Prayer Request for my Uncle Bobby and Cord Blood Info

Drew, my dad, and my uncle (at Corn Day 2007)

My uncle was admitted to Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis this past week to start a vigorous course of chemo before his anticipated stem cell transplant. He has Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a condition that affects the blood and bone marrow. He will continue chemo until Monday, have "the day off" on Tuesday, and will get his stem cell transplant from an unknown international donor on Wednesday. I ask that you all keep him and his family in your prayers.

Here is their CaringBridge website if you would like to know how he is doing:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/robertlamp

As Uncle Bobby was going through this process, his doctor mentioned the fact that he had "weird" German blood and unfortunately he didn't match either my father or my aunt. Luckily, someone somewhere had registered and was a perfect match for my uncle. Please consider donating blood and being added to the registry if you ever hear of a blood drive that is also typing people for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I was unable to participate this time because I was pregnant. However, anyone can request the tissue typing be done for approximately $52. http://www.marrow.org/

As for saving the stem cells from cord blood...here is some information that you might not be aware of.

Most of the cord blood programs that advertise on television and in magazines are private donation centers. They cost between $1700 - $2000 to collect and around $125 per year to store your child's cord blood privately. Most people do not know that there is another option available. The National Bone Marrow Donor Registry site has a link as to how to donate cord blood to a public bank. However, Indiana does not currently have any participating hospitals. There is an option to go through Cryobanks International Inc. that will accept cord blood donation from throughout the United States for either public donation or private storage. http://www.cryo-intl.com/ My sister and I have the registration paperwork on the way for participation in this program. They only ask that you register early in your pregnancy so that all of the paperwork can be submitted in time. Please consider telling others about this program as most people only know about the private banks. Why not donate the cord blood to a public bank? Otherwise, it will just be considered medical waste...

Our little painter...and chalker...

While I was gone to San Antonio for the week, Grandpa descended upon our house many nights to help paint Drew's new bedroom (one of the colors was red and took four coats - Grandpa really loves us because he hates to paint red). Drew is moving to the front bedroom which has been an office/storage room for the last few years so that the baby can be in the closer bedroom. Drew is all excited because he will now have the bedroom the both his dad and Aunt Riah had at one point. When we were moving things out of the room, he was convinced that the CD's that were in there on the CD stand were Mariah's from when it was her bedroom. He is just a little confused...but, excited to be moving into his new room. We bought him the new bedroom furniture for his birthday. However, we haven't gotten the room fixed up due to the busy summer that we have had. Dad doesn't like me to be around painting while I am pregnant...so, he painted the room (with help from Drew) while I was gone. Drew even said at one point that he was a better painter than Grandpa. Grandpa didn't mind.

To keep him entertained while I was gone, Ben allowed Drew to sidewalk chalk the world...or so it seems being that we haven't had much rain since then and it is all still there. One of the drawings is in the photos below. Ben asked Drew what it was...he said, "A rocket." So, Ben made him put flames coming out of the back...for reasons that you will surely understand.