Amos Ross Updates

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s about time for an update! We hope that the start of this new year has been filled with many reminders of God’s love for you. We have made it through the hopefully most of the dreary days of winter here in Cambridge and our eagerness for spring is mounting! Thankfully we are well outfitted with rain gear (and a bit of snow gear too!) so…life goes on in a slightly soggy sort of way.

We are thankful to report that all is well with the Ross family. We celebrated Samuel’s first birthday on January 15th and there was much rejoicing! Sam is a bundle of energy, smiles, giggles, and, well, more energy. He loves his big brothers and wants to join in on all the fun. He especially loves wrestling, tickling, climbing stairs, and generally getting into mischief.

Amos continues to work hard at the many aspects of recovery that are now just part of life. He had a rough bout with a cold that turned into a lung infection in January. Will and I were worried that he would end up in the hospital much like the infection that landed him there over Christmas in 2016! But by God’s grace, he was able to avoid that. We were really grateful for the GP’s here who were very proactive about keeping Amos out of the hospital and gave him the “heavy hitters” (i.e., the drugs he needed) right at the get-go.

Amos continues with speech therapy, physical therapy, and vision therapy both formally (professional intervention) and informally (me). His perseverance is pretty great for a little man his age and we try to keep things more or less fun. That’s been notably harder with the weather being so dismal and the opportunities to be outdoors being less than the usual quota needed by active little boys. It also turns out that Amos came back to England with a little bit of CA in his blood – he hates being cold!! Poor wee lamb.

We have seen continued progress for Amos – his stability is increasing, his vision holds steady (though still isn’t quite right – TBD), and his mobility is really improving! He’s now able to jump fairly well- without falling over- and he’s actually running! It’s so exciting to see him run. Who would ever think that seeing a little boy do what little boys do best – expend energy – would bring tears to this mama’s eyes?? He’s also grown over the past 4 months – a whole half an inch!! And no, we haven’t yet started the growth hormone therapy. We are waiting for that to get started still but the fact that he’s growing on his own at all seems to be a really encouraging sign.

Amos is also doing well in school and social settings. We have him attending a Classical Conversations home school group here in Cambridge one day a week. Then he and Luke go to nursery (British preschool) two mornings a week, and we fill the rest of the week with things like school at home, music class, swimming lessons, play dates, and church. It’s been amazing to see him grow in his abilities and confidence in all of these activities. We’re especially grateful too for the many other people involved in Amos’s life who support him so well. He has quite a team of friends and professionals who help and encourage him in various ways! What a blessing.

Luke is doing well also. He’s Amos’s bestie and such an invaluable source of stimulation and motivation for Amos. We are so thankful for Lukey. He’s joyful, chatty, curious, funny, and loud. He’s a huge fan of knowing how things work so there are a lot of questions in my life right now … haha! He’s growing like a weed and seriously trying to eat me out of house and home.

Coming up:

Will and Amos are heading to CA this Saturday, March 17 for an MRI, a sleep study, and vision appointment among a few other things. Please pray for health leading up to and during the trip, for a clear scan showing no recurrences of cancer, and for a good sleep study. Please pray for continued wisdom as Will sees doctors and has conversations with them concerning how to best care for Amos and ponders respiratory issues especially. We would love for Amos to no longer need to be on oxygen at night.

Please also pray that we would trust the Lord with Amos’s future. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the long road ahead because we focus so much on the day-to-day work of being a brain cancer survivor. Sometimes the unknowns loom large and it’s easy to forget that the Lord has shown such care for Amos and our family. Please pray that we would always trust in His plan.

Thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far!! Please don’t hesitate to give us an update on your family! We love hearing from you and hope you’re all well.

With love,

The Ross family

Happy Birthday to Sam! He took his cake pretty seriously…

Classical Conversations, Cambridge. Paying close attention to a science experiment

Watching a show on Mommy’s computer- a rare treat enjoyed by all!

Pretending to be warm in the greenhouse at the Botanic Gardens

Wee Sam

Visiting Daddy’s workplace- Tyndale House

Wimpole Hall and it’s stunning grounds give plenty of room for exercise!

Family!

Winter could also be spelled T-E-A

My gang

My big school boy!

Some snow! Not a common sight here in Cambridge

Luke was a fan!

Sam and Luke loved the snow.

Cold and wet winter days often look like this…they are great sports!

❤

Uhh….

Ohhh….

What wellies are for!