Photography

Just ignore this if you are not interested... it is easier to post on here than anywhere else.  I have started taking sessions one day a month.  I have three days the rest of this year I will be working on.  They are September 6th, October 9th and November 6th.  Please let me know if you would like to reserve a spot.  You can email me at hjamieson@mac.com.  Thanks so much!!

DAY 100

Yesterday marked 100 days since Jake's transplant.  Hooray!  He has been praying every night for day 100 to come quickly.  And it really has.  It has seemed like we have been doing this forever, but looking back it kinda feels like a dream.  I cannot believe it has been seven months since we found out about his relapse. 

As much hype as there is about day 100, not a lot changes.  They did his 100 day blood work last week which we will get the results back next week on.  It will tell us the percentage of Cole's bone marrow to Jake's and a few other things I am not sure of.   (Jeff took him to that appointment and so I am not sure what else they are testing for.)  Depending on his blood work, they may start tapering him off of his anti rejection meds.  We are also hoping we can stop fluids at night and in the next couple of months we can take out that darn central line!  He should be able to start eating at restaurants again, which he is so excited about.  The boy loves to eat out.  (He is an expensive child.)  Next week he will also have another bone marrow biopsy and lumbar puncture.  

He is doing SO good. We could not be happier with the way things are going right now.  It is so fun to be able to see him actually be a kid.  He is starting to be able to run and play, although he tires very easily still.  He has gained back all of the weight he has lost and is starting to look like any other kid.  It makes us so happy!  

Thursday's Hero

Sometimes I feel guilty.  Having a child with cancer has been extremely hard.  It has been hard on Jake.  It is hard as a parent to watch not only him have to deal with cancer, but his siblings as well.  I know it is hard on other family members watch him.  And even though it has been so hard, it could be so much worse.  There are so many families that have it so much worse off than we do, sometimes I feel we do not deserve the recognition that we get.  We are so blessed.  And there are so many incredible people in this world.  It is humbling.  It makes me want to be better.  A fellow cancer mom heard about Jake's story awhile ago.  (She was the one that got him the signed BYU football and basketball jersey's.)  Love her.  At the time, she also nominated him for BYU's Thursday's Hero.  We got a phone call a couple of months ago telling us he had been chosen to come up on August 23rd and meet the football team.  August 23rd could not come fast enough for our little boys.  Yesterday was an incredible day.  We will be forever grateful to those that put this together for Jake.  He was in heaven.

We were told to be at the Student Athlete Building at 10:20.


We met Cort... the man behind the scenes that put everything together for us.  He took us on a tour of the facility.

The boys got to sit in Coach Mendenhall's personal office chair.



They got to color on the walls in the defensive coach's room.



We saw lots and lots of cool things.



Jake is the 99th Hero.  He will get his picture on a wall going down into the locker room.



We were taken into an auditorium where we watched a video about some of the past and present BYU players.  The players had also been shown a short film about Jake that morning which we were able to see as well.

(I can't figure out how to pull the movie off of the cd.  I will put it up when I can figure it out!)

We saw the locker room.



And the gym.



And finally caught the tail end of practice.



I cannot even begin to tell you how excited they were.  The players and coaches showed them a ton of attention.



After practice we walked onto the field and Jake and Cole were introduced to the team.



Every year they sign a new flag to be carried out onto the field before their games.  We were shown a video about this when some of the players came a couple months ago to our home.  You can see the video here.  It is worth watching.  Anyways, our three boys were the first ones to sign the flag this year.  Each one of the players will sign it as well.


They were given shirts and hats and signed posters and beads and stickers and a football.  Which each player signed for them. Jake has not put the football down.


Crew also somehow ended up with Coach Mendenhall's whistle.  He started crying and the coach handed him the whistle.  He hasn't put that down either.  It is a really loud whistle.  Especially in the house.  All day long.

The team sang the Cougar's fight song.


And they brought it in.  Jake got to yell, "1, 2, 3" and then the "GO COUGARS!"

We met the starting quarterback Riley Nelson.




And talked to the coaches.
Bronco Mendenhall


Coach Brandon Doman



Coach Max Hall



The boys messed around...



This kid is in love with that football.



I will admit it.  Jeff and I have both been converted.  We will both be forever BYU fans because of this.  They were so good to our boys.  I will be forever grateful.  I know this is a day Jake will never ever forget.  He was in heaven.