July 17th

It is decided: July 17th will be the celebration and anniversary day of Caden being Cancer Free!!  How are we going to celebrate this first year?  By getting another Scan, silly!  It works out nicely that it falls on a weekday.

Because it has been a year, an echocardiogram has also been scheduled.  They checked his heart before chemo, during chemo, directly after chemo, and now.  I'm not sure how many more echos he'll need, but I'm not too worried about his heart.  He is an angel.

With the extra 6 peeps living in our 1730 square foot home, we are all a little cramped.  Good cramped, but cramped just the same.  I don't think a single child has slept in the same bed since Ashlee and Russ arrived with their girls on Monday evening.  No one is complaining.  And I mean no one.  It has been a joy to see all of the kids play so well together.  They each have an extra friend anytime they want. 

With Caden being the oldest grandchild on the Burrell side, and Keilie being the second oldest, they tend to feel a bit invisible when we all get together.  They are both invited to the "adult table" but they don't quite fit into the conversations, yet.  So, being in-between, you'd completely understand that they don't really fit with the adults, but they aren't babies either.  I would understand if they wanted to hide out in their rooms.  However, being Caden- the kid that all kids gravitate to- he has gotten down on the floor and played with each of the kids.  He drew the line at dolls, but he has been a "stray puppy" for one of them to find and love, has shared his electronics when one of them hasn't had a turn, and has taken each of them for special time at the pool.  He doesn't treat them with contempt, although he does feel the pressure with 13 people sharing a four-bedroom house.  His heart has the capacity to hold a lot of loving. 

All of my children have big hearts, we just don't ever get to really see them on screen.

Once the scan results are read, the statistics drop dramatically that he will get cancer again.  The extra Rounds were administered to kill any extra cancer bugs, the scans have been given to monitor any activity (although CT scans have been linked to causing cancer- go figure) and once the first year is done, his chances go down with each passing scan. 

So, I think we should do something HUGE for his anniversary.  Any suggestions?!