As Charlotte says "KEEP MOVING!"

There is no other way to start this message then to quote our own oncologist: Today's preliminary results show a "REMARKABLE" response. (And that speaks volumes considering these doctors are realists and pragmatic and never paint a rose colored picture for us) Brian and I were sitting with Charlotte as she was coming out of sedation from her bone marrow biopsy when we saw our Doctor hurrying back to us after she went down to pathology to glance at the abdominal CT images we had just taken before the bone marrow aspiration. Although official measurements were not recorded yet, she was pleasantly surprised at the size of Charlotte's tumor. And she called it "remarkable." And then said it was a "fraction" of the size. We will never forget those words. We were stunned. After further analysis, it is apparently 2/3 the original size which means almost 70% reduced! We are still trying to process this information as it is more then any of us could have hoped for at this stage. I'm not sure who was more surprised at this progress, Brian and I or our doctors. We still have the bone marrow results to come back in a few days and her MIBG scan that detects active neuroblastoma next week, but after getting her CT results, the news can only stay the same or get better from here. We could not have prayed for anything more. The treatment is working and our little girl is doing "remarkable" things.

On the way to Duke this morning, Charlotte was tolerant of the idea that we had to go to the hospital for a "check up and to get more medicine". She was pleasant enough (considering she wasn't allowed anything to eat since dinner) although she did say she was a little scared. And then suddenly, she seemed impatient and repeatedly would tell us to "keep moving!" if we came to a stop anywhere lol! We got such a kick out of it, we decided that should appropriately be our motto at this moment in time. No matter what, we must keep moving forward! As always, we are following this little ones lead. Thank you all so much for your loving words, gifts, selfless help, prayers, positivity, jokes, and encouragement. Brian and I continue to be blown away by our amazing village who are a seemingly never ending-never tired-never defeated-never faltering source of faith to us as we keep on moving forward.

I wanted to post a few family pictures our neighbor Christy came by and took this last weekend before round 4. Again, God's timing in this shows us that he is so ever near. You see, I had planned to hire a photographer to take some family pictures of us this spring but then Charlotte got sick. I thought we would have to wait until she was much better because we didn't want to capture her feeling sick and tired while under going chemo. We wanted her to be like herself: joyful and happy and well. And yet the stars aligned because she has been feeling so good lately at the same time as our neighbor asked us if she could come snap some pictures of us as photography is a hobby of hers. We thought why not? We would love to capture her spirit and all the joy and love between the children at this moment in time. And somehow I can't believe we almost didn't do this....because there is true raw beauty here. And what Christy captured in these little moments shows Charlotte's quiet confidence, her spunky spirit, the love in our family, and peace. Every moment, the good and the difficult, is a part of our family's story and what a story to celebrate.