And so it begins...

As I write this, my mom and dad are in the car driving from Austin to Houston. Mom's first appointment at MD Anderson is tomorrow morning at 9 am. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers during this time. Tomorrow and Friday's schedule include several tests and evaluations. These two days of appointments are expected to last about nine hours each.

While they are in Houston they'll be staying with my childhood friend Crystal. Crystal and I have known each other our entire lives. She was born only six weeks before I was, and our parents were all friends before they were married. Crystal's family is very dear to my own, and her mom, Doris, is very close to my mom. Doris is actually a breast cancer survivor herself. We are very lucky and blessed to have Doris, Crystal, and her family in our lives. In addition to the loving friends they are, they also "know the ropes" when it comes to being diagnosed with, fighting, and beating breast cancer. I'm so glad to have them by our side!

It's very much a "God-thing" that my parents able to stay with Crystal. Crystal usually has two roommates, but they both are out of town for extended amounts of time, so there is room in the house for my parents (and me every once in a while!). It's an additional blessing that Crystal's house is less than 4 miles from MD Anderson! So, to Crystal - thank you so much for opening your home to us!

After the appointments on Friday, my parents will drive back to Austin and stay with Rick and I through Sunday. Then, they'll turn around and go back to Houston. We won't know what is going to happen next week until we get the results from all the tests and evaluations that will be done tomorrow and Friday. Depending on what happens next week, I'll probably go to Houston for 2 or 3 days to be with my parents and attempt to be the comic relief, food relief, stress relief...whatever they need.

I'm glad that they'll be staying with Rick and I every once in a while throughout this process. I know, when I was younger, it wasn't "cool" to hang out with my parents. But now it's something I look forward to and truly treasure.

My sister and I put together a care package for my parents to take with them. They are stocked up on water bottles, water flavor packets, diet cokes, granola bars, snacks, and some Valentine's candy. We also included some "entertainment" for them both. Hunting and airplane magazines for Dad and puzzle books for Mom. The teachers at Greenwood heard about the care package and create their own for Mom too! She is stocked up on goodies, comfy socks, quarters for vending machines, etc. You name it, I think she's got it!

She's even got SnuggleDog. SnuggleDog is a stuffed animal that my mom bought my sister Melanie several years ago. I'll have to double check the story though to see if there was a reason that she bought SnuggleDog to begin with... But Melanie shared SnuggleDog with me when I was goinig through a really tough time a few years back and he's stayed with me since. Today, SnuggleDog is in the car with Mom going to Houston.

That's plenty for now - but I'll update the blog with results from the upcoming tests and evaluations once we have some.

As always, for the people who read this, I so appreciate your care, thoughts, and prayers for my family and my mom. I hope that someday I'm able to repay each of you!