One more step closer!

Hey everyone! So as some of you know, Stephen is looking at buying a house right now! Well this has been going on since this past June and there have been a couple bumps in the road, but it seems that we're finally on the right track! He decided to go with a new realtor that was recommended to him by one of our co-workers and he has worked out great!

Stephen found a house he really liked and a couple weeks ago put a contract on it! We heard back from the sellers, who accepted the offer, and it was forwarded to the bank to be approved at the asking price. This was about 2 weeks ago, I believe.

Today, Stephen finally got a call saying that the offer has been moved up to secondary approval, which means it passed the first round! So though we are still waiting, we are one step closer than we were! They had originally talked about an end of February close on the house, but because things are taking a bit longer, we're looking more realistically on a early to mid March close. But please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! We want this to all go smoothly and easily and hopefully Stephen will have the house by mid-spring!!

Thomas Patrick Burke 1955-2009

Back in April, my uncle was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. He fought through countless chemo treatments, at the doctors and with 24 hour at home pumps, numerous radiation treatment, hydration, blood transfusions, and infections. He was told that the tumor was not going to shrink, nor could it be operated on because of the location of the tumor, making it a deadly surgery. Only 13 doctors in the world have performed the surgery he needed. The cancer also spread to his liver, making him more sick as time went on. The cancer kept him from eating and he had a feeding tube inserted which became infected 3 times, landing him in the hospital for about a week each time. After traditional chemo wasn't working, Tom and his family talked to a specialist a UCLA, who performed a biopsy and created a personalized cocktail of chemo, tailored to the cancer cells. Test results came back positive at times, but it seemed that every step forward, caused 3 steps back. After 3 months of this treatment, test results showed that the cancer was not responding to it at all. His doctor informed us that the amount and type of chemo Tom needed to fight the cancer, would kill him at this point. Tom decided to cease all treatment, and let the cancer take his course. He passed on January 16, 2009 at 2:30 pm, only 8 days after deciding to stop treatment.

The past 3 weeks or so have been the hardest in my life. I haven't cried more in the past weeks, than I have in a long time. I was lucky enough to see my uncle only a month before he passed, before he was bedridden and in and out of conciousness. That was one of my favorite weekends. I'm very blessed to have made that trip, and can't imagine how I would be feeling if I wasn't able to go. My uncle was an amazing, loving, brave, faithful man. He will always be remembered by the many stories of my crazy Irish side of the family.

Cancer is an awful disease, and I urge everyone who reads to support any awareness groups of any type of cancer. Now, Stephen and I have both lost family members to cancer and have seen its effects first hand.

Uncle Tom, you will be truly missed! I love you and I hope you enjoyed the shot of Jameson in your memory!

Ok, Starting from Scratch

For the last six months or so, I have been blogging on LiveJournal. I recently decided that I wanted to just do away with that account (which I need to figure out how to delete) and start from scratch here! My last account was strictly my thoughts, etc. This one will still be my thoughts and things going on, but also and always keeping you updated with things going on with my family: Myself, Stephen and the furbaby Spud. There are lot of exciting changes in the near future for us, and I want to be able to share it where it's accessible for everyone! As far as trying to bring my past posts over from LJ, I'm not going to do, just post a short post starting with the most important thing that happened this year, at least to me. I hope this New Year has found all of you with renewed hope and want in life!