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!!