A HIGH FIVE from God

We have preliminary results from Charlotte's CT scan and it's great news! The abdominal tumor is "significantly reduced" from her last scan in May and the evidence that existed showing bone marrow involvement is no longer evident. I don't have specifics because we haven't seen our doctors yet. Brian was here with Charlotte all last night and all day today and waited before going back home to the kids just in case someone would have gotten to her scans yet. But she didn't even finish up until 4pm on a Friday over a holiday weekend. We assumed surely everyone would be gone by the evening. But...a short while ago, a kind nurse who could sense the worry in me reached out to the on call fellow on our team asking them to contact us if they had any info regarding the scans. And the doctor was able to tap in to the system from her home to see if the scan had even been read and recorded yet. And it had! She called me up and here we are HALLELUJAH!! Brian and I were over come with emotion. We will be in an even better position surgery wise. We are still waiting on MIBG results, in which active neuroblastoma will be detected (smaller pockets not only in her abdomen as well as in the bone marrow). But in any case, we are moving in the right direction and we can keep going!!!

When we personally notified some family and close friends of the news by text message, my mom and Mike in Virginia as well as Brian's cousin, Jen, from Colorado both had a view of a double rainbow while reading our message. Our neighbor, Esther, says these rainbows that seem to appear to us are "God Winks". At first, they seemed to start with just Brian and I as we saw one after each round of chemo for the first couple rounds. Then, we began to notice them more. Now, it IS springtime in North Carolina and so a rainbow after spring rains do happen! But for some reason, they always feel like a sign from above, appearing to us in various instances but making us immediately feel like God is with us. And now it's like a ripple effect, where we don't have to witness the rainbow directly because we have this village that spans so far and wide and the rainbows can appear to you too. And you share them with us. And we feel the peace and grace and love. And today...we feel like he gave us a giant high five.

Charlotte handled today beautifully. She wasn't able to eat or drink anything all day until out of anesthesia around 4:30. In true Charlotte fashion, when the morning tocked on and it was finally close to 10, Charlotte looked at Brian and said "me eat? Me too hungry". And when he explained we had to get some medicine first and some pictures taken, she had a short little sob and looked up at him, sniffled, and said "ok daddy". And he hugged her. And he didn't eat anything either and instead they played and cuddled and did the best they could. She always seems to face whatever is in front of her and look it straight on. She conquers whatever is asked of her at 2 years old and does so with such grace, and spirit. She doesn't feel sorry for herself nor feel like she is owed something. At 2.5 years old, she has learned that if you want something in life, you work for it. That this life worth living is a gift but we need to work for it and AT it. She has taught me that when we wake up each day, can we say to ourselves "i will do my best to earn this gift." And we are thanking God tonight that we still have this fight that we are ABLE to fight. There is hope. And the rainbows are his wink

Mike "choochoo" wearing his rainbow bracelet Lynn had

made for friends and family to cheer Charlotte on. We will be sending them to all of you in our village soon!

Our goofball having a picnic in bed after she recovered from anesthesia