THE WINSTEADS: October 2010

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

We've had such a fun weekend! We spent the afternoon in Franklin at the Pumpkinfest, which was WAY crowded, but still fun. We went with our buddies, Jack, Sophie, Henry and Hays...the usual:) We did attempt to dress the kiddos up for pics, but as you can see...they were NOT happy campers. I think we got more joy out of it than they did for SURE!!! I think B will be more into Halloween next year...hopefully! He's just such a sweet, sweet boy who loves life so much:) Love you sweet baby boy!!!!!

As most of you probably know by now, Brad was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma two weeks ago. It came as an incredible shock to us and our families. We went to a Sunday school party Sunday night and Brad played kickball with all of the guys. He was sore the next day and took some Ibuprofen on an empty stomach. Tuesday, he started passing blood in his urine and went to the walk in clinic. They immediately sent him to the ER where he found out five hours later that he had a golf ball size tumor in his left kidney. We met with the urologist the next day and he scheduled the surgery for the following Thursday. Dr. Locke was able to remove the entire tumor. He only had to remove 1/4 of his kidney. He will not have to do chemo OR radiation and for that...we are so thankful. We are finally back home and Brad is recovering well. Our lives have been completely turned upside down the past two weeks, but we both have new outlooks on life. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with our beautiful baby boy who just turned 10 weeks old this week. We have learned that life is a true and absolute GIFT and we will appreciate every single day we have with one another. I love Brad more than I ever have before. I've been scared, mad, anxious, and happy all at once. I am so thankful we caught the cancer at such an early stage. We have a lot of life left to live and so many more memories to make. Braden and I love you Brad...