The end of the year of hope and determination

By -
We made it❤️🌈It’s safe to say this school year did not go as we had hoped. Just a few weeks before the first day of school, Charlotte was diagnosed with relapsed Neuroblastoma and our world came crashing down. She was thrown back into treatment...more chemo, more radiation, a new immunotherapy we had to travel over 5 months to NYC for. We juggled school and activities and home life best we could among the appointments and scans and travels and side effects and fear and worry. Then COVID further complicated the world and everyone’s lives including ours. Yet....we saw our children somehow BLOSSOM amid it all. Taylor shined and has graduated on to middle school. Charlotte mastered all grade level expectations and received a “Class Hero” award yesterday at her virtual end of year K celebration as she taught everyone what hope and determination could do. And Parker...who is still his happy go lucky, sweet, charming, bright and happy self excelled and finished 3rd grade strong! Of course, we also had so many beautiful rainbow moments sprinkled throughout this school year. Next week is a big one. We have scans and I’ll speak to those details later but for now Brian and I are trying to celebrate all 3 of our babies, take a breath, and soak up Gods amazing grace❤️🌈 #familystrong

First day of K and last day! On that first day, she was completely bald, medical markings for radiation on her legs, she was somewhat unsure after having the world pulled out from under her feet so suddenly. We were just trying to put one hopeful foot in front of the other without any idea what this year would bring while back fighting the cancer we hoped and believed she had beaten. We watched her conquer and blossom amid it all. She was given “class hero” award and we know she is certainly our hero❤️🌈


Parker first and last day of 3rd. During these stay at home days, Parker and Charlotte are almost inseparable. They’ve grown very close

First and last day of 5th. This was the only year we will have ALL THREE in the same school💔Our Taylor graduates on to middle school. Taylor is blossoming and growing up into such a beautiful and special soul. Charlotte looks up to her with every fiber of her being

Comments

  1. ppa1dayatatimeJune 8, 2020 at 6:04 PM

    May blessings continue to pour on your family, you have been through so much!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ROUND 2 under way

By -
Image
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
Read more

Reliving June 13

By -
Image
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. Of c
Read more

Getting some sleep and planning on a wagon ride!

By -
Image
Good morning! They think we might get to a room later today! Steps closer to coming home! Her X-ray showed improvement with lung fluids. Still fighting a fever and needs oxygen. Finally got put back in solids and ate some bites of spaghetti last night. We both slept better last night too. We didn't get out yesterday so maybe today. We have a wagon and are hoping to take her for a ride maybe even to see the helicopter on the roof:) Got a little kick in the gut with some news specifically regarding her tumor genetics. I was really down and having a hard time last night. But woke to a new day. And Brian has a contact in Cincinnati who put him into contact with a leading researcher for high risk NB and after talking with him we feel better about not just our current plan here at Duke but also about all the new research that hasn't even been published yet which has MUCH better prognosis outcomes for someone like Charlotte. I really needed to hear that and the timing of this doctor
Read more