A bit of news

I was thinking, and it's probably not quite fair to each of you that I made the announcement "Hey, my kid has cancer!" then left....just like that.  Lots was going on- treatment, family, getting our 2nd home ready to rent.  I just couldn't find an extra moment to come back here and post updates.  

And then we heard the news last Friday that I thought all of you may just be interested in.  We were ecstatic!!  Completely overwhelmed!!  Grateful!!  Dancing in the halls of the cancer unit!!  Praising!!  Praising!!  Praising!!  Yes, it was that kind of news.  The news we heard was.....

KATE IS IN REMISSION!!!!

Kind of a big deal and worth sharing, don't you think?:)  

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING OUR GIRL TO HEALING!!!!!

AMAZED BY HIS GLORY AND GRACE,

E

Many have asked how to help financially.  A You Caring page has been set up for Kate.  THANK YOU for keeping our girl and our family in your prayers!!

In Him,

E

Too Long

When you have a child who is fighting cancer, time moves at a snails pace while it is flashing by.  If you have lived in this world (and I PRAY you have not), you know what I mean by this. 

It would be so easy to let cancer take charge of our lives and in a sense it has, BUT it is our goal to continue living on and making memories with all of our children.  Cancer has moved in and some days it seems like it is a new family member.  We have to be very intentional about not letting it take the place of any family member, though.

Since my last post, Kate has completed 2 of her 6 rounds of chemotherapy.  She has been in the hospital more nights than I care to count (I type this by her bedside in her hospital room now).  She was admitted for round 1 then developed a fever a couple of weeks later and was readmitted.  During that stay, she had a seizure and what we think was the beginning of an anaphylactic reaction to her meds.  She has been inpatient twice since that visit for treatment.  We have been here now for 19 days waiting for her counts to rebound.  We have celebrated Mother's Day, Father's Day and my birthday in the hospital.  

I REALLY need to be blogging more about life in general around these crazy parts.  I will update here about Kate but also want to make sure that this remains our family blog.  If you would like to follow Kate's journey more closely, please visit her page at www.facebook.com/babycakie.  I post almost daily about Kate's progress and treatment there and often have prayer requests listed as well.  

This post is going to be full of pictures from our past couple of months.  There are several posts I wish to write about specific happenings, and I hope to get to that this week.  Stay tuned.:)

Kate's counts did have a hard time recovering after her first round so we were afforded several extra weeks at home while waiting to be readmitted for round 2.  As much as we were ready to move forward with the next treatment, we were so grateful to just be a family.

Sorry about the lack of words tonight, but this is all my brain has energy for.:)

In Him,

E

Now on the to picture parade~

My big girls.  I hope they don't mind me calling them that.:)

First time bowling for Bubba.  He got the hang of it pretty quickly.

This picture says it all!

Two of my big girls with 2 friends.

Our annual trip to the strawberry patch nestled in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains.  This is one of my favorite days of the entire year.

My youngest love.  She and I have become quite fond of each other these past couple of months spending so much time alone together in the hospital.  She has become an extra appendage.:)

Headlock?  He thought she was squealing with delight!!  Not sure that was the case.

Strike!!!

First time bowling for Celia, too.

My big girls on the night daddy took them all out alone.  I will write a separate post about their necklaces.

This was one of the blessings of Kate's counts not recovering as quickly as we hoped.  We were able to have our family and friends over for an impromptu pot luck dinner, kickball game and outdoor fire complete with s'mores.  What could be better?!?!

Oldest and the boy watching kickball

Our middle trying to get her cousin out.

Mimi with just a few of her 10 grandchildren.

Cousin love!!

Marshmallows!!!!  If you could just hear him say it, you would understand!

Daddy and the boy.

Two of my big girls.:)

Aunt JJ and Kate.  They kind of like each other.

More cousins.

These two are buddies.

This picture pretty much sums up Celia.  Explosive wrapped up in a teeny tiny body!

My youngest love fighting the fight of her life.  This photo was taken while waiting for frozen sorbet.  Yummy!!

Kate was squealing with delight and Charlie was eating it up.

My tiny one.  

No words needed.

Charlie working very hard on matching.

Blessings poured out over our family during Kate's illness. This is just one of the many boxes delivered to our home.  These are for Kate....were for Kate.  She devours them!!

First taste of water balloons.  Trouble brewing.

More blessings poured out on us.  Hot dinner prepared and delivered.  THANK YOU!!!

My two littles- the lightest and darkest.  Notice the bandaid on Kate's finger from labs that morning.  They adore each other.

To throw a little more excitement in the mix, our dogs have decided to wander.  Sarah paid a visit to our neighbor's horses one night and came back with a detached eyeball!!!!!!  Sarah now only has one eye!!

Oh Celia.

For the most part, this is Kate when we are in the hospital.  LOVE this little one!!

Two buddies.  Celia doesn't know what she would do without her.

Okay.  Celia is almost 2 1/2 and still only around 18 pounds BUT  that does not stop her.  She is our  firecracker and gets into plenty of mischief. 

See.

Awesome play area at the hospital!!

Kate cheering Daddy and big sister on from the sidelines!!

I love receiving the pictures from home while I am in the hospital with Kate.  They make my heart swell!!

My mom holding down the fort back at home.  Thank you, Mimi!!

The post no mother wants to write

It has been 15 days, so I think it's time.  Not that I'm counting the hours or anything.  I'd like to think I haven't written here because of time, but I don't know if that's it.

My sweet, sweet Kate.  She turned one on April 7th, and we celebrated by the creek.  Throwing rocks and making flower headbands seemed like the perfect celebration.  We sang "Happy Birthday" at least 62 times that day and rejoiced that God chose us for her!  Yet, even in the midst of the celebration, our Cakie wasn't right.

Having 3 children with Down Syndrome proves to keep me keenly aware of specific health changes.  I make mental notes and google way too much.  But, I feel like when it came to Kate, God was whispering.  

She had been cranky for several weeks.  The exercises we did daily to improve her physical strength never used to bother her.  She now cried through every one until I eventually stopped doing them altogether.  She had a few unexplained low grade fevers.  Petechiae began showing up several months ago, but I thought it was just something that happened to her.  Then there was the bruising.  And God whispered.

Happy 1st Birthday, precious girl!!

I woke Monday morning and immediately called the pediatrician to schedule blood work.  I told them what I thought it was and prayed with every part of me that I was wrong.  I wanted to be overreacting.  By 2:00 that afternoon, we were being told to take her to the ER.  I could tell by the attending doctor's face that he knew.  He told us the oncologist was on his way.

April 22, 2013.  Kate was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  

We did not go home that night.  Instead, she was admitted to the cancer center where we spent the next week.

This is what leukemia did to my precious girl.  Notice the petechiae.  The bruise under her eye was caused by her low platelet count.  She had a tiny, faint red spot under her eye when she went to bed Sunday night.  When she woke Monday morning, it looked like this.  

On Wednesday, April 24, Kate underwent surgery to place a broviac (central line) in her chest.  This is how her chemo is administered and how blood is taken (Praise the LORD!!).  During surgery, she also had a bone marrow aspiration as well as a spinal tap.  Leukemia tends to hide out in the spinal fluid, so chemo was administered directly into her spinal fluid while she was asleep.  Beginning Wednesday afternoon, Kate began her first continuous 96 hour round of chemotherapy.  HUGE PRAISES that she proved to everyone just how strong she is!!  There were 2 days that she didn't seem to be quite herself, but otherwise, she was happy, laughing and eating like our Cakie does.

Kate's broviac line

In two short weeks, we have learned more about cancer treatment, blood counts and caring for broviac lines that we ever wanted to know.  We have become part of a club I never wanted to be a member of, but forget about me.  MY DAUGHTER NEVER WANTED TO BE PART OF THIS CLUB!! 

 Regardless, she is our daughter.  She is our daughter.  She is our daughter!!!!  We love her just as much today as we did before April 22.  We will fight this battle alongside her and PRAISE HIM each step of the way.  What a glorious day it will be when we are able to SHOUT that Kate is healed!!

Taken after surgery on Wednesday.  They kind of love each other alot.:)

She has a long 6 months of treatment ahead of her.  We know there will be many dark days- days that she feels terrible and I wonder why in the world God wants to use her in such a way.  But we also see the resilience in her.  She is already feeling better and stronger than she did before chemo.  We believe with every part of us that it is already working to rid her precious body of those nasty leukemia cells.

We have heard stories of Kate literally changing lives.  I won't go into details because some of them are very personal for people, but I stand amazed at how God is using her precious life and testimony to bring others back to Him, open hearts to adoption and educate some about the perfection in all of us.

Complete churches all over the country are lifting up her name daily.  She has people praying for her in other countries- Israel and Spain are two I know of.  Our family and friends have quite literally become Christ's hands and feet to our family over the past 2 weeks.  We have been showered with love, prayers, food, help, childcare, gifts....thank you!!

Love Letters for Kate

Once again, we have reason to hold a Love Letters Campaign.  Please, join us in literally covering her hospital room with letters of encouragement, pictures, Bible verses, etc.  To learn more about what Love Letters for Kate is, read details about Celia's campaign here.  To see pictures of the Letters in the hospital go here.  If you wish to participate, please send an email to nogreatergiftmom@yahoo.com.

Put together by one incredible big sister and playing continuously in Kate's hospital room

And if you'd like to follow Kate's journey with more frequent updates, my sister started a Facebook page for her specifically for prayer requests and daily updates.  You can join here.

And finally, THANK YOU for joining us as we pray complete healing over our girl!  We firmly believe that our Heavenly Father has MIGHTY plans for Kate and this journey will just prove what's in store.

So many of you have become friends of mine.  Who knew my simple blog would help foster friendships that mean so much to me.  Thank you for walking alongside us through it all.

In Him,
E

Sunday morning worship via the internet while finishing chemo at the hospital!!:)

Absent but SO Present

****THIS IS A POST FROM LAST YEAR (THUS THE REASON EVERYONE IS SO MUCH YOUNGER AND THERE IS NO CAKIE), BUT I WAS RECEIVING SO MANY STRANGE ANONYMOUS COMMENTS ON IT THAT I DELETED THE ORIGINAL AND AM REPOSTING HERE.****

My treasures!  I am one blessed momma!

Several months ago we studied Nehemiah.  The focus of one particular lesson was Nehemiah 6:3.  Our pastor spoke at great length about this passage and shed new light on the passage for me.  Since that lesson, Nehemiah 6:3 has become the verse I wake and drift to sleep repeating.

I used to blog alot.  I would pour my heart out onto these pages.  I do miss it.  I miss being able to read back through the pages that contain many memories that would have faded away without my writings. I miss the friendships that I made because of and through the blog.  But because of my verse, Nehemiah 6:3, things have changed.

 ³ so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”


And so, I have been absent.  But I am SO present.  I am present in my marriage.  I am present in my children's lives.  And am present and seeking the things God holds sacred.

For, I am doing great work and I cannot come down!


My great work is my marriage.  My great works are my children.  And my great works are the things Christ holds sacred.

So, if I have not emailed you back or returned your phone call, please forgive me.
I am doing great work.

 If I do not write on these pages more often, please forgive me.
I am doing great work.

Tonight am sharing some pictures of what life has looked like over the past month or so.  

Cousin love!

We are blessed to have extended family that likes to get together.

And family that likes to play together.

Look at these 2 guys!  My hubby is in the white shirt and his brother in the red.  Just before this picture was taken, they survived a near collision and run in with a tree while chasing a soccer ball.  In the photo they are both trying to recover.:)  Why are they still so incredibly competitive?!?!

And he was sad because the cows were gone.:(  Poor guy.

My tiny, beautiful treasure!

One of my favorite pictures of my guys.  LOVE!!

For a couple of weeks we were sick.  I mean SICK!!  This is a picture after the healing began.  

Did I mention we were SICK!!!!!

One of the perks of living in the country- Redneck Slip-n-Slide!!  YeeHaw!

Several weeks ago we were blessed with some free tickets to a Braves game.  We love the Braves!

Two of my favorite ladies at the game.

The group of kiddos we took to the game.  Since the tickets were all free, we splurged and rented a 15 passenger van.  FUN!!  I dream of owning one now!

And yes, we left a certain sweet, innocent, quiet, still (NOT!) 2 year old home with Mimi.  I think he (and we) was much happier there.

Okay, do you notice something wrong with this picture?

And this one?  TAKEN THE SAME DAY!!!

So, while I focus on "doing great work" I praise HIM for the incredible blessings He has entrusted into my care.  Thank you, Lord.

In Him,

E