Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

To all our readers, we want to extend warm and loving wishes to you and your family at Thanksgiving! We hope you had a wonderful day with friends and family enjoying laughter, conversation, and good food. We certainly have had our share of hardship this year, but despite this, we are grateful that Mattie's cancer was diagnosed, that he is in treatment, and thanks to Bob is currently cancer free. We want to especially acknowledge Ann Henshaw (our Team Mattie coordinator) and Alison McSlarrow (our Team Mattie fund and communications manager) for their constant support and tireless energy. These are remarkable and selfless women! We are especially thankful to the wonderful community of Mattie supporters that are out there. As we reflect on what we are grateful for this year, we definitely are grateful to all of you.

We want to thank the Peterson family who graciously offered to cook Thanksgiving dinner for us today. However, I told Karen Peterson that I wanted to try to cook myself. I haven't really cooked since August, and I wanted to try to normalize the day for all of us. If that is at all possible. My joke with Karen was I wondered if I remembered how to even use the appliances in my kitchen or boil water. I rose to the occasion though, I guess it is like riding a bike. You never forget your cooking skills. I want to thank my parents who bought all of our groceries, cleaned the turkey, and started cooking our potato recipe. I couldn't have done a dinner tonight without their help!

Peter tells me Mattie had an awful night of sleep on wednesday. Mattie was up on the hour waking up with terrible dreams. I remember these times from the first surgery. This is how Mattie's body deals with the pain medication and perhaps the whole horrible ordeal. I have decided to take over night duty tonight. Peter needs and deserves a major break. When Mattie woke up this morning, we turned on the TV and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. In the past, Peter and I were normally so busy that we never watched the parade. But today, we all stayed in once place and enjoyed the floats and marching bands. I brought out many of the dishes I was preparing for the day, out to the living room, and set up prep areas there, so that Mattie could see that I was with him and could take part in the cooking process. He was VERY demanding all day, he wanted Peter and I near him at all times. It was thoroughly exhausting, and it made it very difficult to cook and be in the kitchen. We did enjoy the parade, and our favorite float was with Kermit the Frog, featuring a song, "I Believe!" Seemed very inspiring and meaningful for the season and for us personally.

I tried to make today festive and got out my favorite turkey plates to inspire Mattie to come and eat at the table. I attached a picture of our table. However, it wasn't the Thanksgiving we were

hoping for. Mattie refused to come to the table, wouldn't eat any of the food, and was in a grumpy mood. Mattie had requested certain foods today, and I made all of them. Even his favorite, sweet potato souffle with marshmellows. But nothing really interested him. He was just mad, and the only way Peter, my parents, and I could have dinner, was with Peter sitting on the couch next to Mattie. It seemed very disjointed, and what drives me absolutely crazy is that Mattie gets snappy and doesn't like hearing noise or people talking. He prefers silence! In many ways our home is becoming prison like. We are praying that as soon as Mattie gets some more independence back physically, a lot of the emotional outbursts, the anger, and anxieties will lighten up. But until that time, the question becomes how do we manage all of these changes in Mattie?

Mattie's occupational therapist, Kathie, is coming over tomorrow, and our nurse Sandra is coming back. Hopefully that interaction will go better since Peter will be home, and there will be two of us to help Mattie through the visit. We end tonight with this quote. Happy Thanksgiving!

"Do not get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time." ~ Galatians 6:9