Our Thank Yous

Hopefully from here on out, this Blog will get more and more boring for y'all (just means nothing but progress is going on). I will keep writing because I have found it to be a calming thing for me though. For a quick update: we were here on Monday for all his tests and visits. His blood work came back that almost everything was normal!!! That means kidneys, vitamin levels, lung functions improved to 48%, fluid was slightly reduced so no tap this week, and cholesterol was looking good - he's eating better :) The only thing a little off was his Prograf (anti-rejection med) was slightly low. Remember last week it was toxic high; so they changed his dosage again and sent us on our way. This could be a life long thing of constantly changing his dosage - if you could only see my sweet, OCDesque, husbands face when they told him there might not ever be a set dosage, haha, this bothered him; but he has new lungs, no complaining. Now I want to take sometime to thank everyone - specifically. Thank you notes to come, my mother raised me better than that, but I wanted to share all the great things that others have done for us.
First and Foremost, thank you to everyone who prayed and sent positive, happy thoughts our way. I couldn't imagine doing any of this without God, and your thoughts and prayers certainly gave him a positive influence. Up until his surgery, I wondered if he would ever make it. It was November of last year that a doctor at St. Paul gave him a year to live. Now, doing the math, by that doctors mouth, he didn't have much longer (and come to find out, his favorite doctor had similar thoughts). And then came the surgery, that without the amazing anesthesiologist sweating bullets for 8.5 hours, he wouldn't have made it either. Prayers were definitely answered...THANK YOU!
The Zahradik Family: Thank you for taking in Jordan for that first week. Because of you, our little angel had a warm, happy place she calls her second home to go to. She was happy and didn't think anything of her Mommy and Daddy being gone. I was able to focus all my thoughts on Graham, and never once did I stress and have a bad thought about J. Y'all took her in without question, and considered her your own, we'll never be able to thank you enough.
The McMillin Family: Before there was J, our babies were Bocephus and Roscoe. Without thinking y'all watched over our dogs and not just feed them, but played with them so they didn't get too cooped up. Y'all didn't stop there either, thank you for all the upkeep to our house, cleaning, mowing, Brandon being Handy Manny, and my favorite...all the great distractions Stacy and Kendall gave Jordan and I. In a time I didn't think I could smile much, I smiled A LOT! J and K are so funny. And I'll never forget that Friday night of poster making, paint and masks. We love y'all and thank you sooooo much for everything!
The Rash's: Words will never be able to explain just how much y'all mean to us. No matter how much we begged that y'all really didn't need to be there, y'all came every time no matter the hour and helped pass the time in the worst hours...waiting for those lungs. The second trial will always be my favorite, all of us crammed into that tiny room, "sleeping" in the most awkward positions, and literally laughing through the entire wait. Without y'all, all three waiting periods, would've been horrible...we might've said we could do it without you, but Graham and I agree, we couldn't, you are both members of our immediate family.
Our Families: Thank you for all of your patience this past year. All the "on calls" and vacations on hold, the missed parties, baptisms, births, and graduations. Contrary to popular belief...we REALLY wanted to be at them all. We were so lucky to be at our Cousin's wedding (getting the third degree from the doctor meant nothing), and hopefully can make up for lost time within this next year - get ready, Graham's favorite bathing suit is! Thank y'all also for entertaining us all those times...taking us to eat, shopping, swimming, parks, endless hours of sitting and waiting. We love y'all all so much, and would've never been able to do any of this without y'all.
The Kelly's: I know y'all are family, but all the help y'all have given us over the past couple of weeks needed another note. Thank you for helping J through all of this, she sooo loves y'all and her cousins and we love that everyone is getting to know everyone better. Y'all were amazing distractions for her and will thank y'all for many years to come. Thank you also for all your help with the house, all the set ups of cleaning, moving of furniture, moving it back, mowing and edging our yard, Holly, dinner, phone calls and allowing me to cry, hospital visits that might've scarred your eyes (hahahaha). We love y'all!!!
The Reid's: OMG! Thank you thank you thank you! Because of y'all, we were able to get our house clean enough for Graham to come home and stay home. This was one of the biggest stress relievers and we'll thank you a thousand times before we start over.
Barbara Boulware: We LOVE our good luck pillow cases. They are still on our bed. They brought on a smile when I didn't think I had one. The cowboys and cowgirls fit our personalities well and the horse shoes really brought us some good luck. Thank you also for all the treats and magazines...I had completely forgotten how great Cheez Whiz was - and now I'm keeping a steady supply in the pantry :)
Sam Pettit, Rene Kirchoff, Sondra Thomas, Scott and Kathie, Michelle Meister, Angie Stevens, Tammy Ledesma, Cassie Rash, Rachel Kim, Bryan Kelly, Mom Kelly: Thank you for all the yummy food or gift cards to get food! I didn't realize how hard it would be to care for 2 people and cook at the same time, I tried and cried and am REALLY GRATEFUL for all of y'alls food! It has been wonderful and greatly appreciated! Graham is beginning to put weight back on (wahooooooo) thanks to y'all (so am I, but it's worth it), thanks again.
To all of you for keeping in touch with us...through phone calls, visits, text messages, facebook, emails, cards. I don't think I can put into words how much this has helped us through everything. A big fear of ours has been that because of Graham's health and our lack of being social, we have lost contact with some. So even what you think is a simple text, it gave us a smile and warmed our hearts. It was not just a simple text, card, message...it was sooo much more!
Our families at work: We are the luckiest 2 people to have such supportive and loving co-workers. God really knew what he was doing moving me all over MISD and Graham to Wachovia. We love y’all very much and can’t wait to be back!
To anyone I may have forgotten, it is not lack of appreciation, but my abundance of spacey-ness. We thank everyone who helped us out on this road!