Luke’s Notebook

Well, this evening we played a softball game at 7:30 against TNT. The winner of this game would go on to the championship game at 8:30. Well, we short-gamed them, winning 11-1 in five innings. In the second game, we went extra innings against Auffenberg Classics, but we pulled out a victory, winning 11-8 in the eighth inning, becoming champions for the Monday night league! It was neat to be able to finish on top and receive two trophies. The on trophy is for a second-place finish in the regular season (going 13-5, I believe). The second trophy is for the champs! I had four or five hits in the evening, and I scored quite a few runs.

Tomorrow night we have the final game in on Tuesday night league, and if we win we’ll be in the playoffs for next week. Thursday is playoffs in that league.

By the way, Jenny is now home. Praise the Lord!

Nine-year-old Jenny is going to be coming home this afternoon, after nearly two weeks at Children’s Hospital! My mom just spoke with Uncle Rob on the phone, and he said that she’s about ready to go home and rejoin her family. She’ll still have to return to the hospital weekly or monthly for follow-up chemotherapy treatments, but I imagine things will be so much easier and less scary as Jenny will be staying at home with her family.

I thank Jesus that she has progresed to this point where she is feeling better and to where, so far, she’s doing real well with her leukemia treatment. I know that Greta and Rob’s family have a long road ahead of them, as they have to pretty much keep Jenny isolated in their house so as to avoid germs and sickness, but what a huge leap, to be able to be with her at home! Keep praying that the disease gets eliminated from her body, never to return.

But, for now, Jenny is coming home.

Not much of an update, but I just wanted to continue to pray for Jenny and ask that you all do the same. Rumor has it that she may be able to go home on Tuesday, with pretty much being kept isolated in her room and such so as to avoid germs. That will be awesome if she’s able to come home, even though I think a couple days a week she would have to return to the hospital for continued chemotherapy. I’d just feel a whole lot better for her and her family if she’s able to stay at home. I know it would be a lot easier on them, and I know she would love to be back home.

Since visiting Jenny for the first time, I’ve just had a growing desire to help out and serve in whatever way I can. I would love to be able to help make things easier on Jenny and her parents. I don’t know if that would be by me visiting again, maybe it would be me helping out with something — who knows? I just am trying to make it clear to her family that I’m game to do whatever to help keep things running. It’s got to be really difficult to have one of your five kids in the hospital with leukemia, and I just want to do whatever I can to help alleviate some of that, because there’s enough pressures as it is on a parent.

Though I’ve been a little concerned lately, I’ve just got to surrender this entire situation to Jesus and trust Him. Romans 8:28 reminds me that all things work together for good for those who love God. He knows what the outcome of this whole ordeal is going to be; I don’t. However, I have hope that Jenny will be healed, and even though I can’t see that right now, I’m believing that one day that will be the case, God willing. The same Spirit that restores sight, raises the dead — that same Spirit can move and heal Jenny completely of any trace of the cancer in her bloodstream. We all love that little girl.

I left with my mom around 7:50 this morning to drive over to the hospital. Mom would go there and visit Aunt Greta and her new baby, Elizabeth, at Barnes Hospital, while I would keep Jenny company at Children’s Hospital. When I entered the room, there was Uncle Rob and Aunt Ann (my mom’s sister) with Jenny. He soon left, and Aunt Ann and I stayed with Jenny. Jenny seemed to be in pretty good spirits, smiling and laughing a lot. We even played some Nintendo 64 together. She chose Mario Party 2, and we played some of the mini games contained within that game. It was fun, and I think she had a good time, having someone to play with.

Later in the day, Mom returned to the room to visit. Jenny was feeling pretty good up until around that time, but then she had some aches and was feeling a little nauseated. I guess it must be all the medications that the doctors are having her take that’s making her go back and forth, but I’m hoping that she feels better. When I left the hospital, Mom was still there with her, and she seemed to still not be feeling the best, which is understandable, considering all of the medications and different treatments she’s been under.

I will say this, though. Jenny is a trouper. I am amazed how cooperative and receptive she is as a nine-year-old. She’s been in the hospital for about 10 days, and I know she wishes she wasn’t in there, but she seems to have done extraordinarily well in talking to the doctors and nurses, explaining how she’s feeling, et cetera. I’m sure she misses her mom, dad and siblings, but thankfully they’re able to be with her pretty often. Her older sister, Maggie, was there with Uncle Rob, so they got to talk for a little while.

It’s been a pretty long day at the hospital. I was there for over six hours, but I’m very glad I went. I hope Jenny had some fun with me visiting. That’s basically my goal: If I can make her day brighter, easier, funner — whatever the case — then it’s mission accomplished. Maybe she’ll invite me over soon for a rematch… even though she beat me pretty convincingly on Mario Party!

By the way, here’s a sticker that the hospital issues for visitors to wear while in the building. I blurred the last name and room number simply because this is a public journal.

Well, as I mentioned earlier today, my mom and I drove over to Children’s Hospital to visit Jenny. Mom stayed there from 5;00 to 10:00 basically to be with Jenny as Uncle Rob went home to take care of other things with his family. So I dropped Mom off at the hospital around 5:00, and I came back around 10:00 to pick her up. When I got to the hospital room, I was happy to see that Jenny was wide awake and in good spirits. She was watching TV, and she had a book beside her on the bed. From talking to Mom, it sounds like things went amazingly well this morning as my mom stayed with her. I would think it would be difficult for her to have an aunt there instead of her mom or dad, especially since she’s only been in the hospital for a week now. Anyway, like I said, she was awake, so I was able to say hi to her and talk a little bit before Mom and I left her and Uncle Rob in the room.

Tomorrow, my Aunt Greta, who is Jenny’s mom, is going to have her baby delivered at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which is adjacent to Children’s. Normally, the baby would be had at St. Elizabeth’s in Belleville, but since Jenny happens to be in Children’s currently, they decided to have the baby there. That way, Jenny will be able to be wheeled over to Barnes and visit with her new baby brother/sister.

I’m just going to keep on praying for the entire family. I pray for Greta and Rob, that God will give them the strength and endurance both physically and mentally to get through this and be able to balance life with their other three kids back at home, and now this new life that will enter the family on Friday. I’m also praying that God will just give them an amazing sense of peace and incredible hope, realizing that He is still in control, and that none of this is scary to Him.

I’m praying for the kids, that they will be able to cope well as they miss having their sister for the time being and also with their parents being extremely busy now. Thankfully, the extended family is so tight-knit that aunts or uncles are able to baby-sit or do basically anything at any given time to help out. It’s such a great family.

I’m also, of course, praying for little Jenny, as she is the one actually in the hospital and is taking these treatments and having to endure all of this. I pray that God will heal her completely from this cancer, will flush it out of her body and will build up her strength and health so she can return to being that happy, active nine-year-old that she is!

Please join me in praying for everyone. Prayer is powerful.

Well, it’s been a very long day, beginning at 3:45 AM, and now I see the clock approaching midnight. I think I’ll head off to bed so I can catch up on a little sleep. By the way, we won tonight’s softball game 10-4. I was two-for-five with a three-run triple and also an RBI single. Playoffs are next week for the Monday and Thursday night leagues.

It’s 6:00 in the morning, and I have just returned from dropping my mom off at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, where she is staying with Jenny for the morning. The purpose of this is so her dad, my Uncle Rob, is able to go home, get the other kids ready for school, and hopefully be able to rest for a little while before he goes back to the hospital.

Mom and I left around 4:20 this morning, and we arrived there around 5:00. It was the first time I saw Jenny in the hospital, but she was sleeping when we came in. I hopefully will be able to visit with her later this morning, as someone will have to pick up Mom once she is finished.

Keep Jenny and her entire family in your prayers! So far, it sounds like the leukemia treatment is going as well as can be expected on every level. There is definite power in prayer.

Oh, I forgot to mention this in the previous entry. On Monday afternoon, I took my sister, Mary, to her gymnastics class in Fairview Heights. Mary (aka Wizzy) is seven, and she has taken gymnastics before, and on Monday her session resumed. Anyway, I took Wizzy and Nathan, who is nine, to gymnastics. I’ve got to be honest here… it was pretty boring, but that’s mainly because I couldn’t see Wizzy for pretty much the whole time, and I made the mistake of not bringing anything to keep me entertained for the 75 minutes. Next time, I think I’ll bring some reading material or something to pass the time. I like taking Wizzy becausae she seems to enjoy having me as her chauffer.

After the class was over, the three of us went over to Chick-Fil-A in the mall and got some chicken sandwiches to go. They have the best chicken!

To sum it up, I had a good time, but I think next time I’ll bring something to keep me busy. I’ll learn!

On Monday, we played a doubleheader. We won the first game by a score of 9-8, but we lost the second game. It didn’t affect the standings at all since we had already clinched the second spot, but it still would have been nice to win. Oh well! The team that beat us in the second game, named TNT, is the team we’ll face in the playoffs next Monday. So hopefully we play better and we’re able to beat them this time around. I think we can. Tonight’s game, by the way, was rained out. We had a pretty big storm move through this area of southwestern Illinois.

Today, I printed a lot of depositions. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000, 2,500 pages. It kept me busy most of the afternoon. Thankfully, we were able to deliver and mail out a lot of depositions, so it’s nice to have those finished with.

My mom ended up visiting Jenny on Monday, and it sounds like things are going as well as can be expected. She’s in good spirits, evidently feeling a little bit better. Right now she is staying at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, and I think she might be able to come home within a week, having to return often for her chemotherapy. Please continue to keep her and her family in your prayers!

It’s bedtime for me. Good night!

I wanted to give an update on my cousin Jenny. Mom said that she has ALL leukemia, which is evidently a “better” cancer to have, since there is something like an 85-percent survival rate for kids her age. The chemotherapy evidently is well underway, and the doctors are expecting that she’ll lose her hair by Day 17. I’m sure that will be weird for her, but I’m praying that God will give her peace as well as her entire family, and that He will just completely heal her of any trace of leukemia.

I’d like to visit her sometime, so hopefully I’ll be able to work that out. I think my mom is planning on driving over to St. Louis to visit the hospital.

A fun and pretty relaxing Sunday today. Around noon, after church, the family went outside to practice softball. I started out by tossing up some baseballs to myself and hitting them to Mark, Jude, James and Philip in the field. When everyone came out to the field, we all took some batting practice, we being Paul through Philip and Dad. Aside from my 20-some swings, I played oufield and chased after the hits.

After the practice, Paul, Mark, Jude and I went over to Cici’s for a lunch/supper. While at there, Paul and I played one of those Area 51 shooting games where you’re invaded by aliens. After that, we played another arcade game, a deer hunting game. It was my first time playing this game, but it was kind of fun. I hit a few deer! In reality, I’m definitely not a hunter, though we do see plenty of deer out here in the country.

Since then, I’ve just been being pretty lazy, which is a fun thing to do on a Sunday. Jude and I hit the road tonight in hopes of picking up some ice cream, but we had no success. The shop we were planning to go to, Sweet Stop, was closed, and then the ice cream machine at McDonald’s was out of service… still! Argh… oh well. We’ll have more chances for ice cream, I’m sure.

But that’s pretty much been the Sunday. My Uncle Dan came over this afternoon to go fishing in our pond. He brought his three daughters, who range from age six to one or two years old. I also watched parts of some baseball games, such as the Braves at Dodgers, Pirates at Cardinals, and a very small part of the Red Sox at White Sox. Braves, Cardinals and Red Sox all won today — good stuff!

Well, I guess that’s it.