{"id":402,"date":"2024-10-15T21:31:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T01:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/?p=402"},"modified":"2024-10-15T21:31:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T01:31:59","slug":"warm-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/2024\/10\/15\/warm-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Warm Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luis and Lucas head up the escalator as they leave Thailand via the CNX airport.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Filled from wonderful Thailand send offs, the kids and I made it back to the US on Sat morning October 12th. Since then we have been trying hard to stay awake, beat jet lag, and enjoy every moment we have had with the 8 cousins and two of Chris’s siblings and their spouses; all of who came to surprise Luis, Lucas and Emalene<\/em>. Our kids were shocked. Let’s just say that when a middle schooler had tears in his eyes you know it held great significance. Maybe he wasn’t the only one with tears either…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris and I returned to Grand Rapids on Monday for a check in with his doctor on Tuesday. Grand Rapids gave us a warm welcome with gorgeous fall colors. Our aim for the week will be to get our home (a condo owned by generous friends) ready for the kids, get the chemo port “installed”<\/a> (Wednesday), prepare for the start of school with a visit to NorthPointe (Thursday), and start the second round of chemo (Friday). Phew, what a week…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a look back, Chris had a super appointment with Dr. Gordon at Northwestern. We feel blessed to have him and his team as part of his overall medical care. We appreciate his consideration and attention to various factors including genetics and family history. He has given us a glimpse of possible paths ahead for treatment. At this time Chris will continue to follow the chemo treatment plans outlined previously. This includes 8 rounds of a 4+ day hospital stay of for chemo IVs, every 14 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please pray for us as the packing and unpacking for a family of 5 can be exhausting. It feels to me like It was just yesterday when I was packing in Grand Rapids for our return to Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray for the kids as they prepare their hearts for new friends and old friends. Pray they would be welcomed warmly and embraced as they are. Their first day at school will be Monday, the 21st.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray for Chris as he has been more tired with increased pain since Friday. After trying to lower his medication this week it seems like it is not time. The doctor started him on steroids again today and we hope they will help reduce pain to make everyday activities like walking and sleeping more comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Becca and Emalene get ready for the 19 hours of flying ahead of them on the route to Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Praise God for loving grandparents, fun cousins, and caring aunts and uncles who make the transition more fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We thank God for an uneventful flight and good health through the transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are grateful to the Lord for many friends who helped get Becca to the finish line and came to help after she left to tidy up our house in hopes of finding subletters for the home we rent in Thailand. It was too much to think about making any future permanent decisions, therefore we left 99% of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filled from wonderful Thailand send offs, the kids and I made it back to the US on Sat morning October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}