Charlotte's Journey

 We have clear scans!! There is still no evidence of disease!! Thank You God, thank you Duke, and CHOP, and MSK, and modern medicine, and our amazing village of family and friends and prayer warriors. It is impossible to explain the relief we feel. I know I tend to clench and hold so much in because as I type this I have a splitting headache. I’m ready for the release and the breaths and all the sweet days yet to come for and with our girl, our family. Monitoring requirements have us scanning again in 4 months, which puts us into June! Today, so many people who helped care for Charlotte were at Duke today and she was in such good spirits they got to visit with her and enjoy her. She was chicken noodle soup to their souls. They have such a tough job caring for these children. Tough, but amazing. And seeing Charlotte is truly such a joy to each of them and speaks to the important work they are doing. After we finished up in clinic today, after her 3rd day at the hospital, Charlotte...

It’s scan week. This is the longest stretch we’ve gone between scans at 4 months since her last scans. She has scans tomorrow and Wednesday with clinic Thursday. You have been here with us many times. I wish I could say it’s getting easier, but these routine scans are not routine for Brian and I. For us, it means facing her cancer. It means facing our worst fears. For Charlotte, it means she gets poked, gets injected with radioactive tracer, she gets sedated and put to sleep, she has long days at the hospital, she under goes more toxicity, she misses preschool and her class Valentine’s Day activities, she misses her dance class, she misses gymnastics, she comes home with an IV in her arm, she asks questions..so many questions and we revisit her reality again, helping her understand her disease and what she is fighting. Normal, sweet life, interrupted. I guess I could internalize these realizities and feel bitter or burdened or anxious but you all know me by now...I MUST find the posi...

A day full of good news! Thanks so much for keeping Charlotte’s special friend in your prayers everyone. This friend has been a member of our own village, caring and praying for our Charlotte all this time and then, she became her preschool teacher this year. Ms. Courtney, although still facing a long healing process, should make a complete recovery as the pathology report has returned as a rare but BENIGN tumor which was successfully, surgically removed! This is amazing news for our caterpillar class teacher who is so loved and cherished by our girl Charlotte, as well as by so many people. What an incredible outcome for her and her family.  We’ve learned that Jacob, who was the first Neuroblastoma child and family we ever met during treatment who has been a bit ahead of Charlotte in treatment but whose cancer had been more stubborn in response to therapy, also received good news this week. At his last scans, a spot showed up in his chest indicating potential relapse. The do...

There is a very special person and daily friend in Charlotte’s life who could use our prayers today and in the next days to come. Suddenly, her and her family’s world has come to a hault as they processs a familiar feeling that Brian and I know all to well, the feelings that come from a doctor telling you they’ve found a tumor. Just a couple of days ago they found a brain tumor after she went to the doctor experiencing some concerning symptoms. Today, the doctors will perform surgery to remove this tumor. There is hope that this tumor is benign and that a full recovery, although long and maybe difficult at times, is very possible. They will know more once a biopsy and test results return. In the meantime this family is seeking  prayers as they hold onto this hope. This friend of Charlotte’s means so much to her and to our family, can you please join us in prayer, lifting them up as they face the unknown and with the hopes that TODAY is DAY ONE of  complete healing? We know we ...

My heart seems to be bursting and breaking. Is it possible to have your heart burst with joy and pride while simultaneously breaking from loss? But honestly I know the bursting will win out. How can it not, this is Charlotte we are talking about! I registered this sweet one for Kindergarten this week. She is ready for the next step but Brian and I are just trying to keep up. Especially me. I’ve been home with my babies for 8 years, ever since Parker was born. Staying home and caring for our little ones has been my focus and my world for so long. Charlotte going off to school ends that era, the most important and special era I never knew I’d love so much. So the “breaking” part is purely personal, purely inward and a little selfish, but I know totally natural. And it’s CHARLOTTE to top it off, which makes the bitterness of the sweet so poignant. She deserves every second of every milestone of growing up. She is ready and excited for it. Brian and I will catch up, I will figure ...

If we could all have 1/10th the joy she finds in the every day, life would be PERFECT wouldn’t it? Her energy and spirit is contagious. I have nothing special to update, but today I took a couple snap shots of her and thought maybe we could share a smile to all of you out there. She is ringing in 2019 feeling so great. We have scans in 5 weeks, second week of February. We register Charlotte this month to begin Kindergarten in this next school year...and with that realization, I am doing my best to soak up this last bit of the year home with her. And I’m not the least bit ashamed to be selfish about it either😜. Keep the love and prayers going you all. We truly feel them raining down on our girl. Joy And some Italian Ice today with her Taylor and Parker

What started as a carepage aimed at keeping friends and family updated on Charlotte shortly after diagnosis has evolved. I didn’t even write on this page for the first few weeks. A friend of ours would write updates after receiving a text from me. Soon, I began to take over and write daily and weekly updates. Things were happening so fast. And we realized that we weren’t only creating a space to provide facts about how Charlotte was doing, but we were helping to create a community we would soon call our “village” in which love took root and people from all over would join one another (unbeknownst to each other) in prayer for our girl and our family. Many people have told me their lives have been changed for the better in various ways all because of Charlotte. And although the intention of this page is centered around our girl, the spirit of it is broader now. How many other people have we asked you to pray for with the wondering that maybe somehow our village we have amassed on this jo...