Sept 21

Yeah!!!!! We are finally home and it feels great. Things certainly didn't go as planned, but do they ever??? We arrived home around 10:45 pm central time long after our expected arrival home of, say 4pm.

We checked out of the Family House and made it to the airport without any difficulty. Mark required wheelchair service through the airport, so that was a little challenging. I had to leave him sitting in the chair with one bag while I carried all the others to the KIOSK to check in, then ask someone in line to watch my bags (which I don't think you're supposed to do) and walk over to get Mark and push him to the line. We got checked in and then came security. Wheelchair security has it's own line and they were pretty nice folks, but Mark got frisked from head to toe and he was a bit sore around the abdomen. We thought that was the hard part. WRONG!!!! Our flight got delayed 1 hour at first. We thought "no big deal". Of course, Mark's dad had already left Auburn for the airport by then. We finally got to board an hour late and then got told we were going to have another hour of delay while sitting on the plane. NOT FUN!!! Mark was quite uncomfortable trying to sit in those seats. Well, then comes the third announcement of yet a 3rd hour of delay while sitting on the plane. YIKES!!! It's looking pretty bad now. We remained calm. They passed out some snacks and water, lucky for Mark as he was getting a little sick. The next announcement was that our plane couldn't take off for 2 more hours because of the weather in Atlanta. They at least let us deplane at that time and get something to eat. All the while, Brent is sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting on us. 5 hours of flight delay, who would have thought. We finally made it to Atlanta and the flight wasn't bad. By then, Mark had taken some pain medicine and was resting a bit easier. After landing, there were too many planes and not enough gates, so we spent another hour on the tarmack waiting to deplane. We were never so happy as to get off of that plane and to find Brent and our luggage and get the heck out of there.

By this time, we'd missed both of the boys' football games. In fact, Colton and Emily were already sleeping when we arrived and we still haven't gotten to give them hugs and kisses. Calen greeted us at the door with big hugs. He was quite happy to see us. It was GREAT walking through the door. Mark's office sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers and dinner over. We heated up the food and it was very tasty and hit the spot. They also had made a welcome home poster with a picture of all of them at the last tailgate. Too cute!!! Thanks guys!!!! We loved it.

Ahhhhh. Our own bed tonight. It's so soft and comfy. Much better than the recliners, hospital beds and beds at the Family House. We are so glad to be home and now we can work on getting Mark better and restarting the chemo.

Dr. Farmer has been great through all of this. She has been keeping up with Mark through emailing and texting me throughout Mark's hospital stay. She even gave me her phone numbers while she was on vacation in case we needed her. She is so sweet and great to Mark. She wants to see Mark this week and hopefully formulate a new plan of action. I am telling you, we will definitely have to work on Mark's nutrition status and stamina, as he has had dramatic changes since the surgery and prolonged hospitalization. I know Mark is a fighter and can do this. I have faith in him.

Thanks for all the continuous prayers from all of you while we were in Pittsburgh and needed them so much. Continue to pray for God's blessing on Mark's health issues. God bless!!!!