HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAUN!!!!

Well today is Shaun's third birthday. He had a GREAT party on Sunday with lots of his and Ben's friends from school, his cousins, and kids from the neighborhood. The kids had a great time in the pool and on the largest water slide I have ever seen! It was almost as tall as our two story house. And of course the adults had a great time too, eating some delicious crabs that Big Ben boiled, and going down the giant water slide of course! Ben's cousin Blake and his family came down from Memphis for the weekend and it was great to see them and have them at the party.

Saturday Ben had his T-ball party and he can't wait for next season, Ms Jessica said she would coach again...YEAH!!!!! We have a busy week this week preparing to leave for San Diego. And Ben has clinic tomorrow. Probably a long one, because he has to do his pentanamine treatment, have blood drawn for counts, and see the doctor, plus we have his appointment with the eye doctor he has been seeing since diagnosis that is monitoring the turn of his eye that was causing his double vision at the very beginning. But his eye looks good so I am not worried.

I try to keep Ben's blog as positive as possible I think its important for us to maintain a health and happy attitude and try not to dwell on the bad things, but the reality is Ben has brain cancer and alot of other kids do too! The DPIG community (Ben's diagnosis) has had a very difficult couple weeks loosing 9 kids in the last three weeks. And there are others who are in desperate need of your prayers, especially our dear friend Luke we have been following his journey since the beginning, he was diagnosed in January (two months after Ben). He is in the hospital and having alot of pain. Please keep this family in your prayers we really need a miracle for Luke right now. If you want to check in on Luke this is his site http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lukepollok . All our kids need your prayers but Luke needs a few more today.

We are so lucky that Ben has responded to treatment as well as he has. He has had little to no side effects and his life is pretty much that of a normal 5 year old except for all the doctors appointments, taking pills, being a little less coordinated than he would like, and a little more tired than most kids (yet he still has MUCH more energy than his mom!). So thank you for all your prayers, Ben is doing so well and we are excited for that to continue. Like I said last time his next MRI is August 12th and he will be starting Kindergarten shortly after that. I'm still a little nervous about Ben starting a new school, I don't think I have to tell you all how much we all love Brighter Horizons and how nice it is to be able to go to work and KNOW that he is being watched and loved there as much as he is at home.

We probably won't post before we leave, and not sure if I'll post in San Diego or not, might not take the laptop - oh who am I kidding I can't be away from facebook for a week!

Love always
Erin and the family!