Christmas 2006

Dear Family and Friends,
If this letter gets written it is because I was very efficient at my one 45 minute work session at the computer!! This year has been a very eventful one for us, much more than we planned!

Cale is now 2 ½ and is such a delight and joy and a bit of a pill at times too!! He is such a creative little boy and has all kinds of ideas…some good and some not so good. Some of his good ideas are playing forever with his dump truck, reading books, playing trains, and giving hugs. Some of his not so good ideas are riding his tricycle (with no pants on) as fast as he can down the hill, running into the curb and flying over the handlebars on the grass (all on purpose), or pretending our dinner plates are snowshoes, or taking the powdered sugar outside and having a powdered sugar war with his brother (I should probably just be grateful it was outside and not inside!). Cale certainly keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh way more than we probably should—we at least try to turn our heads so he doesn’t see that we are laughing!!

Tate is 4 ½ and is such a sweet boy. I could sum up his year by a quote he made last January when he was trying to find his stuffed animals… “Mom, where are my babies…I mean my big boys…my people.” So his year has gone. He is growing up so fast. He started preschool and is just in heaven. He delights in everything and it is amazing to see his mind grow and expand. I thought he might outgrow the “why” stage, but instead of asking just plain old “why” to everything, I now hear, “I wonder why such and such happens.” He is very curious, is Mr. Holiday cheer himself, and is the best big brother.
My big news is that we are expecting another baby in February. I got really nervous at our ultrasound because we decided we didn’t want to know the sex of the baby and I was very concerned that they would slip and tell us. We are on schedule for a surprise in the middle of February.

Jon started the year doing all of his normal stuff and being concerned about the typical things you would expect from someone who would be graduating soon. His birthday was in October and he kept telling me that 31 was a rotten age because he felt like he was more out of shape than he had ever been and he just plain wasn’t feeling like his normal self. On November 1st we found out why he was feeling so out of shape. Jon was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome which is a type of blood cancer. We have really had a whirl-wind experience so far. Right after his diagnosis we learned that the cure for his disease is a bone marrow transplant. All his sisters, AKA “team donor,” were tested and to our absolute joy we found out that Jon’s oldest sister Jadi is a perfect match. She will come out Christmas day and begin a procedure to collect her stem cells for Jon. Jon then starts chemotherapy January 9th and his transplant is the 16th. We anticipate a successful transplant and hope that Jon will be able to come home sometime around February 5-9th. Please keep Jon in your prayers as this process is a very difficult and long one. The baby is due February 17th and I’ve been early in the past, so life will definitely be an adventure.

So to sum it all up, this year has for sure had its trials, but we have experienced many more miracles than trials. I’ll just list a few…Jadi being a match, some of the best medical care, the UNC orthodontic department that has been so kind and good to Jon, wonderful friends, the best families anyone could dream of, 2 sweet boys and a baby on the way, Jon’s mom staying with us for the “long haul,” the faith and prayers of so many that have given us comfort and peace, and a greater strength and faith in the Savior Jesus Christ that can only come from life’s most difficult challenges. The list goes on and on. We have felt so blessed at this time.
We hope you all have a wonderful, healthy, and happy New Year! We plan on doing the same!

Lots of love—Jon, Quinn, Tate the Great, Captain Cale and the Mighty Surprise Silcox!!

P.S. If we don’t have your email address, please send it to us as we send out periodic updates…silcox@email.unc.edu or qsilcox@hotmail.com. Jon will have his computer with him while he’s in the hospital and would love to hear from you. Also, if you are interested in becoming a bone marrow donor, please visit www.marrow.org . It only requires a few cheek cells to be added to the registry!