Way late post tonight- sorry! The FL crew has been fighting the heat and humidity and some crowds (although that hasn't been too much of an issue) and spending every minute soaking in Universal Studios. So far we haven't been able to settle in for dinner before 10 p.m. and every promise to be up and at the park for the early admission hours has been unsuccessful.

We have been checking in with Mason a lot as well. Mainly, we are pointing out the things he is NOT missing out on- like the heat, the longer lines and the length of the walk to get in and out of the parks. He seems to appreciate that he will have a better time on a future trip once he is done with treatment.

Mason's step-mom, Adrienne, had the overnight shift last night. It was uneventful, and one of the first pictures I got of him today was him eating ANOTHER ice cream sundae from the supplies she brought along. Between his milkshakes and sundaes, he may eat all the ice cream in Atlanta.

Then I got the sweetest text message ever, straight from Mason himself- "Gained weight from yesterday!" He is up several pounds from his lowest weigh-in. I love that his sweet outlook includes excitement over these things- and that he thought enough of it to text his mama with the details. He was also able to keep down 2.5 pieces of pizza for lunch, and when I FaceTimed him this afternoon he was in the middle of Chick-fil-a nuggets, fries and a milkshake. He told me the specific calorie counts in each item and was so proud that he was able to keep everything down. He wanted me to let everyone know that he is feeling much better with his appetite.

The other thing he wanted me to share is that he is now bald. We joked a bit earlier that he was going to just go ahead and shave the top of his head so he could have the "Todd Domangue" look (his step-dad). But even in the few hours since that call, he has pulled out a lot more hair. His puke bag turned into his hair bag- I guess we consider that some progress?

He also mentioned that he feels really good when he is in the bed, but he can feel how hard his muscles have to work when he has to stand up and walk around, so that is the next thing he wants to focus on- getting out of the bed and walking around. This hasn't been possible over the last few weeks due to how sick he was feeling, so this feels like another really BIG WIN.

Grandma Mary arrived to take over hospital duties this afternoon. She was able to bring Mason a very special gift from his middle school select lacrosse team- the team chain. It is a heavy chain, with one link for each of the players on the team, to represent how they all make up the team. For every game during the season, the coaches would nominate one or two players to hold the chain in recognition of their effort in the game. Mason was chosen a few times- his specialty was sinking the game winning shot in overtime. The fact that he not only gets to touch the team chain, but also that he gets to have it close to him to encourage him to keep fighting means so much to this kid.

I know many of you probably know this kid pretty well, but as an example of his personality- he had one game in the season where he had a solid performance, but he was pretty down on the drive home, thinking he hadn't done enough to help his team. When we got home that day, instead of getting in a shower, getting cleaned up and jumping into his video games, he spent an additional 3 hours in the backyard shooting on the goal. He knows so well what it means to put in the work in order to get better. He has carried that same attitude into this fight.

Please pray that he continues to gain some of that energy and appetite