Headed to Houston

Sally will fly Steve and me to Houston early Thursday afternoon. His appointments are at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday. At the 1 o'clock appointment, we'll learn the results of the MRI and talk about next steps with the oncologist. We plan on flying back to Dallas Friday afternoon.

Aunt Ami has been here all week, helping me with projects and everyday life around the house. Her timing was perfect -- both Cooper and Katie have strep throat, and we definitely needed an extra mom to help with doctor appointments, pharmacy visits, cuddling, child-entertaining. She'll stay here while Steve and I are gone.

We so appreciate all of your good wishes and prayers as we take these next steps in Steve's journey to healing. I want to share an excerpt from our dear friend Jackie's blog. She and Sydney (her daughter and our goddaughter) have lived in Shanghai since June 2007. They spent last weekend in Hangzhou, China, and visited Lingyin Temple (Temple of Soul's Retreat).

We also took a moment to burn incense and say a prayer as it was a Buddhist temple. Mine was for the speedy recovery of Sydney's Godfather, Steve, who we love and admire more and more everyday. There was also a room filled with dozens of statutes and in the middle were large statutes of Buddha. Sydney watched other people kneel on the yellow pillow in front of the large statutes and placed their head in their hands in prayer. Sydney insisted on getting out of her stroller and knelt down on the yellow pillow and said her own prayer. It was just so sweet.