Our Journey…

For those of you who have been following our journey, you know it has been a time in our lives we never could have imagined.  In August of 2012 Chris started to become very fatigued, particularly when working out.  He is an avid runner, was just beginning to train for a triathlon and religiously worked out.  As the days wore on, his fatigue increased.  We were also in the midst of preparing for the adoption of our third child.  Our sweet Alani was born four weeks early on September 8.  We rushed to Arkansas to welcome our sweet baby and suddenly we were parents of a newborn.  Chris’s fatigue and lack of energy was now blamed on having a tiny 4 pound baby that woke every 2 hours to eat.  But as we returned home and things continued to decline for Chris we began to realize this was something more.  Chris was concerned it was his lungs since breathing was difficult.  In early November Chris saw his primary care physician for a workup. That night, as Chris was driving home from work,  I received the devastating news from his doctor.  Chris was dying.

The following months were filled with the unknown.  Chris had a diagnosis of MDS, a rare blood cancer, and Aplastic Anemia. With a life expectancy of 6 months and the only option being a bone marrow transplant, we had to find a donor.  But there was no one.  In all the worldwide registries there was not one single match.  We had bone marrow drive after drive… and finally after five months of searching a match was found across the ocean.

Chris went on to have his transplant from a 47-year-old anonymous German man.  We are forever grateful to this man and hope and pray we will one day be able to meet him. Chris is doing well after transplant, but dealing with some chronic Graft Versus Host Disease (which is the equivalent of organ rejection).  It is being managed closely and we pray it does not get out of hand.

Throughout this journey, and many journeys in our past, we have both relied heavily on our faith in God.  He has continually taken care of us and our lives are lives filled with miracles.  I hope this blog will be a blessing to those that read it.  Life is filled with hardships, but if we keep our eyes focused on Jesus, those hardships can be surrounded by His blessings.

As more time goes by I sometimes feel like I should keep all these thoughts inside, that talking about life after transplant might not be what everyone wants to hear.  But I hope the pages of this blog can bring support to someone who is not yet where we are post transplant, to someone who is going through a hard time in their life, to someone who needs to feel the arms of Jesus because otherwise they couldn’t make it through.  Things are moving on for us and are so much better.  But Chris’s transplant still consumes our life.  Life has changed but miracles remain!  God bless!

Thank you for sharing in our journey.

Love, Laurie