Consider...

Yesterday's blood test results came back mixed. The white blood cells and absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) were through the roof (yay!), but the red blood cells (hematocrit) were so low Tali had to go in for a blood transfusion this morning. (Her platelets aren't bad or good...just ok. She had a lot of platelet transfusions after cycle #2. We'd love to see her platelets bounce back on their own this time.)

The neupogen shots really gave an extra strong boost to the ANC sooner than during the last two cycles in part, they say, because she has avoided infection this time around. (Let's please keep it that way.)

Tali is experiencing more nausea this time around and has a hard time keeping significant amounts of food down. Maybe we're trying to push her to eat too much since we're concerned about her weight loss. I don't know. Hopefully, the nausea will mellow now. (We've never had a skinny baby.)

Thank you for the many acts of kindness. We are so grateful for the help. Sometimes it catches us completely off guard and makes us cry (the good kind of tears); like today when I went in for a long-overdue haircut. I went to pay and was told someone had pre-paid for my haircut. Unbelievable. I asked who I should thank and was told it was strictly anonymous. All I could do was thank the Lord.

As a boy growing up with a family that loved to sing, one of our favorites was a beautiful song called, "Consider the Lilies of the Field". I think we're experiencing some of what the scriptures behind that song are trying to convey.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on...Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ...for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matthew 6:25-34

Praise be to God for His matchless love, light, and power.