March 28, 2004

Main Page • John's Journal (2000-2003) • CLL Information • Contact John • Seattle Cancer Care Alliance • MD Anderson

It is an absolutely beautiful spring morning. The sun is shining, the birds
are singing, and my body is aching. I'm not aching from treatments, however.
I'm feeling the after effects of the work party we had yesterday.
Michelle's staff at Hunt Elementary organized a work party to help us with
several of the house projects we would normally have planned for spring and
summer. My upcoming transplant will make it tough to get much done around
the home, so we are trying to get major projects out of the way before I go
in.

We had a great turn out for the work party. The picture I took shows some of the work crew, but several others were here at different times of the day.
I think we had at least twenty people cycle through during the day
yesterday. I wish I could thank every individual by name, but I would feel
bad if I forgot someone. So I will just say a general thank you to each and
every one of the people that came over and worked yesterday. Michelle and I are humbled by your kindness and extremely grateful for your help. It's such a good feeling to set back and look at what we accomplished. I am amazed at everything that got done. One of my boys' comments captured the feeling of the day, "It was fun working hard today!"

We are having another work party next weekend with people from my school district. With all this help we should have our house in pretty good shape before I leave for transplant.

I have not heard any updates from the insurance company. So we continue to pray for approval of the transplant.

Regarding my health I am feeling pretty good physically. However, I've
struggled mentally these past few days. I've been impatient, moody, and
just plain difficult to be around. I know there is a lot going on inside
my heart and head, but I still don't want to feel or act this way. Sadly,
the people that see the worst of me are the people I love the most...my
family. I will be praying the Lord can give me the strength to be a better
father, husband, and friend this week and help me to model Christ's
character in difficult circumstances. I know my boys will learn much more
from what they see in me than from what they hear from me. I pray I can
improve upon what they see.

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