Christmas Letter

For posterity...thought I'd put this on here so that in 100 years I'll have a copy...


Dear friends and family,
We pray that you are enjoying your Christmas surrounded by those you love.
While this last year has been wonderful overall, when I look back we can truly see God supporting us and walking us through some scary days. He has even given us little focus to those horrible days except for when we allow ourselves to “go there” but even then it is in an attitude of thanksgiving.
If you aren’t aware, this summer Grant suddenly started walking completely funky after complaining of back pain for some time. We’d been to the doctor several times, but it had been excused. We ended up at the Aflac Cancer Center in Atlanta for biopsies in July and were scared to death. Thankfully, it is not cancer. It is a blood disorder that is attacking his bones called Langerhan’s Cell Histiocytosis. He has been on treatment for 5 months. The first treatment unfortunately did not work. So we have escalated to a more aggressive chemotherapy and steroid. He is handling it well and we are praying that this treatment will take care of the ugly disease.
While it was scary for us all, like I said, this has been a great year!
Gracie is doing great! She is in third grade and doing very well. She has certainly turned a corner to a “big kid.” Se has a little awkward interest in boys and is all about everything COOL. She is still taking piano lessons and has enjoyed taking dance this year. Although today she asked when she was going back to tennis.
Grant is in Pre-K at Gracie’s school and has really developed an interest in learning all of the sudden. He loves his teacher and loves going to school.
Chad is finishing up his Master’s degree at UGA and still at Aflac. We are so thankful for Aflac and their stability during these uncertain economic times. He is still hunting and has a new found love of fly fishing.
I am still working at the church and enjoying that. Between that and keeping up with Grant’s doctor appointments, that is enough!
We were able to visit Oklahoma for a week in the spring. We loved the road trip across the country and had a great time with family. Gracie and Grant talk about Oklahoma at least once a day! We enjoyed our Family Camp at the beach this fall with our church family and have been to Disneyworld twice this fall and are planning to be there over the New Year and to watch the Dawgs in the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s Day. So as you can tell, we are enjoying every moment we can together.
Please stay in touch and let us know how all of you are doing. You can keep up with us on our family blog at www.meanwhilethemelvins.blogspot.com
Love to all,
Melanie, Chad, Gracie and Grant