Prayers for Pattie

It is so crazy how life can change in the blink of an eye.  I witnessed this happen to a friend of mine here in Dubai.  My sweet friend Pattie learned very very unexpectedly that her husband Andrew has cancer.  The doctors here in Dubai could not diagnose the exact cancer that it was so they had to very quickly leave Dubai with their 4 kids and get back to the US.  Andrew is now at Mayo Clinic in Michigan and what started as a terrible cough has now been diagnosed as a very rare lymphoma...t-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.  Andrew has a long road ahead of him and I ask for your prayers. (Here are Pattie and Andrew at Thanksgiving... they are the ones in the center back)

Pattie and I met one day in the ASD parking lot.  I saw her walking with 4 kids that looked around the same ages as mine.  Turns out that all 4 were the exact ages as mine!  The difference is she has 3 boys and 1 girl.  The girl being #3 where Luke is.  The next week we saw them at mass!  We have other things in common too like that we both lived in Pearland when we were first married and we both lived in Chicago!  Pattie and Andrew spent Thanksgiving with us and just February 14th they had me over for dinner since Deric was on his long trip home.  Andrew cooked us an amazing dinner and the kids played.  I still can't believe how much has changed since then.

The Veith and Bryant kids were starting to become special friends.  Blake and Bennett the two oldest had a play date planned to work on Bennett's very cool lego Taj Mahal.  Baby Lilly and Baby Karston loved to play on the ASD playground in the mornings after we dropped the big kids off.  It was so great having a friend with a baby Lilly's age...and with older kids too.  She felt my pain! hahahahaha-  Olivia and Calvin were those 2 crazy first graders chasing and taunting each other constantly on the playground!

Pattie needed a day to herself to pack and get things ready to go so Deric and I had the kids over for one last playdate.  Andrew sent over the lego Taj Mahal for Blake and Bennett to work on!  It was so sweet!  Those two worked on it all day. (with the help of Deric whom I could not pry away from the legos)  It was a special yet bittersweet for the kids knowing their friends were about to head home.

Once again please pray for Andrew.  His family needs him!!  Cherish each day and take nothing for granted.....weeks ago Pattie and I were chatting/laughing/whining about the stress of dragging 4 kids around this desert!  I know she would give anything to be doing that now........You can follow Andrew's progress at   http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewveith

BLAKE AND BENNET STARTING THE LEGO TAJ MAHAL

BABY BUDDIES KARSTON AND LILLY

THE GANG