A Fantastic Visit to the Menichino Homestead!

Recently we had the honor of visiting with the Menichinos. It was a gorgeous day in Andover, and Ben was beyond excited. To be honest, so was Joe. He got all his tractors out and ready for Ben. Well, actually, he got 4 of them out. There was one in the barn (the "tiny tractor," per Ben) and one in the pasture with a spreader on the back (the "poop tractor," per Ben). Ben, of course, sat on all the tractors. He even drove one!! It was a wonderful visit and a great chance to catch up with some people I adore!!!

Ben sits on his first tractor of the day.

Ben and Joe. Not sure what they're doing. Undoubtedly talking about tractors.

Another tractor. Ben is operating the bucket.

Liz gets in an Alex cuddle (one of many!).

Mariah's turn!!

Tractors in the lawn!! Ben had a blast with them. Then, he and Joe washed them up...

This is moments after Ben had his fists balled up by his cheeks in his typical "I'm so excited I can't stand it!" expression.

Love this photo. I even took it myself.

Totally dirty Ben butt!!!

Driving the tractor. Ben helped take care of things.

More caretaking...

This is Ben driving. Himself. Dad isn't touching a thing!!

Parking the tractor in the barn. Life is good.

This was one of my favorite parts of the night. After dinner, Ben pulled his chair right over next to Joe, climbed up, and had a very grown up conversation about tractors. And inquired about Joe's beer. He did NOT drink any. But he did check the bottle out.

Liz fed Alex his peas!

Alex works on some yoga.

Yummy ice cream time!!

A parting shot. Who knew we would be so well coordinated?!?!

Prayers and Well Wishes for Baby Beckham

We have been anxiously watching as Beckham, Jake's heart donor, has been through quite a rollercoaster the past couple of months. He has been in and out of the hospital with extremely low platelet counts and bruising/bleeding very easily (however, he has remained a cheerful happy kid through most of it. Leukemia was ruled out amidst countless tests, all giving very little info, until just the other day. I will copy a portion of the Scadlock's blog:

"After weeks, waiting for tests results from Milwaukee, the results came back showing that Beckham defiantly has an antibody in his body attacking his platelets.

Because of all the above, a new plan of action has been decided between his various doctors. It looks like Beck and I (I being Kim) will check into the PICU (yup, we just couldn't stay away from the ICU) on Tuesday for a treatment called Plasmapheresis. This treatment is similar to dialysis, in the sense that ALL of his blood will be filtered outside of his body, but in Plasmapheresi, plasma (which contains the antibodies attacking his platelets), is removed from blood cells by a device known as a cell separator. The separator works either by spinning the blood at a high speed to separate the cells from the fluid or by passing the blood through a membrane with pores so small that only the fluid part of the blood can pass through (crazy stuff right?). The doctors do not know if they will do this process for 5 days or 7 days, but the hard part is that it will take hours each day, and during those hours Beckham will have to lay still... For this new treatment, Beckham, will need a central line (to carry his blood outside of his body). Because of his huge risk of bleeding, his cath lab cardiologist wants him completely out for this procedure so that there is no risk of him moving, causing excess bleeding. Beckham will keep his central line through out the entire process, as well as his current PICC line. After the Plasmapheresis treatment is done, Beckham, will receive IVIG again and Rituxin. These will hopefully rid his body of any remaining, or newly formed anti-bodies."

Although we are so relieved that Beckham has a diagnosis and a course of action, Andy and I are extremely worried about Beckham. This process sounds simply terrifiying to us. We want nothing more than to see this little boy, who carries with him a part of our son, be the happy, healthy child he deserves to be. Only about 100 people in a million is infected by this condition every year. The odds have so rarely been in Beckham's favor, but he has fought back over and over and over again. He is a simply remarkable little boy, and although we have never met him, we love him as though he were our own. I guess, in a small way, he is.

Here's what I'm really after: please, please keep your thoughts and prayers with this little boy as he undergoes this procedure. Kim tells me that he should begin on Wednesday of this week, so we are anxiously waiting news on how the little guy does. Everyone needs to send lots and lots of positive energy to Iowa!!