Charlotte was diagnosed with Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma on 3/18/16.What started as a nightmare has become an inspiring journey. We are being blessed by witnessing God's grace and love. He is walking with our baby girl and she is showing us all what's possible. This will be a tough road but children can survive this. We have an amazing medical team, and supportive family and friends. We will keep chasing the rainbows from above as we heal our little girl.
We can't believe it worked out but somehow we woke up and Charlotte's counts almost tripled to over 700! We are home! The children ran off together as if they hadn't skipped a beat and Doug and Joanne (pops and Mimi), who have been here for several days while we were hospitalized, got to spend a couple hours at our home with all us all before their flight home.
Although we plan to have a laid back, low key 4th of July, it will be full of some of our favorite things: family, food, ice cream, playing, sparklers, and some form of fireworks (neighborhood, TV, and maybe daddy drive way fireworks). We are so grateful to have her home and to be together as a family to celebrate our wonderful nation and all of those who have served for our freedoms. If all goes as planned, we will all be home together until the surgery scheduled for July 14. And we will take in and soak up every second. Sending love to each of you with warm wishes for fun with family and friends on this 4th of July🇺🇸🗽🎆🌈
Home! (Time with Pops and Mimi
Home! Some time with Pops and Mimi
Happy 4th of July!
Goofs
Playing at the train table yesterday...wanting to go home but having fun wherever we are
Playing nurse with the nurses stuff
Making faces at daddy
Our good friends The Stalnaker's also saw a rainbow ( while in Florida) when reading our message about Charlotte's scans!
Kids getting to visit and play while hospitalized
Playing play dough. For a little while, she gets to forget she is in a hospital room
It was exactly 4 Monday's ago. We left our pediatrician and ended up here at Duke Children's just about this time of day where we were about to receive Charlotte's cancer diagnosis. It was any parents worst nightmare as we came to learn and understand this diagnosis. It feels like 4 months ago. We are still coping and feeling our way, but never in a million years could I imagine being in this "place" that we are today, emotionally and spiritually. We are still coping and going through the grieving stages, but hearing the news today that Charlotte is healthy enough to begin round 2 was great news. A couple weeks ago, hearing that your child needed chemo was gut wrenching but today it is music to our ears. It means Charlotte has recovered from round 1 and is ready to continue to fight and heal while we all cheer her on. Her spunky spirit is back. She had a wonderful, restful weekend home playing with Taylor and Parker and also getting to see some family and a few f...
You know those weekends that you just don't want to end? The ones you want to freeze in time? It was a simple one and usually not even worth a mention. Because all we did was spend time together playing at home, saw some friends and family, enjoyed each other, just low key fun and quality time. It was just one of those weekends that we all usually take for granted and really WE SHOULD. I mean, as parents, yes, we all try to soak up the sweet moments and memory making times with our children. But we shouldn't have to relish every moment where our children are feeling happiness. We shouldn't have to soak up every day we can all be together. Or embrace each day our child feels healthy enough for normal play. No one should have to live their entire lives living in the sweet moments for fear it could all be pulled out from under them. But we are learning that this is our new reality. That the normalcy we use to take for granted is now precious time because as we travel down this...
Today in 2019, was probably the hardest day of my life. You might have thought that would have been the day she was diagnosed or maybe that scary time we had during Charlotte’s transplant, but it was today. We snapped this picture below waiting for Charlotte’s doctors to come into her examination room during her standard check up at Duke. Mere minutes later, we saw more than the normal 4 feet in front of the door (the oncologist and NP that would see her). When the door opened and child life was there—Brian and I instantly knew. Child life had come to distract Charlotte so we could talk to her doctors. The world went into slow motion and I don’t know how I didn’t hit the floor if I’m honest. Brian’s face instantly drained of color. We knew immediately her scans had shown her disease, her cancer, had returned. After all she had been through, all we had seen, all we had survived as a family…this day drained the hope out of me and I can still have a visceral response remembering it. ...
PG
ReplyDeleteYeah Charlotte
Home
Happy Fourth
Freedom
Pops
Awesome news, Happy 4th to a very deserving family!
ReplyDeleteso wonderful!!!
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