Sarah's story, and answered prayer!

Hi everyone!

I have been having a wonderful time lately.  Not quite sure why, really.  Just happy in the Lord, I guess!  We've been pretty relaxed around here...no pressure to do a whole lot....it's been chilly outside but no snow, some rain,  (don't you just love rain??)  and cozy in the house.  The kids have been healthy (until Sarah came down with a little cold yesterday--oh well.)  Sometimes God just gives you a time of relative quiet when you can just be thankful for the blessings of life.  And there are so many of them!  (And by the way, when I say quiet, I do not in any way mean the decibal level in our house.  It's not really quiet in here.)    : )

So, onto the subject of my post today!  Ever since we had Sarah, I started longing to know anything I could about her past.  I think other adoptive moms would agree with me when I say that that mysterious, shadowy time before we had Sarah just drives me crazy, not knowing EVERYTHING that happened in her life.  Here is what we have been told about Sarah's beginnings...

There is a busy market area in Zhengzhou City in China.  A woman brought baby Sarah to a police officer on duty at a police station to hold while she went next door to use the restroom.  And then she never returned to get her.  The officer waited, and finally took the baby home to his family.  She was about two months old.  Each day he went to work, and waited for the woman to come back for the baby.  Finally after two weeks, he took her to the orphanage in Zhengzhou.  She stayed there for eight or nine months until they changed plans for that building, and moved most of the children to different locations.  At around nine months old, Sarah was moved to a different orphanage in a city called Luo He.  She was blessed to be in this one that is run by our adoption agency's charity division.  After a time, she was moved to a foster family's home.  Supposedly she was only with them for a few months when our letter of intent to adopt Sarah was accepted, and they moved her back to the orphanage again for a few more months until we would travel to get her.  If you weren't counting, that was seven different living placements in the first 21 months of her life, including the police officer's family, the second orphanage two different times, and our family. 

When we met Sarah, she was not afraid of us at all.  She easily took to us, and started laughing and playing with us within the first hour that we had her!  We were so thankful that obviously she had been loved, played with, and most likely not mistreated.  But oh, how we wish we could talk with those people.  Any of them!  who loved her and played with her, and cuddled with her and knew her.  And how I wish I had some pictures of her life before she was with us.  We have a few, but not many.

So, I started searching around in an online adoption group last summer.  I posted a message on the board asking if anyone had pictures of the orphanage Sarah was in.  I at least wanted to know more about where she had lived.  I searched the faces in the albums others posted, but had no luck.  And then I started praying that I would someday see some pictures of Sarah.  I just knew God would answer that prayer!

Last night I decided to search on that board again.  I looked at albums...no Sarah.  And then I went back in the message archives and came across that old question I had asked on there last summer, wondering if anyone had any pictures of the orphanage she was in.  Lo and behold, I had had a reply that I hadn't noticed.  A lady had adopted a daughter the same age as Sarah, who had been in the orphanage at the same time, and she had pictures on her blog that someone had given to her of her daughter and others in the orphanage.  My heart beat faster as I went over to her blog and started flipping through those pictures.  And here is what I saw...

The little girl in the yellow shorts outfit...I thought she might be her but I couldn't be sure...

Until I saw this one!  My heart started leaping when I saw this!  Look at that precious face.  And such a perfect shot! 

 And I smiled when I saw this one (Sarah in bright pink) because she always loves to cuddle and sit on our laps.  This volunteer was just filling in for Daddy. : )

She was probably just learning to walk around this time. : )

And there she is in the back in the middle.  When I showed this picture to Sarah, she said, "Where's Mommy?"  And I told her I just hadn't come to get her yet. : ( Thank you to these wonderful ladies who invested in the lives of these precious children!

It really is strange looking at these pictures of Sarah, and us not being in them.  Like Sarah asked, "Where are you?"  My first thought was something like that too.  Where was I?  Who are these people?  It felt a little like I must have dropped her off at a daycare or something.  So strange to remember that here she was in a life without me.  Our heartstrings are so completely wound around that little girl.  She IS our daughter.   

I am so thankful that God provided these pictures for us to see, and I will keep searching for more.  I would love to see ones from when she was a younger baby.  And my next hope and prayer is that we could somehow make contact with her foster parents and special nannies so that we can show them pictures and tell them all about what Sarah went through and how God pulled her through.  I'll let you know when that happens!  (I would LOVE to somehow have contact with her birth mother, but that is next to impossible here on this earth.  Hopefully in heaven someday...)

Isn't God good?  Answering prayers--the big ones and small ones.  He is just so wonderful!

Our new normal...

This morning Sarah and I went to see Dr. Aaberg, the eye cancer specialist.  I was excited to take her, since she is doing so well, and her hair is growing, and she has her new eye.  She kept saying she was going to show Dr. Aaberg her "new, pretty eye."  : )  Here are some of the things we hear when we visit the surgery center on these appointment days...

"Is that Sarah?!  I would know that voice anywhere!"

"I am so happy to see you!"

"Sarah, did you know that when I see your name on the schedule for the day, it makes me happy?  You make me happy in my heart!"

"Sarah! I've missed you!!"

Now, if you got this kind of a welcome when you went to the doctor, wouldn't you want to go back there too?  : ) 

The staff at the surgery center see patients of all ages, and probably not too many children.  So, Sarah is really special to them.  Her picture was in the paper a few months back, and they clipped it and hung it up on their bulletin board.  Most of the nurses are grandma ages, so they just love to eat Sarah up.  We love all of them, too!

Sarah has to go back and get eye exams under sedation, now only every two months, to check and make sure everything is still free and clear in there.  And praise the Lord, everything IS!  Every time it's time to go in for one of these check-ups, I get a little nervous, and when he comes out and tells me all is well, it's almost like getting the good news all over again.  I feel like singing all the way home!  (And I do.  Loudly!) 

So now, we are settled into the "after cancer" routine.  Basically this routine is all about NOTHING cancer related. : )  No medicine, no tubees drinks, no being careful about not breaking the tubees, no spending all day at clinic appointments, no sponge baths (Splash away, baby!)  I honestly thought I would miss going to clinic somewhat.  But guess what?  I don't!  I do miss the nurses and staff sometimes.  You really do get attached to some people...but overall, life is just really good without cancer being in it.  We are so thankful, and I NEVER take normal life for granted anymore! 

Oh, in case you are wondering...even though the rest of us are completely content with medical thoughts not even on our radar most days, Sarah still continues to spend most of her time wearing her doctor suit, giving froggy hugs to people, putting on and taking off rubber gloves, and giving tubees drinks to her stuffed animals.  The girl has the medical field in her blood.  And she still talks about going to clinic just about every day.  Poor girl...life just isn't as fun as it used to be for her...; )

100 DAYS!!

I haven't updated everyone about Sarah for a while because there just wasn't much to tell...

Until Now!!

If you have followed my blog for a little while, you might remember that back in October Sarah had a high dose of chemo followed by a bone marrow transplant.  After that, there were a lot of restrictions she had to abide by--for 100 days.  Some of those were, no fresh fruits or veggies besides ones with thick skins like oranges and bananas.  No restaurant food.  When we served food here at home, she had to be served first, before any germs could get mixed in.  She had to have her own boxes and baggies of things like chips, cereal, and even her own juice and milk containers!  (Yeah, we thought many of the restrictions were pretty silly...)  She couldn't be out in public places, and if it was necessary for her to be, then she had to wear a mask.  We didn't let anyone over who was sick or who had been exposed to someone who was sick.  There were a lot of annoying, some of them a bit over the top, but some of them wise...restrictions.  We stuck to them really well at first, and then as time wore on we started being a little lax on some of them, but many of them we really tried to follow religiously until the very end.

And, TODAY IS THE VERY END!!  TODAY IS DAY 100!!!!  : ) 

We celebrated by going to eat at Steak n Shake where Cassandra works.  It was the first day in 100 days that we took Sarah to a restaurant.  Actually, I was gone earlier in the day, and Scott took everyone out to lunch also.  It was a day to celebrate! 

So here's what's next--

On Monday she gets one more dose of a medicine she needs through her tubees, and then later that same day, she GETS HER TUBEES OUT!!  You have no idea how huge this is!  Those tubees (her central line tubes going into her chest) have been part of Sarah's life since June.  She has had very few tub baths since then, since it is important not to get them wet.  She wasn't able to go in the water all summer, and it's her favorite thing!  Now, she does really love getting her 'tubees drinks' every day (when we flush them with the saline solution), and she loves watching the nurse take blood through them and everything.  But frankly, I will be so happy to say bye bye to the tubees.  I hope she will be too!

In about a week and a half she will get a blood draw just to make sure that her blood counts are all perfectly high enough, and if they are, then we will not have to return to the clinic for...Wait for it....

3 MONTHS!

Yes.  We will only have to come back to the clinic for blood draws and MRI's every three months--just to make sure nothing is growing anywhere. (So, please, if God brings us to mind, could you please continue to pray?  The other night Josh said, "I am afraid that now that Sarah's better, everyone will forget to pray for her." )  We will still have to go to Dr. Aaberg's for eye exams under sedation about every month or so, I think, for a little while more, and then those appointments will start stretching out too.

It feels so surreal to me to be where we are in this journey.  To think that we are at the end of restrictions, daily tube flushes, weekly appointments, and medical jargon being part of our daily life.  Just imagining only going to the clinic every three months seems so crazy to me.  To be honest, it makes me a little sad, because we really love those doctors, nurses and staff.  They become like family, and we miss them!  But, oh how nice it will be to have weeks at a time to enjoy with the family.  To go places and have normal experiences again because there is TIME.  We will have uninterrupted weeks of school!  Aaaahhh...I am sighing with happiness.  The new normal will be very nice.  I just have to remind myself that we will still be seeing our friends at the hospital, just not all the time.  : ) 

It also feels sooo wonderful to really be done with cancer.  I hope if you are new to my blog, that you will go back in the archives and read the story starting in June.  I know it's a lot.  You can skim it, or just read the high lites.  But this story is so ripe with everything that is God.  From start to finish, God was there, making His presence known in a BIG way.  You simply cannot wave it all aside as coincidence.  Just seeing how He brought her here at just the right time,  gave her a family to comfort her through it, said pooey on the doctors who gave her no hope, and brought her through with flying colors time and again...it's a wonderful story of God's amazing love. 

We are aware that the type of cancer Sarah had is a type that has a higher chance than some others of coming back.  It also has a higher chance of coming back at some time later in her life as a different form of cancer.  Of course I will probably always have this in the back of my mind.  But we do not really worry about these things.  We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has it covered.  Just as He always does, He will do what is right, and only allow what He knows will be the best for her and for us.  It is such a comforting way to go through life, knowing that God does not waste anything.  He uses everything for our good, and for His glory.  If Sarah had to go through this again sometime in her life, then we would simply trust Him again.  We are praying and trusting that this will be the end, though!

 Catching snowflakes!

 Nerf wars.  All part of life with brothers. : )

 Girl time with Doodah (Cassandra)  : )

 She was really excited about this new ladybug beanbag!

 Her new big girl bed

 This wig cracks us up!

 Doing school

 Learning about rocks with brothers--Pumice stones float! 

 Playing ninjas

 Hanging out with Josh

Tea parties with friends : )

Sarah is one little girl who is completely full of LIFE!  We are so thankful that God has blessed us with her, and that He has blessed her in so many ways.  We know He has such big plans for our little Sarah!

Sarah's exam with Dr. Aaberg

In June we were told by Dr. Aaberg that our precious Sarah had cancer.  Not only did she have cancer, but it was really bad.  He was sure it had spread to her brain and spinal fluid.  He gave us very little hope if any, and the expression on his face said it all.  We felt hopeless--and helpless.  He told us later that he was so upset that night, he hardly slept at all.

This morning Dr. Aaberg examined our precious Sarah again.  We waited in the waiting room talking about the journey we have been on, and speculating about what the next leg of the journey would look like.  We prayed, and we trusted, and we knew that God is sovereign.  His way is always best, and we would trust Him come what may! 

Dr. Aaberg came out to see us, and the first words out of his mouth were-- there's NOTHING!   I thought he meant her eye was still not dilated, and he could not get a good look yet.  But I was wrong.  He really meant NOTHING!  There was NOTHING IN THERE!

Dr. Aaberg was the bringer of bad news, but today he brought the best news we ever could have hoped for!!

Sarah is Free of Cancer!!!

I can't begin to tell you, dear friends how it feels to get this kind of news.  To be on this journey for 6 months, and then hear that it is done.  We are simply praising God with everything we have in us!  It was Him who picked out Sarah for our family.  It was Him who brought her to us.  It was Him who provided all the care she needed...Him who bolstered our faith...Him who helped her to sail through with virtually no symptoms--laughing all the way along!  It was Him who got us through the high dose of chemo and the bone marrow transplant, and Him who got her out of the hospital in record time.  It was Him who healed our girl, and all the glory goes to Him!  He loves our little Sarah so much.  We rejoice in our great God!  Our loving heavenly Father!

And Dr. Aaberg had a pretty great day too. : )

There's no place like HOME!

FRIDAY WAS THE DAY!! After what our nurse said was probably the fastest discharge after a BMT at our hospital EVER, we were strapping our Sarah into her carseat and heading out of the parking lot on Friday afternoon. I looked over at Scott and said, "Wow, we are on the other side of the bone marrow transplant!" That's a pretty weird feeling after gearing up for it and being in the middle of it for what seems like such a long time. And it's a pretty great feeling too, let me tell you!

Sarah is doing great! She still is not eating as much or as many different things as she normally does, and we are trying to get her to drink more so she can get off fluids at night...but other than that, things seem pretty well back to normal with her! Isn't it amazing how God has made our bodies to bounce back after something so traumatic? Especially children? We are praising His Name. : )

Last night was my first night in my own wonderful bed, and I sure loved it. : ) And I slept in. And slept in some more. And I loved that too. : ) And then after I woke up, I lay there for quite a while, just relaxing and praying. Mmmmmmm... : ) Are you noticing a smiley face pattern in this post???

We all had a good day. You can tell Sarah is so comfy and happy here at home. There's just nothing like it, is there?

Here are some pictures of our reunion with the brothers at the Renucci House, and then when we got home.

 With Cassandra on her first day unattached from the machines, and she could go out of the room!

 We took a field trip with Rhys down to the security office to get Sarah her own doctor badge!

 Brothers came to the Renucci House and had a great time with their sister.  Happy reunion!

 They love her so much. : )

 Big hugs. : )

 We are home!!!!

 They laughed and played most of the day today.  Such precious kids I have. : )

 Ben loves to play  Sarah's favorite songs for her.  He figures them out himself!

 More silly fun with those brothers!

 This face says it all. : )

Praise the Lord.  He is so good.  All the glory goes to HIM!!!

Speeding towards home!

I will catch you all up on the latest...

Sarah's white blood cell count was in the 6000's  today, and she is considered engrafted--which means her bone marrow blood making factory is up and running!  What this means is, we are in high gear getting our house ready for Sarah to come home.  If you missed my original bone marrow transplant post, one of the biggest deals about this whole thing is that our house has to be completely spotless as much as we can get it before she comes home.  The goal is to rid the house of germs and dust as much as we can.  Even though she has plenty of white blood cells, they may be too immature to fight off some infections, so she will still have many restrictions until the end of January.

So, the duct cleaners came today, some precious friends have a duct cleaning business, and they came and did it for us on the spot!  The carpets will all be cleaned tomorrow, and I have some wonderful ladies with servants' hearts coming tomorrow to help me CLEAN!  Oh my, we were so stressed, but now we are feeling more in control. 

The other big news is, Sarah got to leave this room today!  She wore a mask, and we went on a little field trip with Rhys (remember when I told you about him?) down to see the lady who makes the ID badges that all the docs and nurses wear.  Sarah loves those things and always snags them from the nurses who come in, so she got to get her picture taken, and get her very own.  It says, Dr. Sarah, Main Big Wig of the BMT. (Bone Marrow Transplant) : )   Then we took another walk around the halls later to show off her new badge to everyone.

She is doing fantastic!  She is eating and drinking and apart from a little runny nose and a bit of left over tummy issues, feeling fine.  Our BMT nurse this morning again told me how completely awesome she is doing compared to all the other kids.  She calls Sarah her little superstar!  But we all know who the REAL SUPERSTAR is!!  And Sarah just got to be on the receiving end of His Super Powers. : )  That same nurse said Sarah is being discharged faster than ANY BMT patient she has seen.  Only 3 weeks and we are done!

Today marks 3 weeks, and tomorrow we leave this hospital room!  We actually could have gone home on Thursday, but since the carpets are just getting cleaned tomorrow, they want them to air out for a couple of days before she comes, so we are going to stay in the hospital "hotel" until Friday.  I think that is going to be kind of fun.  The boys were so cute today, so excited for her to come home soon!

So, once more let me tell you what God did......

He allowed Sarah to get this treatment (even if it has awful side effects) that she needed.

He let her have fun and no symptoms in the hospital for 6 days before things started to get bad.

She only had 5 bad days.

We prayed for no mouth sores.  She got only one when the other kids normally have lots of them.  One nurse I talked to said in all her years of seeing BMT kids, she only saw ONE that did not get mouth sores.  When I heard her say that, I knew it was possible...and it WAS with GOD!  That other kid probably had lots of people praying for him too.  I'm really not sure why God did let her get one.  But even that one wasn't very bad. 

There were no complications during the time her counts were low.  No infections, no trouble with her other organs, or any of the other scary things that could have happened.

When her counts started coming back up, she was back to herself in about a day, already eating pizza.: )

She is seemingly unaffected by the whole ordeal.  She is such a precious treasure.  I am totally not kidding.

And the hidden gem in all of this to me personally is that I was able to have all of this time with Sarah all to myself.  In my busy life with several kids, there just is not a whole lot of time to focus on just one of them for hours and hours.  And I was thinking tonight as I played, read, sang, watched videos, and cuddled with Sarah, how truly thankful I am for this part of it.  I am just so thankful to my Lord and Savior and best Friend-- for everything I mentioned up there, and for giving me the beautiful gift of being Sarah's mother.  He has shown Himself faithful every step along the way, in so many ways.  Most of them too personal to even try to explain.  If you know Him, then you probably know what I'm talking about.  And if you don't know Him, then I hope you will soon. 

Thank you each of you who has prayed for us.  And please don't stop if the Lord brings us to mind.  We still won't know for a little while if the chemo accomplished what it was supposed to do, and we can all pray for good results, as well as smooth sailing as we transition our girl home with a still immature immune system.

Good night from the hospital for probably the last time...hopefully forever!!  Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

      With big sis, Cassandra on her first day not attached to machines!

Getting ready to get her picture taken for her dr. badge with Rhys.  First she needed to check out his cool watch. : )

Lucky girl???

Here are some of the comments I've heard lately:

She sure is a lucky girl!

I've heard Sarah is just sailing right through this!

I think someone should write a book about Sarah called, "How to behave in a BMT (bone marrow transplant) room.  (The doctor said this, and he was talking about how she continued to take her medicines and things the whole time.  None of the other kids ever are able to do that.)

Wow!  Most kids have so many mouth sores they just drool all the time!

I can't believe how well she is doing!

Maybe by the middle to the end of this week you will be able to go home.

She is doing amazingly well!


Sooo...remember in my last post a couple of days ago when I said as soon as Sarah was feeling better I would probably cry with joy all day??  Well, today I came pretty close to doing just that!  Although really more than crying I felt like singing!  I had the old GLAD song, "Glory to God in the Highest" in my head all morning.  The acoustics in this room are really great, and it was all I could do to stop myself from bursting out in song--especially when I was in the shower!  But as much as I do want to shout to the world how good God is, I didn't want anyone hauling me away in a straight jacket or anything.  ; ),

The news is...Sarah's counts starting really going up yesterday.  Today her white blood cell count is 1300, with an ANC of over 700.  That's the number they give the body's estimated ability to fight infection.  Over 500 is good.  So, we are all pretty ecstatic!  If it stays up for 2 more days, Sarah gets to leave the room, get visits from brothers, etc.  And if all continues to go well, we might get to leave next week!  That is less than the average stay of 4 weeks.  Oh, I hope that is what God has in mind!!  Before she leaves, she has to be eating on her own.  Yesterday she already ate about 6 or 7 bites of pizza!  Today nothing yet, but she has been drinking more. 

Sarah only had one mouth sore and only 5 bad days.  And as bad as they were, sadly, most kids have it even worse.  I talked to one dad of a little girl Sarah's age who did this over the summer.  She had mouth sores so bad, that she didn't talk or eat for 3 weeks. : (  What a horrible thing this strong chemo business is, but yet, God has chosen for it to be the way some people are healed.  I can only hope that the havoc it wreaked on Sarah's little body is wreaking the same havoc and worse on those cancer cells' hineys!! 

Sarah is doing so well, and she is pretty much sailing through, and it is amazing!!  Yesterday and today she is playing, smiling, and even laughing!  But is she lucky?  No way!  Luck has nothing to do with it, folks.  Our great and mighty God has His hand on Sarah.  He mercifully kept her time of pain and discomfort short--I know it was because so many are praying!  And I think it is because He has special mercy on this sweetheart who has gone through so much in her very short life.  God is so good.  I just praise His name!

Our prayer requests now are that she will still not get sick, that she will start eating regularly, and of course that the tumor is going to be GONE.  And as Sarah would say, "Thank you very much!"
 

So Happy...

Sorry it's been a few days...This new life is interesting.  At the hospital it's pretty quiet and slow.  But I can't really blog at the hospital because of the computer I have there.  Then I come home and it's a rush to see how much I can fit into the few hours I have here.  Blogging doesn't always make the cut!

But I can't even begin to tell you how ecstatic I am at how Sarah is doing.  We have prayed and we have trusted.  God loves to answer our prayers when they fall into accordance with His Will, and He is definitely answering our prayers!!  Every day I wake up and wonder if this will be the day that Sarah feels bad/ gets mouth sores/ stops eating/ stops talking/ all of the horrible things they said that we can expect--things that every child going through this procedure has to go through.  But still, thus far, Sarah's appetite is down, and sometimes she is a little cranky (pretty much just when she's tired, though), but the doctors and nurses are amazed by how well she is handling all of this!  Pretty much she is still our Sarah, loving life as much as she can. : )

Yesterday was the big day!  Stem cell transplant day!  Really it was anti-climactic.  Scott and I weren't even there when she had it.  (Cassandra was there.)  The whole thing takes about 20 minutes.  They simply put her stem cells in an IV bag, and they go into her broviac tubes just like all her chemo, medicines, blood products when she needs transfusions, etc.  And those stem cells get to work making new bone marrow.  I just have to throw something in right here....

Just sit and meditate on that for a minute.  Sit and read a book about the body and meditate on it for a while sometime. Seriously, isn't it a MIRACLE what the human body can do??  The next time you get a cut, watch it day by day as it heals.  Imagine bones healing.  The liver can become whole when there is just a part.  Think about the immune system.  (Be thankful for it, by the way!!)  Your white blood cells and antibodies are cruising around your body this minute ready to attack anything that is not supposed to be there.  This amazing healing power is only one of countless miraculous functions of the human body.  When I remember that many people think our bodies just slowly evolved that way...they sure have a lot of faith.  Faith in the great power of Time and Chance.  Hmmmmm...

ANYWAY, so Sarah got her cells back, and that means the countdown is on until we will be able to get out of the hospital!  No, we don't know when that will be yet.  We have to see when her blood cell counts start going up.  She got her first red blood cell transfusion today.  Isn't that another pretty cool thing?  That if we need blood, we can simply use someone else's??  Some of these things that we are so used to in this age of medical marvels really are amazing when you stop and think about it.  I never get tired of being amazed by things. : )

So, praise the Lord with me, because He has been so good to us!  And please keep praying that our baby continues to see good days. 

And here she is having fun when she is "supposed" to be lying around...

 Light finger, she calls it : )

Putting on her froggy hugs..

 Ready to play!

 Jumping!

 Bowling in my cute, new froggy jammies from Cassandra

I think I'll have better chances if I use two balls. : )

I'll give you another update again soon!

MRI results!

Today we were able to view both of Sarah's MRI scans--the one taken on June 2, the day after diagnosis, and the one taken on July 15. After only two rounds of chemotherapy, the tumor in her right eye which was so large it filled up her entire eye socket and was beginning to stretch back into her optic nerve and had looked like this-- Remember, her normal eye on that side is very small...

That tumor has shrunk down to only about 1 cm in diameter and now looks like this from the outside--

The oncologist on call today was telling us that oncologists typically do not get overly optimistic about MRI results, I guess because they don't want to get everyone's hopes up. But he said that our doctor, Dr. Smith, was so excited when she saw the scan results. Unusually excited! And we heard that when the scans were complete, the radiologist put a note on the second one with a label that said "Second MRI--supposedly without surgery." As if he couldn't even believe it! We are so thankful to God for getting us this far with such wonderful results. Everything has gone so well, including Sarah's body's reaction to some pretty strong chemotherapy.
The tumor board and all drs. involved are going to review her case soon, and decide from there the next course of action. She has one more scheduled round of chemo, and she also needs to have her small, blind eye (that had the huge tumor) removed, and the two small tumors in her good eye removed if the chemo does not take care of them. (So far the chemo hasn't shrunk them much. We were told it is because it is more difficult for the chemo to shrink this type of tumor.) So, they will be deciding what will be the best timeline to get all of these steps done.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. God is so  good, and we give Him all the glory!

June 18 facebook post:

Finally I have some time to give you a little update. It's late, but I get to SLEEP IN tomorrow in my own comfy bed. : )


I will start by saying, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for praying!! Also, thank you to so many who have brought meals, sent cards, brought gifts, or are just willing to help. We are so grateful to you.


So, in case anyone didn't notice my last few statuses, we were able to finally come home today after 2 weeks and 3 days. Hearing Sarah's diagnosis of cancer was by far the darkest day we've ever encountered, but things only got brighter from there. Every test has come back with good results, chemo is working amazingly well, she tolerated the chemo well, and today they did a procedure called a stem cell harvest where they took stem cells from her bone marrow to transplant back into her later when she will likely need them. That went better than planned too. The only bit of a scary time was when she got a fever after her chemo treatment, but it turned out it was just from an ear infection that cleared up in a day with antibiotics. God is so good!! And it seems to be even better than that. When we first talked with Sarah's oncologist in charge of her care, she told us basically that we shouldn't get our hopes up about saving her eyesight in her good eye. She only gave us a 60% chance of survival for Sarah and saving eyesight was something they would try to do, but of course the focus would be on saving her life. Well, as time went by we could see how much that tumor in her blind eye was shrinking. I asked one of the oncologists on the team if they were as encouraged by the progress as we were. She said definitely, yes. The tumor board met and discussed Sarah's case, and they are very encouraged, and they are optimistic about saving her eyesight!


Many people ask how we are doing, and most assume that we are pretty sad about all of this. Well, I can honestly say that we were at first. We were given some heartbreaking news, and not a very good prognosis. That 60% survival rate the doctor gave us was the chance she thought Sarah would have, even if the cancer was not in the brain, spinal fluid or bone marrow! I'm not sure why that was the number she came up with, but there it was. So, we were left thinking, "Okay, that's what you think, but GOD can do anything, and He doesn't care about statistics!" We chose to trust God day by day. And as we put our trust in Him, our devastation started melting away bit by bit. The atmosphere on that children's oncology floor is optimistic and hopeful. Most people you see have smiles on their faces. It's a feeling of whipping cancer, not succombing to it. And as we have seen good news upon good news, we are not devasted at all anymore. I don't feel like crying anymore. I feel really happy at how well things are going, and so happy about how God is working in and through this. It also really helps that for the most part Sarah's discomfort is very minimal. If she was hurting a lot, that would be very hard on us, of course.


We are not naive about what could happen. But we completely trust God. We believe He will heal our Sarah. Whatever happens, we will trust Him! So, we are home for a week! Sarah has an appointment on Monday with the specialist to do a complete eye exam under sedation. I can't wait to hear what he has to say. Then on Friday we go back for round 2 of chemo, but this time we will only have to stay in the hospital for two nights. We will be home for the "count recovery" time, when her blood cell counts are low, and climbing back up. We will appreciate your prayers especially during that time. I have more to say about this and that, but I will save it for next time. We love and appreciate you all so much for taking the time to care about us! You are wonderful examples of God's love!!

I posted this on June 6:

I thought I would let you all know that after two nights of chemo, Sarah is doing great! She has had NO ill effects from the chemo, and the dr. said this would be the time she would be feeling neauseous. (I am not talking about low blood counts. It is almost inevitable that that will happen. It just hasn't happened yet.) She is eating well, and smiling and laughing like normal, as long as she has her wonderful pain meds. Her pain is from the tumor pushing in her eye, so when it starts shrinking, that pain should start going away.


God is seriously working already. We can feel Him holding us up, and Sarah is feeling so well, that it really makes it easier. We are having so much fun with our little sweetheart. Although, spending almost entire days with a toddler is tiring, we are so thankful for this time we can spend with her alone without having to clean, cook, do school or tend to the boys. (But I do miss my boys!! Can't wait to see them!!) So, please do not stop praying! God is hearing and answering!! love, Holly