Praise God!

**Update- The exact number was 699! Crazy!**
Wow!!! The bone marrow drive had an INCREDIBLE turnout! We estimated between 600-700 people (maybe more) were there from all over town to apply to be bone marrow donors! I am overwhelmed by God's goodness! Watch KWTX tonight at 10 to see it on the news. Thank you to all who came out!

Tonight!

Just wanted to remind all of the Wacoans out there that tonight is the bone marrow drive for Susan at

Crestview Church of Christ Community Center
7129 Delhi Rd
Waco 76712
(254)776-0711

from 5:30-9pm (**I corrected the time**)

It will take about 10 minutes to fill out paperwork and 5 or less to get your cheeks swabbed!

Thanks!

Attn: Everyone I Know!

My friend from church, Susan, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 5 years ago when she was pregnant with her first child. They did very aggressive treatment, which eliminated the cancer. A couple of months ago, she found out that her bone marrow was badly damaged (a condition called myleodysplasia) and that she is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. Without one, she has a very limited life-span.

Susan is a stay-at-home mom of three adorable, funny, spunky children (4, 2, and 9 months), and her husband, Van, is a doctor with Scott and White. She and her husband are one of the most Godly couples you'll ever meet. Some words that describe them are inspiring, joyful, servants, hilarious, giving, Christ-like, loving parents, and many more things.

Susan's sister was her best bet to be a bone marrow match, but she found out last month that she wasn't a match. After that, they searched the bone marrow registry, and there isn't a single match in our country, and only two maybe/possible matched in the world. Susan recently heard that there was a potential, but in her words, they were on "step 5 of 3,156".

I asked her if I could blog about her and get the word out to as many people as possible to get tested, and she said, "Yes!"

SO, I'm asking you to seriously consider getting your bone marrow tested. It's so simple and easy. It takes about 5 minutes to get your cheek swabbed and 10 minutes to fill out paperwork. It could not only save Susan's life, but it could save someone else's. Some people are scared that it's painful, but that is a misconception.

You can order it online here: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html

I got it in the mail, sat on the couch and swabbed my cheeks, put it in the packet, and mailed it off. So easy!

If you live in or near Waco, Crestview Church of Christ is holding a Scott & White National Bone Marrow Registry Drive for Susan at the Crestview Community Center (address is below) on Wednesday, September 30, from 5:30-9:00 p.m.

Crestview's address:
7129 Delhi Rd.
Waco, TX
76712
(254)776-0711

(It is one block southwest of Providence Hospital)

Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you have dark hair, you are more likely to be a match for her, so tell all of your dark-haired friends, too! :)

Also, here is her website if you'd like to follow along: http://thewehmeyersblog.blogspot.com/ Her blog is always an easy read, because she's a good writer and sprinkles in lots of humor.

Please keep Susan and Van in your prayers!

Goooooo....

Dawgs! Sic'em! Woof-woof-woof-woof-woof!


We are very excited about football season starting in this house! Can you tell? My dad and Josh worked hours and hours in the hot sun a couple of weekends ago to put up our flag holder (apparently we have REALLY hard brick). We ordered our Georgia flag and got it in this week! I'm so excited about flying our American flag and our Georgia flag proudly on our house now! There's just one thing missing... One of these days we need to buy an Alabama flag!

9 Months and First Day of School

My sweet boy turned 9 months old yesterday. That is just unreal to me! I absolutely love this age and am loving seeing him grow and develop into a precious little person, but it is also bittersweet knowing that his first year is coming to an end soon.

Jack has changed so much in these past couple of weeks and has learned something big it seems like about every other day.

*He is crawling everywhere. It's so cute to see him see something from far away and go after it. Sometimes he makes eye contact with me and start trying to go so fast that he's lunging/hopping forward with his body.

*He just started pulling up, transferring from one thing to another, cruising, and standing for a couple of seconds on his own...all within the last two days! I just lowered the crib last week, so I'm glad I did it just in the knick of time!

*He is starting to clap and loves to be clapped at.

*He is waving now and has said a sweet, "Haah" (Hi) while he waved at the moon and fan. The first time he waved was to the Ninfa's waitress a couple of weeks ago. He was enamored with her, and every time she walked by, he'd whip his body around to look at her and smile. She waved and he waved back! She came over and said she had the baby bug, and I told her that that was his first time to wave, which made her want one even more!

*He is such a noisy, loud boy. He talks loudly (aka yells commands in baby talk), talks jibberish, loves to blow raspberries and click his tongue.

It was such a treat to spend the while day with Jack today, since he and I both have colds and stayed home from Mother's Day Out. Even though we both went in and out of not feeling good, I just ate up getting to spend a whole day of quality, alone time together. Usually he's on my hip, or we're all playing together on the floor, or he's playing with James while I'm doing stuff, but I don't get enough time with just him to play together. Even though I know he's not missing out, because he has James, I sort of miss out on him! He is so precious to me, and I just feel so blessed anytime I do get time like that with him. He is so interactive and acts like everything I do with him is the most interesting thing he's ever seen. His eyes light up and he slowly gets a big smile on his face.

*I took Jack to the doctor yesterday since he's sick, and he weighed in at 21 lbs, 10 oz. Next week, we'll go in for his well check and I'll update the stats. *Update* He is in the 62% for weight, 32% for height (28in), and 37% for head (17.75in). He said he is very pleased with his growth. He is very interactive, makes good eye contact and facial expressions, seems so sweet and observant, and is developing great!

In other news, Tuesday was our first day of Mother's Day Out! I am teaching the babies (Jack and 5 others) and so far I love it! I went back and forth, trying to decide if I needed my own mother's day out or if I'd rather teach for a year, and I feel I definitely made the right decision to teach. I love getting to hold, take care of, and get to know other sweet babies, getting to work up at my church with other teachers, and make a little extra spending money all at the same time! James has SUCH a wonderful teacher (as always up there). Mrs. Paula (Pauwa) has been around forever (taught Mary Beth) and just keeps doing it, because she loves it! She is so calm, patient, creative, and sweet. The class is a big class, so Mrs. Lacey is also going to be his teacher! She is young, sweet, and very interactive with the kids. He was a little shy at meet the teacher night, but went right in without looking back on Tuesday! He seems to be really happy in there and has a really sweet class of friends who have been together since they were babies! I feel so blessed to have him in such a good situation this year!

The boys on their first day

Last year
These pictures crack me up! I forgot that James went through a stage of smiling like this. He looks so little here, and it's so hard to believe that was a year ago!