Chaplin last week. A great team of support they are for us.

Father Reilly from St. Mary's here in Jackson came to the house today to spend some time with Adam and the family. It was truly great to have him come to the house.

Celebrating Jenna's 16th birthday early, she and some friends will be going to a Jonas Brothers concert Saturday night. We hope she has a great time.

Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/17/08 - All...It has been a busy week. Fortunately, Adam has been stable all week. He had some issues with a lack of bathroom breaks, but we have helped him work all that out. He made a few trips to some stores, for household supplies and of course some toys.

Adam's blood work last Friday showed his protein was a little low. We are now trying to add protein powder to some of what Adam eats or drinks. Adam must have the best taste buds out there because he can normally tell if we altered his food with anything. We hope that his blood work from this Friday will look better.

Jenna and Uncle Rick traveled Thursday to Kansas City to represent our family at the worldwide meeting for Sam's Club. They did a great job appreciating Sam's Club for all they have done for our family. We are extremely fortunate that Doug works for such a caring company. Zak Martin, Jackson's Sam's Club Manager, was recognized for spear-heading the efforts of the company to help us out. Thanks Zak.

Jenna and Uncle Rick did get to spend some time with Executives of the company and Managers all over the country that are thinking and praying for Adam. Again, we are grateful for all the thoughts, prayers, and support. We would also like to appreciate Sharon Orlopp from the Sam's Club People Division for sharing the story of Adam, Zak, and the communities overall supporting us.

Sara's friend Shannon from Wilmington, NC, came to visit for a few days. This will be great for Sara and Shannon to catch up and give us a little extra help in the house while she is here. Sara has another friend, named Sarah, that will also be coming to Jackson from Columbus, OH, to catch up with us.

Adam's uncle Mike has moved back to Jackson to be closer to the family. We all welcome the opportunity to see him and his family more often now. His oldest daughter Jasmine might be attending the same school as Jenna this year. A little older than Jenna, Jasmine will graduate this year. 

We did get some pictures to our web-site helper last week. There should be several more pictures for you all to view soon. 

Sorry about being slow on the updates this week. I know several of you were probably wondering what was going on. We lose track of days now and forget some of the simplest things we need to do.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/10/08 - All...Adam has been so brave taking all the medicine when we need him to take it. He has the option of taking some as a liquid or a pill. We try to let him pick which one he wants to take so he has some control. 

Adam still isn't walking but we work on it daily. We do some stretches, work on his balance, and then help him take some steps. He does good with the stretching and the balance, but complains of his legs being tired when we work on taking steps. We are hoping to keep his muscle mass and circulation in good shape.

Adam has still been spending most of his time drawing, coloring, and doing crafts. Our bedroom walls are getting covered by all of the art he has made for us. We have spent a lot of time decorating things from Michaels and other discount stores. We will be borrowing Grandpa Jim's laminating machine so we can get everything we have laminated.

We will try to take some pictures of Adam's artwork and get it online so others can see what a great artist Adam is. He is really creative and at time looks around the room and then just starts drawing or coloring something in the room. 

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/05/06 - All...The last two days have been seizure free for Adam. We will be picking up some of the seizure medicine in a pill form tomorrow. Adam is taking some medicine by pill form now. Picking up these pills will mean much less liquids for him to take. We hope this cheers Adam up some about taking his medicines.

Next Friday a story about Adam and Sam's Club will be shown at a national meeting in Kansas City, KS. As of a month ago, Doug and Jenna were going to the meeting to represent the family. With all that is going on, Doug's brother Rick and Jenna will be flying in for that portion of the meeting to represent our family. We pray for them to have a safe trip.

Jenna got her first job. She has joined tax-paying society as a bagger for the a grocery store. We are proud of her for getting a job and look forward to her buying some of her own stuff now.

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

08/03/08 - All...Saturday and Sunday morning went okay. Adam didn't have any seizures. He is starting to not enjoy taking all the medicine so often throughout the day. He has found them easier to take while sitting upon Doug's lap while Sara gives them to him.

We did make it back to Relay-For-Life for a short spell on Saturday afternoon. Adam wanted to go back to get some more tattoos. We agreed since it gave us the opportunity to thank all the team members. We don't have a final amount that the team raised, but we do know that enough Sam's Club Associates volunteered over the minimum numbers hours needed so the team will receive a $3000.00 grant from the Sam's' Club Foundation to the American Cancer Society. 

We send a special thank you to "Adam's Angels" and Sam's Club Jackson. We arrived at the event Friday night and were overwhelmed at the sight of all those "Adam's Angels" shirts. We would never want anyone (including us) to be at Relay-For-Life under the circumstances we are this year, but are grateful for all the support you all gave to help us get through the event. Thank you.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

08/01/08 - All...Sara and I woke up early and basically stared at Adam until he woke up, worried about what awaited us. Adam woke up and didn't have any seizures. After watching him for a couple of hours, we relaxed a little bit and went about with the day.

Adam had to get blood work done today. This should be our last trip up to the Allegiance (Foote) Hospital Lab. His lab work will primarily be done now by his Hospice Nurse and then they take it to the lab for us. The medical support and the miscellaneous services they offer has already brought some comfort.

After doing a great job at the blood lab, Adam went to the Pet Station and picked out a couple of new fish. The fish look good is his aquarium and are getting along well with their new friends.

We did make it to the kickoff of Relay-For-Life this evening. We were welcomed by the Adam's Angels team at the Sam's Club booth. A huge turnout of supporters for the team. We stayed about three hours since Adam was enjoying the time outdoors and then made our way home for the rest of his medications and bedtime. 

We thank everyone that showed up for us. We do know that Adam is not the only soldier in this war. We know that some that showed up also did so for others that suffered or are suffering from this awful disease. Thank you all for supporting them also. 

While we tuck Adam into bed, we know and remember that some of you are still at the Relay. Several people will keep the light shining throughout the night for us and others. Thank you.

Adam wants to go back to Relay-For-Life tomorrow, so if the weather cooperates, we will briefly go back to the park tomorrow. We think maybe he wants some more tattoos from a competing team.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/31/08 - All...Adam slept well through the night. He woke up thirsty about 5:00AM. Within a few minutes, he began to have seizures. We were able to stop them with one of his new medicines. We really hope this improves soon for him (and us).

Adam went back to sleep after receiving the medicine and woke up again a couple of hours later. The medicine wore off earlier than on Wednesday since he took it earlier. After dinner, Adam was able to bring us a few smiles and do some things like coloring with us. 

We received a lot of communication today inquiring as to whether or not we still planned to attend the American Cancer Society Relay for Life tomorrow (Friday) evening. Yes, God willing, we plan on attending opening ceremonies at Cascades Park, 6:00PM. We will be meeting up with the "Adam's Angels" team. 

Anyone interested in walking with us is still encouraged to come. The SAM'S Club site at the Relay is closer to the High Street end of the loop and this is where we will most likely be found.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/30/08 - All...With Adam being given some relaxing medicine for the ride home yesterday, he slept peacefully through the night. We spent most of the night checking on him and were very glad he had a good night sleep.

Adam woke about 8:00AM again and within a few minutes had a seizure. We got one of his new medicines that is to stop these after they start and were able to give it to him between his second and third one. The medicine worked quickly and they stopped. For this we were grateful. 

The tradeoff is that this left Adam very drowsy till early afternoon. So then we had a irritable and starving (from the steroids) five year old that was very mad that he was too drowsy to eat. We did what we could to keep him calm until he was able to eat something.

To stir up positive energy with Adam, he did some online shopping today with Build-A-Bear. We have a couple new outfits coming for his animals. This shopping was definitely the highlight of his day.

We did get several calls, text messages, and email today. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. 

Touched by your Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/29/08 - All...Today was a very bad day.

Adam woke up at 8:00AM and began to act different, locking up his body and not breathing when he did it. After about half a minute, he would relax for about a minute and then have an identical episode. We immediately called Doug's mom (Nurse Var) to come to the house.

These problems were getting worse, so we made the decision to call 911. Adam was taken by Rescue and Ambulance to the hospital. After spending the day at the hospital, we learned that Adam either had better than 30 small seizures or 1 seizure that kept coming back for about 40 minutes. We have added seizure medicine to Adam's daily regiment to try to prevent these seizures.

We were able to take Adam back home after receiving some seizure medicine at the hospital. Hospice also met us at the hospital and then again at the house this evening. Oxygen was delivered to the house in case we needed it, along with some other supplies. Adam will see his nurse at the house three days a week and his social worker one day a week for right now. 

Dr. Taylor also made a house call this evening. We thought it was nice of him to check in on Adam and the family, especially at our home. Very much appreciated Doc.

As we said in the beginning, a very bad day. Please pray for Adam to receive the miracle he needs now more than ever.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/27/08 - All...Adam is the same. We did make it to Mass at St Mary's last night and were truly blessed by the presence of so many of you. We thank you all for taking time away from your lives to pray for Adam.

A friend of mine described Adam as the bravest man he has ever met. When I looked back at everything Adam has gone through, most of which still haunts me, my friend couldn't of been more right. Thanks for this good moment.

July is coming to a close. August will be a busy month for us. We should be moving forward with Hospice checking on Adam's basic vitals weekly. With him needing weekly lab work, we hope this might be able to be done at our home since Adam is so timid in public.

Keep the Faith,

Doug

07/25/08 - All...Adam and the rest of the kids are doing okay. Adam had blood work this morning and we received the results this afternoon. His new chemotherapy hasn't dropped his blood counts into any danger zones.

Adam and mom have been working daily on walking. Adam walked holding Sara's hands from the bathroom to the family room. This was his longest walk so far. Great job Adam. 

Jenna passed drivers educations (segment one) and has a permit to drive. Finally, a personal driver for the rest of us. More like a really scary roller coaster ride, but kind of like having a personal driver. Anyways, nice job Jenna.

Anne is still wild Anne. She has discovered how much fun it is to hang out with her big sister, doing her hair and listening to music in the bathroom for hours. We think maybe she is going to be a hip-hop fan based on her dancing. Hopefully we will still have some time to convert her to country. We shall see.

We all made it to Nomad Bookhouse in downtown Jackson this evening. Santa Claus was making a special appearance there and of course we had to touch base with him. Santa was very excited to see the kids. We even found a cool book to buy while we were there. If you haven't been to Nomad, we encourage you to go check them out.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) there is a Mass with intentions for Adam at 5:15PM, at St Mary's in downtown Jackson. Everyone is welcome to attend. Whether attending or not, please say a few extra prayers for Adam when you can. Thank you.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/21/08 - All...Adam is the same. His steroids had been cut from 8mg/day to 6mg/day and we didn't see much of a change. This is a good thing. The goal is to get him to as small amount of steroids as possible.

Adam and family have been treated to a delivered dinner a couple time in the past weeks. We first enjoyed baked spaghetti from Grandma Var. Second, we enjoyed Swiss Steak from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jerry. Lastly, we enjoyed dinner from Subway from Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Rosie. Thank you all for the great food, it was much appreciated.

Adam's prescriptions totaling three didn't sound so bad until we added it up and came to the conclusion that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we give medicine to him ten times per day. The rest of the days, we get to give him a break and he only has to take medicine eight times per day. Adam isn't enjoying this at all. Please pray for him to have the courage to take this medicine that he needs.

We are also looking at some other herbal medicine that has helped other children in Adam's situation. This may be additional medicine for Adam. We will have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

Some of you may know, but for those that do not, Sam's Club did a "story" about Adam and those that came forward to help him (us) within the Sam's Club family. Obviously, there is no way to recognize everyone individually that helped us out. We have done our best to thank as many people as we could in person. For anyone that we missed, please accept our apologizes for missing you individually. This story will be shared at a Sam's Club national meeting in Kansas City, Kansas, the middle of August. If Adam is doing much better, he may make the trip. If he is not, it will likely be Doug and Jenna, or other family members representing us at the presentation.

Other than that, the days are long and the nights are short. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/17/08 - All...We made our final decision regarding Adam's new chemotherapy. His new chemotherapy is the one that his specialist at St. Jude recommended for him. This chemotherapy is less aggressive that his last one, but of course we pray that it will work better than his last one. This chemotherapy is also less intrusive into his quality of life. 

There are of course some side effects of this chemotherapy too. Most of the side effects are the same as his previous chemotherapy. The biggest difference is that Adam will most like lose all of his hair with this one. A small price to pay if it works better, but the girls are sure going to miss his long eye lashes.

The steroid Adam is currently taking appears to be doing some good with relieving the swelling he is experiencing. Adam has perked up, and with some help, has even taken some small steps walking. At limited times his voice has been easier to understand and he has been eating better. His drooling is better, but hasn't totally gone away yet. 

Joe, a friend of Doug's from Battle Creek, MI, volunteered himself and his wife Breeze to come to Jackson and take family pictures for us. We spent some time in the park doing this today and are very grateful of their professional services. We agreed that taking family portraits in a park with our dog was a nice change from the regular family pictures. Adam also enjoyed having the dog with him. 

As we may have said before, we have been in contact with Hospice for Adam. The purpose of Adam receiving Hospice is to get a set of medically trained eyes on him every week and to gather basic vitals that need to be reported back to his doctor at St. Jude. This was quite on ordeal for us to figure out. There is not pediatric Hospice in Jackson, MI. With some help, we found out that Arbor Hospice from Ann Arbor, MI, actually covers our area for pediatric cases. We haven't figured it all out yet, but hope to get this going by next week.

Lastly, some friends of the family are sponsoring The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, For the intentions of Adam Beiswanger. This mass will be held on Saturday, July 26, 2008, 5:15PM, at St. Mary Star of the Sea, in downtown Jackson, MI. Practicing of the Catholic faith is not required or necessary. We welcome anyone that wants to join our family and friends in attendance and prayer for Adam. Please feel free to contact us directly with any questions that you may have regarding this Mass.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/14/08 - All...Adam's spirit has peaks and valleys. We are working on getting him focused on things he can do and have fun taking part in. 

Adam's overall weakness continues to hinder his mobility. We are working on helping to keep him stretched out and willing to work on his walking.

We did take a trip to Target today for some more coloring books. We had most of the old ones all used up over the last three weeks. Coloring books, a movie, and some Sponge Bob pajamas, we were on our way back home.

Jenna and Anne are doing well. Anne is still running around wild. Jenna is currently taking drivers training. We just need to teach Jenna to put the drivers seat back after she is done driving so Doug can get back into the car. It's hard to go from a 4'9" driver to a 6'4" driver.

Still praying,

Doug and Sara

07/12/08 - All...We are all home. Adam has been on steroids for a few days now. The first day we saw a spark from him in the evening. We have only seen a few sparks over the past few days. We think maybe the steroids are causing him some stomach discomfort. We are trying to work through this. 

Adam's speech is still extremely hard to understand. This has left us pulling our hair out in frustration because we aren't able to understand what he is trying to tell us. We have utilized some sign language that Adam learned a couple of years ago, but this has only worked on a couple of things.

We ask God to give us strength and to guide us in the decisions we must make over the next couple of days.

We are exhausted. Thank you to all those praying for us and checking on us. Thank you for your understanding of our dazed looks and lost thoughts.

Sara's sister Amanda and her husband Jeremy gave birth today to a beautiful baby boy named Alex. Congratulations to you both.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara 

07/11/08 - All...A very tough day. Adam's MRI shows his tumor is growing. We don't know the exact amount, but we (and his doctors) are extremely concerned. 

Adam's current chemotherapy has been stopped due to it not working. We will be choosing a new chemotherapy over the next couple of days. We are focusing on the best chemotherapy for him with the least amount of impact on his quality of life. 

We are leaning toward a chemotherapy that is not part of current research study that will still allow us to administer it at home, but his MRI's will be able to occur in Michigan, further improving his quality of life.

We are continuing Adam's steroid treatments to relieve the swelling that is already occurring. We think we have seen improvements already in his speech and drooling. The hope is that these will improve his ability to walk, his bladder irregularity, and his overall weakness.

We appreciate the support that we have received this week. So many people that we haven't heard from lately have made contact with us, assuring us that Adam is still within their thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

The last couple of days have been very tough for our family. We all will share what we can as our abilities allow us to do so.

Doug and Sara

07/09/08 - All...It is bad. An unscheduled CAT scan today show swelling and bleeding around Adam's tumor. An MRI tomorrow will provide us more information. Please pray for us.

Doug and Sara

07/08/08 - All...We arrived to St. Jude safely this afternoon. Ninety-four degrees and sunny in Memphis, TN. Hot. Very hot. Very, very hot. 

Adam still has some drooling issues and he hasn't been walking much today. He did eat a good dinner of his favorite pizza and cheezy bread. He also colored several pictures with Sara this afternoon.

Our day starts tomorrow about 9:00am. Adam's MRI isn't until Thursday, but we do have a visit with his doctor tomorrow mid-day. We're not real sure if we will learn anything tomorrow that we don't already suspect today. 

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

07/07/08 - All...We arrived in Effingham, IL, this evening. This leaves us about five hours from St Jude. A short drive in to Memphis, TN, tomorrow and then a long two days of doctor visits and tests.

Adam's speech continues to be our biggest obstacle. We struggle with understanding half of what Adam says now, and those not close to Adam struggle on a regular basis to understand what he is saying. We are going to inquire on this weeks visits the option of picking his speech therapy back up; primarily for muscle strengthening in his mouth.

"Calling All Angels"...We could really use some extra prayers for Adam over the next couple of days. For those that pray, please pray for Adam. 

Deep in prayer,

Doug and Sara

07/05/08 - All...We think Adam is over the bug that he had. Our previous concerns regarding him still exist. As much as we are looking forward to traveling to St. Jude this week to hopefully get some answers, we remain very worried about what we may learn. God be with us.

We leave Monday, Adam has appointments the middle of the week, and we will be back home the end of the week. We pray for the conclusion of bringing Adam home with good news.

Thank you all for the notes, thoughts, and prayers this week. Please continue to pray for Adam to be granted the miracle that he needs.

With Hope and Faith,

Doug and Sara

06/30/08 - All...Adam has a bug. The bug made it throughout the family and Adam wasn't skipped over. He has been laying around most of today. We think it will be a couple of days before he starts feeling any better.

We have spoke with St Jude multiple times over the last week or so. We have decided that since Adam's changes are not progressively worsening, we will wait until his appointment July 9th to have him there. Adam's specialist was not going to be in town the week prior. We would prefer Adam to see his specialist rather than a different doctor. If anything worsens with Adam, we will be calling them back to change our plans again.

Doug's speech went well. Doug's brother Rick went with him so he didn't have to make the drive alone. They had a good trip and spent a little time together too. We know Doug needed this. Thanks to Rick.

The last week or so has been very long, and very rough on both of us. A special thank you to those whom have allowed us to vent upon you. Bending your ear is much appreciated.

We leave for St Jude in a week. The last week or so before these trips escalates our stress. We apologize in advance to those close to us and those that we work with. We may be edgy, sorry.

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

06/25/08 - All...Adam is about the same. We have discussed our concerns about Adam with St Jude over the last few days. We are tired, our minds are drained, and we are awaiting some final word tomorrow on whether we are looking at the first week of July or sooner. 

Adam has spent a lot of time relaxing working on his crafts. Crafts remain one of his favorite things to do. Crafts also help him work his hand muscles well. 

Adam does enjoy his new shoes we had ordered from Step One on Wildwood Avenue here in Jackson, MI. His new shoes allow his leg/foot brace to fit in them. Chad at Step One really did us right helping us find the right shoes for Adam in a color scheme that entices him to put his shoes on each day. Thanks Chad for all that you did.

Adam has joined the Sam's Club Team for the American Cancer Society Relay-For-Life. Sam's Club has named their team "Adam's Angels". Anyone seeking a team to belong to can email Doug and he will send you the link to join our team. The Relay is held the first weekend in August at the Cascades Park. You don't have to attend the event to belong to our team. If anyone has questions, email or call Doug.

Doug is speaking again the end of this week to a group from the Masonic Order. The Masonic Order has a state convention in Alma, MI. Doug will speak to the group about what it is like to be a Ronald McDonald House family. He keeps telling himself to just picture the 400 people naked so he can get through it.

During the past week or so, we can feel the prayers that so many of you are sending. Thank you so much and please continue to pray for Adam. Pray for his healing and for God to grant him his miracle.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

06/22/08 - All...Adam is the same. We haven't seen any real changes. We will be contacting St Jude tomorrow ourselves to discuss our concerns.

Adam went to the awards for baseball on Saturday and received his trophy. His was very excited to get this. Adam made the All-Star Team for baseball this season. Adam was listed on the roster but chose to not play. 

Adam still has good spirits and is excited to play with some new toys we were able to pickup for the kids this week.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

May God Bless Us All,

Doug and Sara

06/18/08 - All...We were actually five weeks out from traveling back to St. Jude. We are now three weeks away. We will be in Memphis July 9 and July 10. Here is what we can share with you now:

A little over a week ago Adam began to display some things that we were not comfortable with. First, Adam's balance seemed to worse. He was stumbling more and walking less. Second, he seemed to be having some drool appearing occasionally. Third, his speech seemed more mumbled. 

Yesterday we took Adam to Dr. Taylor here in Jackson for an evaluation.

Adam's balance may be affected by his new leg/foot brace. We will continue to monitor this very closely.

Adam's drooling may be caused by seasonal allergies (he has these). We have started Adam on allergy medicine to address this. If it goes away, it was allergies. If it doesn't go away, it is being caused by something else.

Adam's speech may be affected by excess saliva in is mouth, by simply speaking lazy, or by something else. If his drool/saliva clears up and it gets better, good. If it doesn't, it is being caused by something else.

We don't pretend to not know what something else probably means. That is why we are going back to St. Jude at an earlier date than originally planned.

We haven't really asked for a lot of extra prayers from anyone in a while. Now we are. Please take a moment yourself and ask others to do the same. Please pray for Adam. God be with us.

With faith,

Doug and Sara

06/15/08 - All...Adam is well. He had a good weekend to finish off vacation. Saturday and Sunday he spent time with much of his extended family. 

Adam's last baseball game for the year is on Tuesday night at 6:00pm. We hope to end the season with another win. We hope to celebrate another win at the Bone Island Grill in Vandercook Lake after the game. 

We are about four weeks out from our next trip to St. Jude. God be with us.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

06/12/08 - All...Adam is good. We cut our trip short at the lake house due to poor weather and some allergy problems. Adam did enjoy the time we spent there and fishing on the lake. 

We stopped back in Jackson for a day to drop off Junior (the dog) to Uncle Rick and then we left for Frankenmuth. Frankenmuth was a great place to go. Plenty to do under a roof so no heat or sun problems. Adam had a blast playing video games and miniature golfing. The food was good and the kids had a blast in the hotel.

We hope to pick up some more fishing this weekend on Grandpa Jim's boat out to Round Lake and Michigan Center Lake. Uncle Rick and our friend Jim have been catching big bass this spring. Adam and Doug might have to show up and really show them how to get it done.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

06/05/08 - All...Adam is well. He had another baseball game tonight. He had a lot of fun and celebrated the game at the famous Bone Island Grill in Vandercook Lake. 

Adam did get to look at some new shoes to fit his leg brace on Tuesday. His new shoes shoes should be in on Friday. We thank Step One on Wildwood for helping us select what he needs.

Tomorrow is the big day. We leave for the lake house up north and Adam can hardly wait. He has started planning his days out and looks forward to a great deal of fun. 

We may be without internet service up north unless we find free network somewhere. So...there may not be any updates for longer than normal. We will update everyone when we can.

Traveling with Faith,

Doug and Sara

06/01/08 - All...Adam is doing well. He had a fun today at his friend Ethan's house playing, eating dinner, and eating s'mores. Thanks Ethan, Eric, and Kristi.

We have five days until vacation starts. Adam can hardly wait. He and mom have already starting packing supplies for the week. 

Adam has an appointment tomorrow to pick up his new foot/ankle brace. This brace is supposed to help position his foot better, reducing the likelihood of his tripping as much. We hope this works and hope Adam cooperates with wearing it when he is active.

Another week or so and his glove should be in. This glove will help with the physical therapy of his hand and wrist. Adam already uses one of these at physical therapy. He has learned it to be his "Superman Glove". 

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/29/08 - All...Adam is doing good. He had baseball again tonight. On his first hit, he took a fall midway to first base. This got him upset and we had to take a short timeout to reassure him that he was okay. He mostly seemed to calm down when we played it off as a slide into first base. Adam ended the day with two hits. From what we understand, this is better than Uncle Rick has fared out.

We have eight days until vacation. Adam is going on and on about going to the cabin. We don't think he can hardly wait to get there, be outdoors, and go fishing. We can hardly wait to grant this request of his and make sure he has a great time.

Preschool is over for the year. Adam really did have a great time and the entire staff at the Career Center (Faculty and Students) did a great job with him. We are extremely grateful for all the help and support that they offered us during our entire ordeal this school year. We are very pleased to be able to speak so highly of all of you. Again, thank you all.

God Bless and Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/27/08 - All...Adam had a great holiday weekend. He spent time helping dad grill and saw some of his extended family. He also spent time outside digging holes and planting. He worked hard, played hard, and slept hard all weekend. 

We are hoping to hear something good today regarding the outcome of Adam's EKG. The anticipation of what to come has weighed heavily on our minds. God be with us.

Adam (the family) is going on vacation in ten days. Adam can hardly wait. He has been "practicing" with his new fishing pole and has repeated many stories of last years trip. We hope to help him land a monster bass on this years trip.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/24/08 - All...Adam is well. We did receive a call from St Jude on our way home letting us know that they wanted to repeat Adam's EKG that was done the previous day there. We we planning to get this taken care of on Tuesday, but St Jude wanted it done before then. We went to Foote Hospital this morning to get it done. We don't know what they wanted another look at from the first one, but we do know that there is a negative side effect of the chemotherapy that affects the heart. We hope and pray that the chemotherapy is not causing other problems for Adam.

Doug did have good birthday. After just returning from St Jude Thursday evening, spending his birthday on Friday with the family at home was nice. He returned to work today (Saturday).

Adam is looking forward to our vacation the middle of June. We are heading to the cabin in the woods up north for some quite time with nature. Adam and Anne have their new fishing rods and reels all ready to go. We hope to be able to convince Jenna to get in on the fishing action.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/22/08 - All...Just a quick note to let everyone we made it home safely. Thank you all the the thoughts and prayers.

Doug and Sara

05/21/08 - All...We learned yesterday that another family with a child on Adam's course of treatment knows the chemotherapy is not working and a new course of treatment is required. Our hearts and prayers go out to their family. This left us with a mostly sleepless night.

Adam had his MRI today. Shortly thereafter, we had the results. Adam's tumor is still there. The tumor is stable and there are no new concerns. This is a win.

Adam's doctors think he looks well and were pleased to hear of all the improvements he has made with his physical therapy and anxiety. Thank you to all who have helped him through these issues.

We still probably don't have any idea of how big Adam's prayer group is. Maybe all of you could mail us a picture of your church, your family, etc., so we have a better idea. What we do know is that the power of all your prayers has blessed our son Adam. For this, we are eternally grateful.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

05/20/08 - All...Adam traveled the remainder of the way to Memphis, TN, well. He watched Sponge Bob Christmas and we all sang along to the tunes within the show.

The heat was quick to bother Adam so he picked lunch as Jillians instead. Jillians has great food, and about 1000 games for kids to play. Several games and tickets later, he chose the prize of the day to return to our room with. A short statue of a green dragon.

Passing on the hospital chow, we found ourselves downtown for dinner. Oddly, Adam and Sara have never eaten at a Hooters. We obviously couldn't let this continue. Adam had a better time then Sara, but in any case, they can both say that they have eaten at a Hooters now.

A local carriage company offer free rides around downtown Memphis, TN, to St Jude patients. Adam wanted to go for a horse ride, so we took a very peaceful ride through downtown Memphis, TN. So peaceful that with a pillow and a blanket we may have been able to catch up on some sleep.

We received our schedule for tomorrow. We have an early start and end around 4:00pm. All going well, we will begin our journey home after we are done with Adam's appointments tomorrow. 

We hope to be able to share what news we can tomorrow evening. We know there are so many supporters thinking about and praying for Adam. May God truly bless you all.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara 

05/20/08 - All...Adam traveled well today. A short nap and a few shows of Sponge Bob later, we have arrived in Mt. Vernon, IL. Adam is excited about staying in a hotel again.

We were fortunate and found no meetings with the Indiana State Police on the way down. We saw them several times, but were able to outrun them with the power and aerodynamic advantage of our mini-van.

A seven hour drive provides one with much time to think about life. We thank God for what we have received and been helped through, especially in the last six months. 

An early start in the morning may provide enough time for Adam to go to the Memphis Zoo in the afternoon. We hope to reward our hero with a much deserved trip back to the zoo.

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

05/19/08 - All...Today is the day. We leave again for St Jude mid-day. Our nerves are shot and the stress has turned to fatigue. We are going to drive most of the way today and finish the rest tomorrow. 

We continue to thank everyone for all of the prayers and positive thoughts. We continue to thank all the businesses and families that have continued to support us.

For Doug's teammates, thank you. Thank you for allowing Doug to work with that dazed look on his face this last week. Thank you for supporting him when he is away from home.

For anyone that gets a chance, we'll take a prayer for a safe trip down, a positive visit, and safe return home.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/14/08 - All...Adam is doing well. Adam was fitted for his leg/foot brace this week. After some coaxing, he participated with the appointment. The brace should help him run better. He was very excited about picking three colors of different parts on it.

Adam had a big day in baseball tonight. He got his first hit . He singled and them made his way around the bases on his teammates hits and scored a run for the team.

We are six days out from traveling again. After seeing gas prices today, we are thinking about trying to figure out a way to mount solar panels to the roof of the van. 

Doug's dad turns 70 tomorrow. Happy Birthday Pops!

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

05/11/08 - All...Adam had a good weekend. The Tiger game was a success. Bundled up well, we stayed for the whole game. For anyone that didn't see the game, the Tigers almost didn't pull it out. They managed to hang on for the win. Nice job guys.

We went over early and took Adam to Hockeytown Cafe for a pre-game meal. We thought it was cool to eat upstairs and have so many televisions to watch. 

Adam enjoyed spending some time at home and celebrating Mothers Day with mom. We did all make it the Knights of Columbus breakfast after church this morning and had a good meal with the parish and some family.

For all you mothers out there, Happy Mothers Day. We hope you were able to spend some time with your families and loved ones. 

We have eight more days until we travel again. We continue to ask St Jude and all the Holy Saints to pray for Adam. We continue to ask all of you to pray for Adam. With prayers come miracles.

Holding on to Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/08/08 - All...Adam is still doing well. He has had a good week at school, physical therapy, and baseball. He has been excited about all of these things this week.

We will be attempting to have Adam fitted for a ankle/foot brace the first of the week. The purpose of the brace is to help keep him from dragging his toe when he walks/runs. We hope he will participate with this plan. Basically, the brace doesn't always have to be worn, but will primarily help him keep those toes up when he runs or moves around a lot.

Tomorrow is Friday and what better way to spend a Friday night than go to a Detroit Tigers game. We are heading over early to grab some dinner at Hockeytown Cafe before the game and then go to batting practice. Hopefully we will be able to snag a ball for the big guy.

Quite a few graduations this week. Doug finally completed graduation paperwork so he got his degree in Criminal Justice. Doug's sister Sara completed her program and passed her state boards to be a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). She already works for Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, OH. Doug's brother in law Jeremy graduated this week also, with a degree in Ultrasound. We all hope U of M Hospital snatches him up quickly. Congratulations to all of you.

We are 11 days out from our trip. We think the visit will go good and hope we can start heading home quickly. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

05/04/08 - All,  Adam had a great time participating in opening day at the ball fields. The league tried something new this year and did personal introductions of every player in the entire league. While time consuming it was, the kids enjoyed it.

This was our only Saturday game. The rest of the games will be on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The teams are larger than last year and this was the first game, so Adam only was able to bat twice. He went 0 for 2. I told him not to worry, Ordonez from the Detroit Tigers went 0 for 4 the night before. 

Adam's uncle Rick hosted a gathering after the game. Thanks uncle Rick. Adam had a great afternoon to follow up his game and he fell asleep a little bit earlier than normal and caught up on some much deserved rest.

We did take a some time to stop and show our support at the St. Jude Trike-A-Thon that was held at Michigan Center H.S. Track. The volunteers did a great job with the weather they were presented with. We really appreciate all those people for taking time out of their schedules to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Hopefully the weather will be somewhat nicer next time.

We are about two weeks out from our next departure to the south for Adam's appointment. Thank you all for the notes, cards, and email that we have continued to receive. We really feel blessed to have such a large support network.

Lastly, we know of a family friend in Dayton, OH, that is in need of some extra prayers. "KT" has been praying for Adam and our family since the beginning of our situation. Thank you. It is now time for her to lean on the rest of us. When you pray, please ask God to give "KT" Peace in her time of need.

Keep the Faith and may God Bless Us All,

Doug and Sara

04/30/08 - All...Adam is doing well. He went to kindergarten roundup this last week and is starting to loosen up to the idea of attending a different school. We hope to work on this all summer long to prepare him for all day school in the fall. We really do hope for a smooth transition in the fall.

We learned of an event aimed at benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (www.stjude.org/trike). The event is a Trike-A-Thon actually being held here in Jackson, MI. We contacted the business to see what we could do to help and have committed to attending the event to help answer questions that others may about St Jude. We consider it a true honor to be able to share what St. Jude mean to us and so many others. Before our situation, we had no idea of how much this hospital helps kids not only from Michigan, but from around the world.

For anyone wanting to participate in the event or simply learn more about St Jude, here are the details:

Trike-A-Thon
Saturday, May 3rd
3:00PM-5:00PM
Michigan Center High School Track

Adam's first baseball game is this Saturday. He can hardly wait and looks forward to it each day. It makes us happy to see him so excited playing baseball. 

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

04/25/08 - All...Adam is well. He is practicing very hard for baseball season. His first game is on May 3rd, at 1:00PM in the afternoon. For those traveling in, the field are located on the corner of Floyd and Draper Roads. We will be on one of the fields that border the Draper Road side of the park.

Jenna saw her Sports Medicine Doctor today. Believe it or not, she is growing! Her injury is on the growth plates in her hip and will heal naturally, assisted by some increased stretching and icing sessions. She hopes to return to track in about two weeks, pending a follow up appointment at the doctors.

A quick update on Anne. Anne is still wild and does her best to keep Sara improving her times in the 40 yard dash to catch her. 

We are starting to prepare for our next trip down south with the window until our departure closing rapidly. Junior (the dog) has his reservation made at uncle Rick's house and is looking forward to being pampered.

For anyone that is looking, the bracelets we mentioned some time ago did finally make it to Sam's Club. They are also still available at Nomad Bookhouse. Thank you all for the support you have provided our family.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

04/22/08 - All...Adam is well. He had his local doctors appointment today with Dr. James Taylor. Dr. Taylor said Adam looks good and he had no concerns. Adam will still have to do his scheduled blood work tomorrow but we don't anticipate any surprises from that. Thanks "Doc" for keeping Adam's spirits high.

We had to get new a new hose for the yard this year due to Jenna's driving with the garden tractor last year. Adam very much enjoys the fire hose sprayer we were able to get him for the hose.

Jenna's track season might be done already. She had an appointment today with Dr. Nancy Taylor who has referred her to a sports medicine doctor. Dr. Taylor thinks Jenna may have some tendon damage in her thigh. On a lighter note, at least she will be able to car pool with Adam to physical therapy.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

04/19/08 - All...Adam had a blast at baseball Thursday and Friday. His fielding is good, but we are going to have to continue to work on his hitting. He was smiling and happy. That's all that really matters.

Adam has been impressed with both the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings this week. He too is now convinced that Jim Leland can hear Sara when she yells at the television. 

We are happy with the weather breaking this weekend and staying nice outside. Adam spent a great deal of time outside playing. 

Doug accepted the opportunity to speak today at a luncheon of approximately 100 members and families of the Rainbow Girls, one of the Masonic Organizations. The Rainbow Girls selected Ronald McDonald Homes as its statewide charity to support for 2007-2008. We were grateful for the opportunity to share our story of how the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, TN, helped get us through our situation while away from home. They were there to house and feed us, allowing us to focus all of our energy on Adam while he was being treated at St Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thank you Rainbow Girls for choosing to support this charity.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

04/17/08 - All...Adam had a good weekend. With the weather changing, we hope to get him outside more. He is quite bored when he is cooped up inside. He will play and do his crafts, but eventually he just gets bored. Outside yesterday, he did play some basketball with his new Sponge Bob ball and also sent a great deal of time jumping on the trampoline. 

Baseball was to start last week but with poor weather it was postponed. By the looks of the weather today, we should be able to get on the field today. Adam is excited about baseball so we hope he has a great time. For anyone that needs it, our first game is on May 3, 2008. This is his only Saturday game. His games will then be on Tuesday and Thursday nights. 

Adam was happy to see the Detroit Tigers stopped playing like the Detroit Lions this week. He hopes they continue to grow on their .500 record.

Adam is also pulling for the Detroit Red Wings, hoping to see them win another Stanley Cup.

We are all feeling some extra peace this week, knowing that this would have been the week that we would have been traveling to St. Jude if we had to go. Being able to check in with Dr. Taylor here in Jackson, MI, is very nice. We anticipate a good visit and we will let you know how it goes. We do know that our next trip to St. Jude is the week of May 19, 2008.

Take care and God Bless us all,

Doug and Sara

04/13/08 - All...Adam is well. He had a birthday party yesterday and there was a great turnout. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to see him. Adam had a great time seeing all of you.

Adam and family also found some time yesterday to take a game of bowling. We think Adam beat everyone but Travis. We think Travis cheated though, something about not informing the rest of us about his lesson and league experience. Oddly enough, he had a few gutter balls when his turn came and he had walked away for a few minutes.

Sara and Doug even found some time to play cards late last night with some old friends we don't get to see too often anymore. We had a great time and we learned who to not pick as your partner.

Adam is registered for kindergarten next year. We are slowing introducing him to the fact that he won't have his great staff from JACC Child Development Pre-School next year. We think it may be sinking in a little.

For anyone that didn't see Jenna mentioned in the newspaper, track season has started for her. For those of us that have tried to catch her, we know how fast she is. For those of you that haven't, we'll try to save you a seat at the state finals in May. Good luck Jenna.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

04/09/08 - All...Adam is well. We spent some time this morning at Trinity Lutheran School. As we mentioned before, Elizabeth (a student) did a fund raiser for Adam. We were able to thank her personally, along with her mom, the students, and the staff of the school. We were blessed to meet so many great people. Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers.

Adam spent time today looking for some baseball cleats and pants. We came up empty handed today but the search is on again tomorrow. We look forward to baseball practice tomorrow.

Adam also find some time for Ethan to come over for a spell and play. They both had a great time.

Doug attended an American Cancer Society Relay for Life meeting tonight. If anyone is interested in walking with our team in Jackson, you may e-mail us directly and we will send you the online link to join our team. Our email address are listed on the "contact us" link of this web-site. 

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

04/07/08 - Adam, 

Happy Birthday buddy. You are now the big 5! We hope you had a wonderful day in Ann Arbor and a wonderful evening with the family. We also hope you enjoy your new aquarium and fish.

You have done such an amazing job with all that we have asked you to do. We are so proud of you. 

We continue to ask God to protect you and keep you safe with us.

We love you,

Mom and Dad

04/06/08 - All...A few more hours and Adam will be 5. He waits patiently for his birthday to come. The "high five" is beginning to take on an additional meaning.

Adam had a busy weekend playing. He even fired up his four wheeler (electric). He had a blast riding this toy. He has to park it for the winter but sees it every day, just waiting for spring to he can get it out again. 

Adam was glad the Detroit Red Wings are sitting good heading into the playoffs but thinks the Detroit Tigers might need some more spring training. We tend to agree with him.

Spring break has come to an end for Adam and probably for almost all of you. We hope you all had an opportunity to spend some extra time with your kids.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

04/05/08 - All...Adam is enjoying the spring weather we are had today. He spent a lot of time outside and even took a trip to Cascades Park with his cousin Jonah. He was a little overwhelmed by all of the other kids there at first but settled in nicely after a short wait.

Adam is very excited about his birthday in two days and has been quite busy helping plan for the big event. Anne is doing her part in slowing down the entire process as usual. That girl is a wild child.

We did receive a copy of the article in Chrysler Times regarding Adam from a new friend. We don't have any copies ourselves but will try to get some for our local friends and family to see. We will check and see if they have an online link or e-file that we can share with everyone else.

Good night and God Bless,

Doug and Sara

04/03/08 - All...Adam is still doing well. Spring break has kept him busy this week. He has spent some added time playing with his siblings and has very much enjoyed his time at Physical Therapy. We think maybe he has his eyes on new intern that works with him. 

Baseball starts up next week and Adam is on the same team. We are looking forward to getting Adam back involved with this sport. Adam has focused some of physical therapy on swinging a bat and running to simulated bases. He is very excited about playing ball again.

Adam's birthday is on April 7th. Our gift is still a secret but we hope to be able to pull it off. If it all works out, we will get pictures up when it is all put together. 

Also on our calendar is Adam making a guest appearance at Trinity Lutheran School on April 9th. For anyone that missed the article in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on Monday, March 31, 2008, a fourth grade student named Elizabeth Burke choose to help Adam as part of a school program aimed at having students support causes important to them. Elizabeth did some amazing things to help Adam and we are awaiting the opportunity to thank her in person.

Sam's Club will have more bracelets arriving in the next week for anyone still seeking them.  Nomad Bookhouse still has several.

With faith and hope,

Doug and Sara 

03/28/08 - All...Adam getting home Wednesday, Adam did attend school on Thursday. His teachers were very excited to see him and Adam was excited to be there. Adam continues to do well there.

Adam attended his physical/occupational therapy this week and his therapist was excited to see Adam so eager to run around and play. Foote Works has done a great job keeping him interested in the program.

Jenna has begun track practices already for this spring. She is applying herself well and we think she will excel in this sport this spring. 

Doug returned to work today. A big thank you to his fellow managers that pitched in to cover for his time out again. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Adam spent some time today at his friend Ethan's house and had a great time. Thank you Kristi and Eric for setting up this play date.

As promised, we will have some more pictures up on the web site in the next few days. These will be mostly pictures of our "Wish Trip". 

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

03/26/08 - All...Sorry for the delay, we didn't get to speak with Adam's doctors until this evening. Anyway, this is what we learned...

Adam's MRI's of his knees came back normal. This means the chemotherapy that sometimes deteriorates cartilage in the body is not showing any signs of doing so yet.

Adam's MRI's of his brain came back good. The tumor is stable, showing no growth at this time. The tumor is also showing no bleeding at this time. These two things are both wins in his battle.

Collectively there is nothing new to add to our worries.

Based on his MRI's this month, we are going to be able to do our next four week visit with Doctor Taylor here in Jackson, MI. Adam will receive blood, chemistry, urine, and a physical checkup at this time locally.

Our next visit to St Jude will be in eight weeks, around May 19, 2008.

End result...a long, exhausting trip. A win and we will take it any way we can get it.

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

03/24/08 - All...Adam did very well today with his appointments. We were so proud of him when he let one of the doctors look in his eyes with a flashlight. Adam wouldn't let anyone do this the entire time we were down here before. The doctor let us know there doesn't appear to be any swelling behind his eyes right now. This is good. This also leads everyone to believe the problem with his bad eye isn't going to change due to dead nerve cells.

Tomorrow Adam has his major scans. He starts about 12:00PM and will be into recovery around 4:00PM. We will receive word on both days worth of scans tomorrow evening. We don't anticipate much sleep tonight.

Adam (and the rest of us) do miss Jenna and Anne. With both of them still in Michigan, it has been a fairly quiet trip. While we seemed to make better time traveling, we did catch ourselves checking the back seats for them several times.

We will try to post what we find out from the scans Tuesday night. 

God bless and please keep praying for Adam.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

03/22/08 - All...Adam did very well this week. His outgoingness continues to improve. 

Our minds are so overwhelmed. Tomorrow is Easter. Normally we spend Easter with several of our loved ones. This year we cannot and it is tough on us. 

We encourage all of you to go spend the day with your family and friends. Do it...simply because you can.

If you find time this Holiday to pray, we ask that you pray for Adam. Pray for his healing. Pray for his full recovery.

May God bless you all.

With faith,

Doug and Sara

03/20/08 - All...Adam is doing great this week. He has continued to show some great improvements. He attended school this week and created several masterpieces of arts and crafts. 

Adam is preparing for our trip this weekend. We thought we would be leaving Sunday and driving straight through. Following the weather closely, we think we may be leaving on Saturday evening instead to get part of the way there. We have also been pondering what holiday traffic may have to offer us.

Traveling all day on Sunday is tough for us. We really wanted to be home to spend the holiday with our families. For any of you that find your way to church on Easter, please pray for Adam. Monday and Tuesday are a couple of big days for him. Again, please take a moment and pray for him on these days also.

Doug has failed to keep him promise of getting some more pictures on the web-site for everyone to see. He is sorry. He is really going to try to get them ready to go up before we leave. Now back at work, he is struggling to find time to do much of anything outside of work that doesn't involve spending time directly with the kids. 

Sam's Club in Jackson, MI, did get some bracelets back in if anyone missed out on them. They are located near the entrance door. Thank you Sam's Club for your continued support of Adam, Doug, and the rest of the family.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

03/16/08 - All...Adam is still doing well. We have continued to see some really good things over the last couple of weeks. He has even stayed home with Jenna a couple time while we were away briefly. Believe it or not, this is a huge feat for him.

Adam has continued to do well at school. We are still working toward getting him to stay there by himself. We hope to make some more improvements this week on this.

We are down to six days before we leave again. We are saddened that we will not be able to see many family members that we would normally spend time with on Easter. We hope to catch all of you some time later this spring or summer. 

The visit to St Jude is a big one. Adam will be receiving his MRI's and full scans. This will be our first opportunity to see what is occurring. Please...take a moment and pray for Adam.

With faith,

Doug and Sara

03/12/08 - All...Adam, Anne, and Jenna are all well. Adam has continued to show some great signs of improvement on his personality. His outgoingness is much improved and we are very excited about it.

Adam has enjoyed school very much this week and has participated more there than he has in a long time. This was also very nice to see.

We are counting down the days now until we leave. Single digits left until we leave. We are starting to put together the lists of what needs to go. 

This is a big visit...PLEASE take a moment and pray for Adam.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

03/10/08 - All...Adam has been doing great since our trip to Florida. He has slept in to catch up on his sleep and has making use of the rest of his time. He has spent much time putting pictures in frames. 

Adam has done somew things that have reminded us of how things were some time ago. This has been very nice to see and reminds us all that love, faith, and hope conquer all.

Adam will be returning to school tomorrow and we are trying to put together a picture album that he so much wants to share with his teachers and fellow students.

We have about 12 days until we go to St Jude again. March is a big visit. MRI's and CT's will be performed. Please take a moment and pray for Adam.

Keep the Faith,

Doug and Sara

03/05/08 - All...You'll never believe who lives at Hollywood Studios....The Power Rangers. We of course had to get some pictures. Adam chose to get pictures with Red Ranger and White Ranger. We also took pictures with several other characters and will have them to you all soon. We hit this park fairly quick due to the weather and made a stop at Downtown Disney on our way back to the villa. Downtown Disney houses the main Disney Store and we couldn't leave without a visit there.

We left Kissimmee on Wednesday morning and drove as far as Chattanooga, TN. This is where we are now. We were fortunate to be able to have dinner with Dave, a friend of Doug's, and his wife Beth. Leaving Jenna and Anne at the hotel with a pizza, it was a fairly quiet dinner. Thanks Dave and Beth for taking some time to catch up with us.

In about an hour we will begin our drive for the day. We have planned a little bit shorter drive today, hopefully landing in Dayton, OH, this afternoon. Doug's sister Sara still lives there and has offered to entertain us for a spell.

Tomorrow, Friday, we will finish the last leg of our journey home. An emotional journey it has been and we all extremely grateful to St. Jude, Make-A-Wish, and Give Kids The World for creating an opportunity for us to step aside from our normal routine. 

With faith and your prayers,

Doug and Sara

03/04/08 - All...The kids are well. Sunday we did go to Universal Studios to see Sponge Bob. He was very cool, and of course, we have pictures. We did get our pictures taken with several other characters. Marilyn Monroe wanted Doug's phone number but Sara was there and didn't allow it. This park was much less busy that the Disney parks and we were pleased to find that. Go, go, go takes its toll, toll, toll. I think we have been out by 10:00PM the last two nights.

Yesterday we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. This park was okay, but definitely came up short of what we expected. There were several animals for the kids to see, but they we mostly sleeping behind or in objects (even though we went first thing in the morning as suggested). The safari we went on didn't stop the truck long enough to take any real pictures and bounced around the rest of the time. Battle Creek, Columbus, and Memphis have better exhibits than this park. Oh well, it was eighty degrees, sunny, and we all here together.

There are several pictures up on the site now. Our helper Kristi has them filed by upload date and it is very sweeeeeeeet. We will get more pictures up most likely after we return home. Comcast file limits make it very tough to send them over the Internet. 

Today we are headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We will let you know how it goes.

With faith,

Doug and Sara

03/01/08 - All...Saturday we opted for a late start. We milled about in the morning and left around noon for Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. On our way there we mailed up a disk with some pictures. Hopefully they turned out and you all will be able to see some pictures from the benefit dinner and Sea World. 

Magic Kingdom was great and the kids had an extraordinary time. We met several characters and rode several rides. We saw a performance at the castle took in a few shops as well. Once again, we ended the day with Adam and Anne sleeping all the way home and crashing on the couch in our villa.

Today, Sunday, we are going to head to Universal Studios in search of Sponge Bob. We'll let you know how it goes.

The weather is great, mid-seventies yesterday and more of the same today. Tomorrow might offer up some wetter weather so we might need some help from Adams preschool singing "rain-rain-go-away" a few times for us.

Take care and God bless.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

02/29/08 - All...Adam and the rest of the kids are well. We picked getting an early start today to take advantage of the extra day at the parks. We were on the road early and arrived at the village (www.gktw.org) early this morning. Doug had gotten around at the hotel so he went to orientation while Sara got herself and the kids around. 

We had a little better than half of the day to visit a park, so we chose Sea World. Shamu is alive and well. Adam enjoyed the show and the rest of the animal exhibits. Feeding some sharks was a big highlight for him, as well as shopping in the gift shop. 

Anne was great, that is until a giant walrus came up to the glass with his big teeth hanging out and scared her half to death. After a bit, she was great again. "No Anne, walrus no eat Anne."

Jenna had a good time and looks forward to a more thrilling park tomorrow.

We are thinking maybe Disney tomorrow, with a late start so we can stay through the fireworks. We will let you know how it goes.

The weather has been nice, sixties yesterday and seventies today. Both days had sunny skies. So sunny several of us are burnt (Doug) or have a little redness to us. We are laying the sun screen on a bit thicker now.

We miss many of you and the support network that you offer us. Take care and we will see you all soon.

Traveling with Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

02/28/08 - All...Adam is doing good. He enjoyed checking out the beach before we left Treasure Island, FL, this morning. We left late morning for our next stop, Lakeland, FL. This was a very important stop as well, because this is where we would catch up with the Detroit Tigers. The weather was sixty degrees and sunny, so it made for a great day at the ball-park. The Tigers won.

After the game we went to our hotel to relax for a bit. We went out for dinner and have returned for the evening. Driving all over the last few days has caught up with Doug. We think he will be out early tonight.

We have to decide if we want to make an early start to Kissimmee, FL, tomorrow morning or take our time getting there. If we go early, we get another day at the parks. If we go late, we stay on schedule and don't go to parks until Saturday. We are leaning toward the early start, but whether or not we remember to set the alarm clock with dictate our starting time tomorrow.

The other kids are all good. Jenna won a bet with dad, but he hopes she learned more about the meaning behind the bet than the money she won. In any case, she has some spending money.

Thank you all for the very nice email and messages on myspace. Hope you all are enjoying the weather up north. We will try to bring home some sunshine when we come.

God bless and please keep praying for Adam.

Doug and Sara

02/27/08 - All...Wow! We made it to Treasure Island (actual name of the city), FL, and are enjoying the local surroundings. After searching the Internet late yesterday, we were able to find a hotel with grand opening rates. The city is west of St Petersburg, FL. We have a room at a beautiful hotel, nine floors up, overlooking the ocean, and at a steal of a price. We took in a local restaurant for dinner. The meal was good and we actually watched some dolphins swimming in the bay that the restaurant was next to. We have settled back into the hotel room with a bottle of wine and a six pack. 

Tired from driving most of the last two days, we are enjoying the sunset over the ocean. The ocean was one of the things we wanted Adam to experience on this trip. Adam loved the ocean and the boats that we saw on it. 

Anne actually behaved during dinner and we have a picture of her being fed to a fake alligator. You will all love it when you see it posted. 

Jenna has even enjoyed some family time today and the ocean. I think being at the ocean may have revitalized her career goal of being a marine biologist. 

Anyways, we have a sunset and an ocean breeze on our balcony calling our names. Thank you all for the prayers we have received.

With Faith and wine,

Doug and Sara

02/26/08 - All...After Adam sleeping all day and night, he woke up about 4:00AM and wanted something to drink. By 6:00AM he was talking our ear off. We couldn't have been happier. 

By 10:00AM he had a visit with his doctor and received a green light for leaving. Adam was very excited to be on the road again. Several hours later, we overshot our intended target and have landed in Marianna, FL, for the night.

Adam is slowly eating better and we hope the pizza we ordered has him eating heavy tonight. Jenna is still healthy. Sara, Anne, and Doug all dodged the virus and are still doing well. 

Traveling with Faith, 

Doug and Sara

02/25/08 - All...We stopped just short of Indianapolis, IN, Saturday night after we left the dinner. We continued on Sunday morning. We made it to Memphis, TN, about 4:00PM. Thirty minutes later we were dealing with both Jenna and Adam being sick. Jenna turned back into her normal pleasure to be around today. Adam is still sick. He missed half of his appointments today and our trip out of Memphis, TN, is delayed until tomorrow. Since we are already here, his doctor wants to see him again tomorrow to see how he is doing. We hope to be on our way sometime tomorrow, with an anticipated goal of Birmingham, AL, or further.

A huge thank you to all that attended or contributed to the benefit dinner. Everyone took "Caring for Adam" to another level. The turnout was a bit overwhelming for us to say the least. Thank you all for being there. When we looked out into the huge crowd of people, we remembered why we moved back to the area to raise our family. Vandercook Lake and Jackson in general remain very special to us. Again, thank you.

We plan to keep you all updated as our trip continues. We will try to get pictures on the web site as quickly as we can so you can follow our journey in Florida.

Take care and God Bless.

With Faith,

Doug and Sara

02/22/08 - All...Adam is trying some allergy pills from Dr. Taylor to try to clear up his nasal congestion. We hope these help Adam sleep better at night too. We would all use that.

We know we are going to see many people tomorrow at the dinner and auction. Thank you all, and if we don't get to talk to each of you personally, please know we greatly appreciate your support.

Going back to St. Jude leaves us with mixed emotions. We think this visit will be much easier than the one we will have to make in March when more scans are performed. We did figure out that we will be home from this trip (Tennessee and Florida) for two weeks before we will have to take off again. Ouch! 

Well, just a short note tonight. Hope to drop you another note on Monday when we arrive in Memphis.

Keep praying,

Doug and Sara

02/21/08 - All...Adam is doing okay. We are cutting back on his Benadryl and hoping that his sinuses will clear up. He has colored several pictures over the past few days and watched Sponge Bob every chance he has gotten. 

Adam only had school one day this week and did attend. He had a great time as normal. Adam is learning his address and now says he lives at, "paddock lane dot com". I think maybe he has spent too much time on the computer sending email. Oh well, he is part of another new generation.

As for the other kids, Anne is not feeling so well today. We hope she gets better tomorrow. Jenna is gearing up for two weeks out of school and without her man. We are all unsure how she will be able to survive, but we hope she can overcome these obstacles and still have fun.

Chrysler called today to let us know that we don't need to worry about going over the mileage on our current lease to take care of son. They wished us well, both on our current trip and future ones. Thank you Albion Motors and Chrysler for doing this. Unexpected, but very appreciated.

Wanted to say a quick thank you to all the managers and associates at the Sam's Club in Jackson for helping Doug make it through another week of work. Your support in keeping him on track is appreciated.

I know several people have commented on hearing or seeing Adam's story on Jackson TV (JTV), 970 WKHM, 105.3FM, and the Jackson Citizen Patriot. A huge thank you to all of these companies for allowing us the opportunity to thank all those that have helped us during our situation.

May God bless you all. Hope to be able to thank several of you Saturday at the dinner and auction.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

02/19/08 - All...Adam is okay. We had a bit of uneasiness a couple of days ago. We thought Adam could not see out of his bad eye any longer. In the end, we think he can still see out of his bad eye, but the vision is just not clear. In any case, during the last few days, it has been tough to focus on anything other than Adam. 

Tonight we had dinner with Grandpa Jim (AKA The Big Sissy) and Grandma Jerry. Big Jim's BBQ Ribs and Jerry's dinner rolls were on the menu. If you haven't experienced these two things together, you are missing out on some fine home-cooking. Thank you both for the great meal.

We are starting to feel the stress of needing to pack up our lives again and head for the south. Saturday is the benefit dinner and also the night we leave. For anyone that hasn't gotten tickets yet, they are still available, or simply show up. Everyone is welcome. We would love to see so many of you at the dinner so we can thank you in person.

The dinner also has a silent auction. Thank you to all the businesses that have shown your support in donating items to be auctioned. We were explaining to 970 WKHM today that it is so hard to thank so many people and so many businesses for their support. We have come to understand that it is impossible to thank all of you in person, so please take a moment and understand how grateful we are to live in such a great community, with such great people and businesses.

As we gear up for this weekend, I know there are so many people out there that just can't be there. From California...to the Carolina's...to everywhere in-between, thank you for all the support you have shown us. We really hope to be able to show Adam a great time in Memphis and in Orlando. It is with your love, support, and prayers than we plan to make this happen.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

02/16/08 - All...Adam is doing okay. Doctor Taylor saw Adam a couple of days ago. Adam has some issues with his bad eye. He has blocked oil glands in his right eye lid that can the pores to become plugged. We treat this with washing his eye lid with soap and water. We also have some eye drops to give him. Of course with Adam, the eye drops are a chore to give him.

Adam was also sounding congested, so he takes Benadryl now for his congestion. In addition to the humidifier on the furnace, we have added another one in the room Adam sleeps in. We hope to clear up his congestion quickly.

Some friends stopped over this weekend and visited. Thank you all for taking time out of your own busy schedules to check on us. Your time with us is much appreciated.

A past co-worker of Doug's was up from Ft. Wayne, IN, and took time out to have lunch with Doug. Thank you also for checking in on us. It was very nice to see you.

Adam's benefit dinner is this next weekend and we are continuing to plan for that, in addition to planning for our trips to Tennessee and Florida. The weather report for Florida so far is still favorable. We are looking forward to trying to catch the Detroit Tigers while enroute to Orlando.

Praying for continued improvement,

Doug and Sara

02/10/08 - All...All is well. Adam's nasal congestion cleared up overnight so we think he may of had some allergies flaring up and not a cold. We are happy for this.

Adam attended church this morning with mom, papa, and g-ma (grandma). He was bundled up well and until he removed his hat, gloves, and scarf, nobody really knew who he was. For those of you out of Michigan, it's 1 degree outside right now. That would be a real-fell of -19 with the wind-chill.

Sara had a well deserved relaxing day with some help from Doug and Jenna to play with the kids. 

Doug slipped away for a quick bit and went to help a friend install his new home entertainment system. Bought at Sam's Club, it looks and sounds great. 

We have started to plan for the trip approaching very quickly. We will probably be into Florida a day early so we might take a detour to Lakeland, FL. Luck has it, the Detroit Tigers have a couple spring training games going on right before we are scheduled to check in at the village on the 29th. What better to do with a day than spend it at a ball-park. 

We hope everyone is staying safe and warm.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

02/08/08 - All...Adam had another good week. He did make it to pre-school on Wednesday. Tuesday the school was closed due to fog and Thursday due to the near blizzard conditions we experienced. Adam wasn't too pleased that he had to miss school twice in the same week. He hopes the weather cooperates with his social calendar better this week. 

Adam is very excited about Ethan (friend from school) coming over to our house Wednesday of this week. Adam socializes much better in his own atmosphere and looks forward to playing Wii with Ethan. 

We have been utilizing the Dream Dinners more often that we thought we would right after coming home. We thought we couldn't wait until we got home to cook. Some of the things we enjoyed before our lives were turned upside down don't give us the same pleasure as they once did. Having the option of having dinner 90% completed already has been very nice. Thanks Dream Dinners, Kristi, and everyone else that contributed to us getting these.

Doug's list of chores for Friday was a bit bigger than he expected. We know we promised pictures today, we will shoot again for Sunday.

We know there are family members, friends, and Sam's Club team members all over the U.S. checking in on Adam. Thank you for keeping in touch. Thank you for all your continued thoughts and prayers.

With Faith and Hope,

Doug and Sara

02/06/08 - All...Adam is still doing okay. We think maybe we have seen some more movement from his right eye. We hope to see continued improvement in this area. We think maybe Adam is favoring his left arm, not due to any symptoms, but rather to not wanting to work through the weakness of that limb. We also think Adam may be building strength in his left leg due to walking up and down stairs and walking at various stores in town.

The lease on our van was up on March 1st. We contacted Albion Motors to inquire about another lease or a purchase. When we discussed all the options, they helped us figure out the best option was still to lease and then walk away from a high mileage vehicle down the road. A long story short, Fred Vaughn (Owner of the dealership) and Gina Pritchard (Sales Consultant) took service to an entirely new level. The found the right Chrysler/Dodge van for us, raised the down payment (without us asking), took very good care of us on the numbers, and delivered the vehicle to our front door in a snow storm. This is the fourth vehicle our immediate family has purchased from Fred and his team. We needed a dealer we knew we could rely on when we were too tired to figure it out for ourselves. We couldn't have made a better choice. Thank you both.

Work for Doug has been going okay. Both he and Adam have been adjusting to him not being home. When Adam gets mad at mom, he cries for dad, but we know he misses dad very much and is trying to get use to the change. Adam has always struggled with change, so hopefully within a few days, he'll feel better about Doug being gone. Doug says with the bad weather he will need everyone to come shopping to make up for the lost sales during the blizzard today.

We know we haven't done a good job with getting pictures online so everyone can see them. We promise to get some online this week, probably on Friday when Doug has a day off. 

Not a day goes by without us truly believing that we can feel all of you praying for our family. Today is Ash Wednesday, and we know we thought about all of you. Please continue to pray for Adam and ask God to show his love for all of us.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

02/04/05 - All...Adam is still doing well. School went okay again last week. Adam continues to not be comfortable being at school without one of us there. We hope to again improve on this as we move into this week.

Adam's right eye has improved some over the last week. The eye does not appear to remain so far to the inside corner. We of course thought we were just seeing things until others commented on it, without us making any mention of it. A minimal improvement, but we will take it. Thank you all for the prayers.

Adam is enjoying the playroom quite a bit. He and Anne have served up several plastic meals from the toy kitchen. Jenna has found the room to be very comfortable to play video games and tie up the phone.

Doug returned to work Saturday morning. The day was one of the toughest of his entire career. He found it very hard to leave home in the morning and found it nearly impossible to focus on any task at hand while there.

Thank you to all of his team members for making the transition back into the work environment as smooth as possible. Without all of your efforts, we're not sure he could have made it through the day.

Jenna did a great job representing the family and her class at Winterfest. We spoke with the Principal and Superintendent at the basketball game preceding the event. They were glad to see us and look forward to seeing us at Adam's Benefit Dinner.

We did get an updated schedule from St Jude. We will be attending the dinner and then leave for Memphis, TN, immediately after. We will travel Saturday and Sunday for Adam's Monday morning appointment.

Keep Hoping and Praying,

Doug and Sara

01/29/08 - All...Adam continues to be doing okay. He had a good weekend. By the end of last week he seem a bit worn out, but after a good restful weekend, he seems a bit more energetic now. Adam has had some issues with bloody noses, but our medical team believes due to frequency they are not treatment related.

Church was nice on Sunday. To our surprise, we found grandma Nancy there. Our daughter Anne went this week and did fairly well considering her age. We thank grandma Nancy for helping to entertain her. Oh, sorry grandma, we will work on controlling Anne's belching and passing of gas. 

We have lab work and an EKG to do this week here in Jackson, MI. Adam isn't too excited about getting back into doing these tasks but we think he will accomplish them without getting too worked up.

Just a reminder about Adam's dinner. The information is on the donation link. Tickets are also available at the Jackson Optimist Sports Arena. We hope to be able to thank many of you in person at the dinner. We know that good food, good company, and a silent auction will be going on there.

For anyone that hadn't heard, our daughter Jenna won "Winterfest Freshman Princess". She will be representing her class on Saturday, February 2, 2008, at Vandercook Lake High School. We'll get pictures on the web-site as soon as we can.

We did hear back from Make-A-Wish yesterday. Adam's wish has been granted and after our February trip to St. Jude, we will be driving to Orlando, FL. We're going to Disney World!!! We also get to take him to some other attractions too. We are very excited for Adam and pray that he has a great time while down there. 

To all of our prayer teams and individuals...Thank You.

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

01/25/08 - All...Adam had a good last couple of days. He has some irritation behind his ears from the radiation that we are applying a topical medication to. We hope this clears up soon. Besides this, he is doing good.

Adam did have a good week at school. A big thank you to the staff and students at Jackson Area Career Center - Child Development. A smooth transition back into his routines isn't possible without your help...thank you.

One moment at a time...Adam loves "the lake house". This house is on a lake in Harrison, MI, owned by Sara's family. We utilized it for a week two summers ago. Adam was bathroom training at the time. He knew by observing other(s) than one could pee off the elevated deck, all the way down to the grass below. He thought this was great. One afternoon Sara and I came walking into the living room to find Adam with his pants around his ankles urinating from the living room onto the deck outside. When we asked Adam was he was doing, he said he was urinating off the deck but stayed inside to do it because it was raining. He shook it off and returned to playing. We're sure you'll be glad to know Adam continues to practice at home.

God Bless,

Doug and Sara 

01/23/08 - All...Adam is doing well this week. He has attended preschool Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Tuesday Sara and I both stayed with him. Today, just Sara stayed with him. We hope that sometime next week maybe we can transition again, to one of us just staying in an observation room his school has. We will let you know how it goes.

Adam visited Dr. James Taylor yesterday so we could cover all the paperwork we brought back from St. Jude and so Dr. Taylor could get a good look at Adam. The visit went well and Adam was very cooperative with Dr. Taylor and his tests. We will see Dr. Taylor again in a month for Adam's labs.

Tonight we met with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The representatives were very nice and I think Adam enjoyed their company. Adam decided that his wish would be for his family to go on vacation Walt Disney World in Florida. There are several attractions besides Disney World in the area that Adam is interested in, including Sea World and Safari USA. Adam is very excited about meeting Sponge Bob and the Power Rangers.

We are going to attempt to have Adam's wish directly after our trip to St Jude in February. This will allow us to drive to Florida from Tennessee (mom don't fly) and then back to Michigan. If February doesn't work out, we hope to go the week before our St Jude visit in March. 

We were going through all the cards, notes, and letters again that so many of you sent over the last two months. It helped brighten our day remembering how many of you there are praying for Adam. Thank you so much. Please keep praying.

Doug and Sara

01/21/08 - All...We survived the weekend. We still aren't 100% unpacked and still have six more boxes that were shipped arriving today or tomorrow. 

Adam did great this weekend and saw lots of friends and family both days. Sara's cousin Ryan Vandusen had an enlistment party, he leaves for the U.S. Navy in a week. We wish Ryan a good time with his training and a safe career in the Navy.

Adam had a vast number of visitors to the house and we took him into public briefly over the weekend. He did better than expected with the crowds. Adam was able to pick out a clock and a desk chair for the playroom over the weekend. Of course numbers are on the clock so we can continue to learn to tell time. 

Adam attended church at St. Mary's in Jackson, MI, Sunday morning. He was spotted out in the crowd and received a personal visit from Father Reilly to welcome him home. Thank you Father.

We have an appointment with Make-A-Wish Wednesday evening. We'll let you know later in the week what we figured out, if anything. 

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

01/19/08 - All...It's Saturday morning and very cold in Michigan today. We arrived last night after a long trip home. The kids we restless in the van and even Sponge Bob couldn't keep them entertained any longer. Thank you all who prayed for our safe return home.

Adam is good, and very excited to be home. We arrived home to find a table full of wonderful gifts from several of you. Thank you. We arrived home to find a very clean home, another gift from several of you. Thank you. 

We also came home to an unbelievable gift. Doug had voiced a concern to his best friend Jim Brown about wanting to finish the play room that Doug started with his brother Rick. Doug asked Jim to come over and look at it when we returned home, to see how to complete the task. Well, we returned home to find the room completed, complete with windows cut in, a wall size chalk board, storage, and a new TV for the kids to play games on. This project was headed by Jim, and our overwhelming thanks for helping us complete this project for Adam (and Doug) goes to you. We will get some pictures on the web site so you all can see the unbelievable job that was accomplished.

Here are the businesses that supported Jim through contributions for this project. If you need work done, please consider these businesses: James Brown Construction, B & H Electric, South Central Contracting, Sam's Club, Sevens Paint and Wallpaper, House of Floors, Weatherproof Windows and Doors, General Materials, Menards, and Liberty Landfill. Our family deeply appreciates your help on this project.

Individual and family contributions were also received from: the Brown family, the Hamilton family, the Meade family, the Decorte family, the Murrell family, Tom Poole, Jeff Perez, Ryan Bontrager, Amanda Payne, Mitchell Friedlein, and Marilyn Smith. Again, our family deeply appreciates your help on this project and helping make our house ready to come home to.

Back to Adam, he slept good, and is fired up this morning trying to play with all of his toys equally. He's a neat freak so he also wants to help unload all of the boxes. All of the boxes...we had sent 4 boxes home with Sara's mom and dad, had to ship back 11 boxes, and still had a van full of stuff coming home. We accumulated an amazing amount of stuff while there. Between what we had there, and what we came home to, I think the kids are not going to run out of toys or games for some time.

We received a new date for when we return to St. Jude with Adam. We need to go back there February 25, 2008, so we will be leaving the day after his benefit dinner instead of returning home to the dinner. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

We will be attending Mass in the morning at St. Mary's in Jackson, MI, tomorrow instead of St. Mary's in Memphis, TN. Hearing Father Riley in the morning is something else we have looked forward to, another sign that we are home.

May God bless you all and please don't stop praying,

Doug and Sara

01/17/08 - All...Adam did fine during his MRI's this morning. We received a report this evening over the phone with his Oncologist. The tumor is still there, but is reduced in size. There is no bleeding (important) and no unexpected swelling (important). All the information we received is concurrent with what his doctors expected.

Adam's medical team was able to move some stuff up today, so we were actually able to leave Memphis, TN, mid-morning instead of Friday. Our goal was Indianapolis, IN, by bedtime. We didn't make it due to the weather. We are currently in Marion, IL, still about eight hours away from home. We hope to be home tomorrow evening. The weather report is more favorable in the areas we will be traveling.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

01/16/08 - All...Today Adam completed his radiation treatments. Tomorrow he has his last MRI. We will still be home by Monday. He did very well with his treatments. His right eye still has not improved and we received word that due to the size of the tumor and now being at the end of his treatment, it is unlikely that we will see any improvement in the right eye. Adam's left eye took dominance some time ago, so we are not focusing on this point too much.

We were contacted by Make-A-Wish today, they let us know they were sending a packet to our home for us. We still are not sure what Adam's wish will be, but hope to get some stuff figured out in the next couple of weeks.

We received word today that tickets are now on sale for Adam's benefit dinner. We know they will be on sale at Sam's Club in Jackson, MI, and at Vandercook Lake High School. We will update you all on other locations as they become available. Tickets are $5 in advance or $7 at the door. Great food and a band are planned already. Hope to see you there.

We wanted to share some key points regarding Adam's mannerisms so as many people as possible are aware of and not offended by any of his new quirks. He shys away from large groups of people approaching him or if several people at once are talking to him. He answers most questions simply by nodding yes or no, rather than speaking up. He is not very outgoing with hi's, goodbye's, or thank you's. After he is in an environment for about 30 minutes, he tends to loosen up a bit. He is very repetitive, meaning he normally doesn't like to do things the first time, but after doing something several times, he begins to like doing it greatly. Adam sometimes warms up to people quicker if they offer to color with him or let him direct you on where/what to color. He also likes it when you ask him about his Nintendo DS. 

Most of his mannerisms have to do with control. Adam has little control over most of what is going on right now. The things listed above are all things that he has control over, so sometimes he controls them in a desired or less than desired manner. We wanted everyone to be aware of the situation and hope to see you all soon.

Tired, anxious, and still praying,

Doug and Sara

01/14/08 - All...Adam is still doing well. Thursday is still his last day of treatment and we still hope to be home on Monday, January 21, 2008. Bringing Adam home has such a great meaning to us. We can't even begin to describe how glad we are to bring him home. His family, his friends, his community, his home, and his bed. We thank all of you praying for his safe return home.

We received another card from Adam's family doctor in Jackson, MI, today. Dr. James Taylor and his staff continue to show so much care and love for Adam and the rest of our family. While we don't get to return to Jackson, MI, with a lot of comfort of the unknown, we do get to return knowing we have a doctor there willing to work with St Jude and continue to care for all of our needs as well. Adam needs a lot of follow up care and lab work. Dr. Taylor and his staff have provided us a solid foundation of medical care to come home to. Thank you so much Dr. James, Dr. Nancy, Gerri, Shawn, Nancy, Jody, Adrienne, and Kim.

Adam has taken much time creating arts and craft projects over the few weeks. These crafty projects are good for his fine motor skills. We hope to be making, coloring, and painting things for many of you over upcoming weeks.

We were talking about baseball today with Adam. Adam laughed, and I think this brought back some funny memories for both Adam and us. We remember the time Adam was running from second base to third base to home. Adam rounded third base and instead of running home, he ran into the dugout and sat down on the bench. Oops. Fortunately, he still made it to home and scored the run. 

May God bless you all,

Doug and Sara

01/13/08 - All...Adam is well and attended church again this morning at St Mary's in Memphis, TN. We pray God grants Adam peace and heals him in this journey.

Adam wanted to play some games yesterday, so we went back to Jillians at Peabody Place. We won lots of tickets and traded them for some more treasures. Sorry we can't share what the treasures there were, Adam informed us some are gifts for others. We are grateful Adam continues to care so much about others.

We were reminded by some friends at home..."God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace. Take care and God bless you all!"

One moment at a time...Adam slept in this morning and when he woke he simply smiled at us. One day, one moment. We'll keep that moment. We'll keep that smile.

Lastly, we have a date for your calendar book. Vandercook Lake School District, Sam's Club, and several other friends are sponsoring a benefit dinner for Adam. The dinner will be held at Vandercook Lake High School on Saturday, February 23, 2008, from 4:30PM until 7:30PM. We will be returning again that week from Memphis, TN, and will be in attendance for the event. We hope to be able to thank so many of you in person for the support you have shown our family.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

01/11/08 - All...Well, it's Friday, and Adam has four treatments left. In celebration, we took Adam to a local restaurant on the famous Beale Street and then to the Monster Truck Jam downtown at the Fedex Forum. Adam had a great time and chose the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle truck as his favorite. He also enjoyed the motorcycle show with all the jumps.

Adam has discovered email over the last few weeks. Feel free to drop him an email if you get a chance (send it to Sara or Doug). In addition to checking for mail and packages each day, he looks forward to checking for email. A huge thank you to all that have sent his cards, letters, and packages to help keep his spirits high.

Sunday marks the last Mass that we will attend in Memphis, TN, for a while. Thank you again to St. Michaels in West Memphis, AR, and to St Marys in Memphis, TN. Your prayers for all the children at St. Jude are greatly appreciated.

We are really tired and look forward to sleeping in our own bed. After nearly two months of being gone, we hope our own bed will help us catch up on some sleep. A short stay at home it will be, as we now know our first trip back will be February 18, 2008, but only for a few days.

Exhausted and still praying,

Doug and Sara

01/10/08 - All...Adam is doing well. We met with his Physical Therapist today. There will be a recommendation of continued Physical Therapy when we return to Michigan. Adam needs to improve on balance, flexibility, and overall strength of his trunk and left limbs. 

While we are getting close to going home, our minds have begun to fill with the constant worry that we will surely have once we get there. I pray that these thoughts will subside and the peace of mind we need will make itself present. 

A quick thank you to Jenna's teachers and the administration at Vandercook Lake High School. I know the last few weeks have been hard on Jenna, thus it likely may have been hard on several of you. Thank you for your understanding and any time you have spent with Jenna helping her stay focused on her education. Her succeeding academically through all of this is one of our goals.

I know there are churches and people all over the United States praying for Adam. Please continue to do so. We are in the midst of a huge battle and we need all of your positive thoughts and prayers.

Keep the faith,

Doug

01/09/08 - All...Adam is doing well. He is currently taking his radiation at approximately 75% of his maximum dosage. He still takes anti-nausea medicine twice per day to try to keep him from getting sick, but is still off steroids. His rash is also clearing up and is looking much better.

We met with his Occupational Therapist today. She will be sending us with the recommendation for continued therapy when we return home. This therapy primarily deals with his fine motor skill, especially with his left arm and hand. Adam did grow from 7lbs of squeeze strength in his left hand/arm to 10lbs. His right arm grew from 15lbs to 20lbs. His fine motor test still took some time but he was picking up pieces with his thumb and index finger, rather than his thumb and palm of his hand. This was an improvement from his last test. This therapy is probably going to be done through the school district. His therapist also recommends private care therapy to help with flexibility and range of motion for his hands and arms.

Adam's Speech Therapist believes Adam should have some continued therapy in this area. Adam was to be receiving a re-evaluation from Jackson ISD this winter already so the therapist here is going to let Jackson ISD determine his needs while he is in Michigan. Ideally, therapy would be continued to keep consistent flexibility and strength in his face and mouth muscles. His therapist will still work with him when we are down here.

We have an appointment with his Physical Therapist in the morning. We suspect this therapy will also be continued in Michigan to reinforce his balance and strengthen his legs.

We hope to be back in Michigan on January 21st. We will keep you all in the loop.

Keep praying and may God truly bless all of us.

Doug and Sara

01/08/08 - All...Adam still has a good attitude and is looking forward to going home soon. He still plays most of his games every day. SpongeBob still dominates our television viewing experience. We can't wait for the opportunity to watch our weekly shows at home. 

Adam's doctor thinks he doesn't have a rash, but rather a side effect of his chemotherapy. We switched from a fungus cream to a steroid cream to try to get rid of it. We hope that this clears it up quickly.

We have a meeting with Adam's social worker tomorrow to hopefully get paperwork started for Make-A-Wish. We are still looking for ideas, so if you have any, please share them with us.

There are several new pictures posted on the website. Be sure to visit that link to see them.

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers all along. Please continue to pray for Adam.

Doug and Sara

01/06/08 - All...Adam had a good week. He has continued to have some hair loss behind his ears. We hope to convince him to accept a haircut from us. He has developed a rash (it sometimes happens) on his chest, around his port access point. He gets some cream for that and it should clear it up soon. 

Jenna flew home yesterday so she can start school back up after the holiday break. We hope she had a good time here with her family. We look forward to seeing her soon back in Michigan.

Over the last few weeks, Doug has received several calls and email from people he has worked with over the last fifteen years. Thank you all for the kind words, thoughts, and prayers.

Thank you to Sam's Clubs across the state of Michigan, northern Indiana, and elsewhere that have been selling bracelets for Adam and thank you to Nomad Bookhouse in downtown Jackson, MI, for doing so also. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

We think Adam has nine treatments left. Please continue to pray for a successful outcome from these treatments, his chemotherapy, and the situation overall. Thank you.

Praying for Adam,

Doug and Sara

01/02/08 - All...Adam is still doing well with the stopping of the steroids. We are grateful for this. The biggest side effect of the steroids was being a lot more irritable. We didn't think Adam could get moodier than he was, but can now assure you that it is possible. 

Adam has a cold, mostly in his sinuses. The doctors were able to give him some IV medicine to dry up his sinuses so his treatments would not be delayed. This was great since we still haven't been able to teach Adam how to blow his nose. 

Adam plays with his new toys several times each day. There are too many to list, so thank you all for items sent. Adam has also been able to select some other toys from local stores with donations given, so thank you all for this too. 

Adam is showing more interest in the activities that he enjoyed previously. Adam's newly developed fear of heights has gotten better and he has begun walking down steps again. He has also started throwing balls, shooting baskets, and practicing his Power Ranger take-downs again. 

For those of you still north of us, the temperature outside got into the 30's. However, this weekend the temperature should hit low 70's. Still no snow, but we hope to maybe hit the zoo again the end of this week.

Adam's radiation is still going well. His dose is a little over the half way mark in level of radiation given. Adam has balding behind his ears and is beginning to thin out in the receding hairline area. The receding hairline may also be heredity from his grandfathers, but either way, it is getting thin in that area.

Praying for Adam,

Doug and Sara

12/31/07 - All...Adam is still good. Here is what we found out today:

The size of the tumor and the surrounding area is still about the same. This is considered ok, because MRI technology cannot tell the difference between the tumor and any fluid in the area caused by swelling from the radiation. I guess here is no way to tell if the tumor actually shrunk until the months after radiation when the swelling caused by the radiation is gone. Until then, we consider the news today okay and will work with it. We already know we will be making monthly trips back to Tennessee.

Adam's attitude is still good this week. His balance and stability has improved. Adam is still working on his strength in his left limbs. They remain at approximately half that of his right limbs. Adam does not turn his head to the left to look right anymore. We thought this was an improvement in his vision, however, we learned this was his left taking dominance over his right eye. We will try to convince Adam to participate in testing with the eye doctors. The goal is to possibly patch his good eye to strengthen his bad eye, however they don't put this goal high on his needs list. While they would like him to regain his "normal" sight in his right eye, they fear the tumor may have destroyed cells needed to get this eye to operate correctly anyway. Short of the story...we will try to identify and work to correct any potentially correctable issues with his right eye if we can. If he will not cooperate with the plan, we will not be increasing mental and physical stress on his body to fight him on the issue. No additional stress will be put on his mentally or physically. A positive attitude within him is still the best treatment.

We are taking today as a small victory in a large war. Thank you all for helping us achieve our victory today. Please continue to pray for Adam and ask others that pray to do so for him. With prayers...come miracles.

We were also reminded again today that all patients treated at St Jude are eligible for Make-A-Wish. We are brain-storming on what Adam might enjoy as a wish. Make-A-Wish does interview him, but we don't think Adam will be overly cooperative since it will be the first time he meets them. Anyone with ideas are encouraged to share them via email to me.

Happy New Year to all of you. Stay safe and take care of each other.

Keeping the faith,

Doug 

12/30/07 - All...It's Sunday night and we are back to treatments tomorrow, beginning at 7:45AM. The key doctor appointments we have been awaiting are from 9AM to 10AM. We don't expect to get much sleep tonight. 

Adam had a good weekend. Too cold for baseball outside, and we traded the museum for church on Sunday morning. Thank you St. Mary's in downtown Memphis, TN. The rest of time went to playing games per Adam's request. He did walk up and down some stairs here this weekend without any help. We were very proud of him.

Anne was wild Anne and Jenna was just Jenna. We think they had a good time this weekend also. We hope they can entertain each other this week at the hospital.

Sara's parents left town this weekend, returning to Michigan. They will be missed and the assistance they provided was very needed. Thank you both.

Adam wants to have a party when we go back to Michigan and has talked about it the last three days. I let him know we will figure something out when we get home. He has also been excited this weekend about returning to pre-school at the Jackson Area Career Center. He spoke of several classmates and Adam knows he can go back after we go home.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray for our miracle to happen.

May God bless you all,

Doug and Sara

12/28/07 - All...It's Friday, and other week of treatment is over. Adam did well this week. The doctors have reduced his steroid amount again this week and he has done well with it. Thursday and today, Adam seemed to be more active than last week. We hope this is a good sign. We pray this is a good sign.

We should have the results of Adam's MRI's on Monday. We have appointments with both of his main doctors on Monday. We look forward to the appointments on one hand, and fear them on the other. We are going to try and not let it control us this weekend.

Weather and Adam permitting we hope to be able to take him to the Children's Museum this weekend. If the weather permits we should be able to try and hit some baseballs outside also. Adam looks forward to this and we hope to be able to grant this desire.

We know Adam's story hit the Jackson Citizen Patriot this week. We are grateful that a means in which we could thank so many people came to light. Thank you to the paper for sharing Adam's situation tactfully. This was important to us and they did well.

We should be on the back-stretch for returning to Jackson and are looking forward to bringing Adam home. There are so many things he misses each day, it will be nice to reunite him with all his families, friends, and possessions. 

Please keep praying and please others that pray to do so for Adam.

Keep the faith,

Doug and Sara

12/27/07 - All...Christmas was a blessed day. Sara, Adam, and I did make it to mass on Christmas day. Adam being scared in a large group of people, Adam did very well. Thank you all for your prayers that helped get us through this extremely tough day. Thank you St. Michael's in West Memphis.

Adam had two MRI's and his treatment yesterday. These MRI's are the first ones that will show what effect the treatments are having on his tumor. His progress thus far could be these treatments, his steroids, or a combination of them both. We should have the results either tomorrow or Monday. Please say an extra prayer for us on this one.

Aunt Sara (Doug's sister) and her friend stopped into town for a couple of days to say hi. They leave tomorrow. Aunt Dee, Uncle Jeremy, and Cousin Jonah are flying out tonight. We hope our families have safe trips home.

Keep safe,

Doug and Sara

12/24/07 - All...Good evening. We didn't make it to church this evening but are going to try again in the morning. Hopefully we can make it then.

As we look to tomorrow, we ask our Lord to give us strength to follow our intentions and celebrate the day for its true meaning. 

A special thank you to all who have sent words to strengthen our faith and continue our hope. 

Doug

12/24/07 - All,  Good morning. It's Christmas Eve morning and we are preparing to start our day. Adam has radiation treatment today, number 15 of 31, pretty much the half way point. His level of radiation is still about 16 or so and has to go all the way to 54. Fifty-four is the maximum dose level he can take.

Today is grandma Var's (Doug's mom) birthday. If you know her, call her and wish her a happy birthday. If you live near her, stop by and say hi for us. Thank you.

We are hoping for a smooth day and hope to be able to enjoy it the best we can. We'll let you know how it goes. We hope we can feel some of those prayers and love pretty soon today.

God Bless,

Doug and Sara

12/22/07 - All,  As far as we can personally tell, Adam is doing well. We have noticed that at the beginning of each week when he starts treatment he is more energetic. By Thursday and into Friday, he gets more relaxed about doing anything and by Friday night is letting us know he is ready for bed before his normal bedtime. 

This morning (Saturday) he seems recharged a bit, happy that his big sister is in town, and looking forward to breakfast all weekend, since he missed breakfast all week due to sedation. His old man cooks this morning, and he gets to pick where to eat tomorrow morning. He chose his new favorite place to eat, IHOP, where pancakes can come anytime of the day.

Well, it's Saturday and we are three days from Christmas. I can't help but wonder if Christmas will ever be the same. Sara and I are still trying to decide if we can emotionally handle going to church on Christmas eve. After all, if we can't handle a bell choir here, how are we going to be able to handle a full service at church. I still have faith that it will work itself out and we will be there, a basket case we may be, but we will hopefully be there.

In closing, I know we have folks from Michigan to Texas, to the west coast, and back to the east coast praying for us. To all of you, Sara and I thank you, Jenna and Anne thank you, and most importantly...Adam thanks you.

Keep the faith,

Doug

12/21/07 - All,  Adam is still good this week. We think he is tolerating treatment well. We won't know until a few days after Christmas whether treatment is working or not.

The world famous Peabody Hotel catered dinner tonight here at the Ronald McDonald House. I guess they are world famous because of some ducks that live on the roof and everyday at 9:45AM they leave the roof, ride the elevator to the lobby, and jump into the fountain in the lobby. Then, at 5:45PM, they take themselves back to the roof in the reverse route. Evidently people come to the hotel just to see the ducks. I don't really get the facination of it. To me it would be more fun to put Vodka in the fountain and see where they end up that day.

We were also treated to the Peabody Bell Choir performing. This is where the evening got tougher for us. Hearing the Christmas music was hard to take in. The music brought our situation to the forefront of our minds in a whole new way. Very tough evening. We said a few extra prayers tonight.

Jenna (our daughter), along with some of Sara's family arrive tomorrow. With it being Jenna's birthday, we can't wait to see her. I'm sure it will be great having her here for the holidays. She has been such a peach in Michigan while we have been gone, she certainly needs some quality time with mom and dad.

In closing, please keep praying. Share Adam's website this holiday season with anyone that wants or would want it. We will take all the help we can get with praying. May God bless you all.

Doug and Sara

12/18/07 - All,  Adam had a good weekend. He took his medications and continued to keep them down. This prayer was answered. Thank you all.

We think today or tomorrow puts us roughly a month away from returning home. "Home" has taken a whole new meaning to us over the last few weeks. We miss all of you, our community, and our lives. We miss not having any space of our own. We miss being able to spend time with those that we love. We miss "home". 

We wanted to thank all of your for the cards, emails, packages, and donations. These are all much appreciated. The chat board is up on the website; check it out when you can.

We are extremely grateful for all your thoughts and prayers. We ask that our family and friends, the Churches, the prayer groups, and everyone else who prays to continue to pray for us. Pray for Adam to have the strength to overcome any pain his body is feeling, pray for Sara and I to have peace in our minds so our hearts can focus on Adam, pray for Jenna to overcome temptation and make the right decisions in our absence, pray for Anne to continue to support her brother through playing nicely, and pray for everyone else touched by Adam. Again, thank you for these prayers. May God bless you all.

Keeping faith,

Doug and Sara

12/12/07 - Adam is doing much better with his medications since our last note. We have disguised several into his drinks. With his taste buds already off due to his treatment, he hasn't caught on yet. The only one we can't do this with is his chemotherapy. We continue to hope that this one will get easier for him. Adam did run down the hallway by our room three times yesterday. We hadn't seen him run in weeks and it truly was a joy to see it. Wish many of you were here to see it. 

Adam received several packages and cards this week. Thank you to all that have sent them. Checking for mail and packages each day is a big high for him. A special thank you to all his classmates at Jackson Area Career Center Child Development and their families.

Jenna is still in Michigan, but with the help of some special family members in Wisconsin, she will be flying here for the Holidays. We miss her greatly and are trying to plan some stuff for her too while she is here. Anne is still wild Anne, but we have mastered identifying "the look" when she is going to try to board an elevator without us. Sara has also improved her forty-yard sprint time to catch her. Yea mom!

Sara and I are still adjusting, but are doing OK with the help that several of you have provided. Thanks for communicating on a regular basis. Sometimes I think communicating will all of you gives us a reminder that being here is not a permanent thing. We are all homesick.

We have been contacted twice this week by Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Sam's Club, several other leaders from the Sam's Club Home Office, and the Memphis Market Manager for Sam's Club. The Market Manager stopped by (with snacks) to let us know that the clubs in this market were there to help us. Some very touching moments across the board. Thank you all.

In closing, hug your kids. Tell someone you love them. Keep praying and may God bless you all.

Doug

12/09/07 - All,  One week of radiation is over! Celebrate the small successes each day. Adam had a better afternoon today than this morning or last night. He is struggling to keep his several medications down. Sara and I think this is primarily due to his new fear of taking medicine. He gets so anxious that shortly after taking his medicine, he vomits it back up. But like we said, this evening went better than this morning. Adam did have a nice day relaxing, playing Wii, and watching SpongeBob. We hope to take him to some stores tomorrow and get him some lighter weight clothing. The weather is so nice (sorry Michiganians) that he doesn't have enough short sleeve shirts. In closing, a very good friend reminded me today to make sure that our supporters are prayers for specific things. With that, please pray for Adam to be able to take his medicine peacefully and not feel so anxious; please pray for Sara to continue to have th