The Best Christmas Gift Ever!!

This year for Christmas, Dave gave me the most amazing gift ever. He created a book from our blog recounting Sarah's early battle with cancer. It is over 100 pages! There were many tears as I paged through this book. What a treasure to have all the memories in book form. So grateful that my hubby knew how much this would mean to me. Can't wait to show everyone!

Alethea's Christmas cards!!

Believe In Tomorrow is an organization that provides exceptional hospital and respite housing services to critically ill children and their families. They do this because they believe in keeping families together during a child’s medical crisis, because being together as a family is critical in the healing process for the sick child. We support this great organization, not because they have given to us, but because they do great things for families who really need help.

This past summer, they did a contest open for all the kids in their program, which includes our kids because of Sarah's sickness. The contest was a drawing contest, in which the winner's picture would be selected to sell as fundraising Christmas cards for BIT. Well, much to our surprise and delight, TWO of Alethea's pictures won the contest. They are the images below:

(note: they added the calligraphy)



These images were put on a Christmas card's, to be sold by Believe in Tomorrow, with all proceeds going directly to support BIT. On the back of the cards it gives acknowledgment to Alethea, age 7, for the drawing. Pretty cool.

Click here to buy some cards of your own if you are interested. Like I said, all proceeds got directly to this great organization. Click here if you want to see them or order some for yourself.

Alethea turns 8!

I can't believe we have an 8 year old! We had such a wonderful time celebrating Alethea's birthday this year. We did many things together as a family and also had a birthday party with some friends as well. I have to say, we had a blast. The girls decorated picture frames, ate pizza, had their nails painted, made ice cream sundaes, had a dance party, and created their own restaurant. It was so fun to watch them all have such a great time together. What a joy it was to celebrate the blessing Alethea is to our family!

Sarah getting in on the nail painting. Lauren was such blessing as she came to help me paint all the girls nails.

Nail salon on the kitchen floor. Each girl girl got her nails painted and had polka dots put on as well. They loved it!

Finished picture frame with the group shot we took at the beginning of the party. Can't wait to show them when they're older. Such a blessing to have such a wonderful group of friends.

Making ice cream sundaes. Alethea's favorite!

DANCE PARTY!!

Back to School

We're back into the school routine again. Both girls have done amazingly well with the school schedule. Going to bed and getting up early is never easy after summer. The girls both love school and their teachers. Here are some pictures from the first day. They both look so grown up. Alethea is in second grade and Mikaela is in first grade this year.

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

So, I'm way late on this, but Sarah celebrated her 3rd birthday on August 22. We have had multiple parties for her. She's been a pretty blessed little girl. It's so fun to see her enjoying life!

Here is the amazing cake that Dave made for Sarah. Yes, Dave. Sarah loves Minnie Mouse and he was determined to bless his girlie. Added to that, he loves watching Ace of Cakes and was loving the idea of trying this for Sarah.

Her new scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Garlick. Not that she can ride it, but she really wants to be doing what the big kids are doing. You've got to love her determination.

Shopping cart from Aunt Jess. Notice her taking care of baby in the front seat. So cute!

Opening gifts from the other kids. They all had very specific ideas of what they wanted to get her.

Enjoying her Elmo cake at Grandma and Grandpa Brewer's house.

Just a quick update on her health. Sarah continues to get treatment at Hopkins once a month. This typically really seems to help her. Unfortunately this last week, she got a virus that set her back considerably in her ability to walk. We had to make an extra trip to Hopkins this last week, and will possibly go back this week as well. These extra treatments just help her get through the time that she is sick with the virus. They really seem to help. There has also been some talk of trying some other drugs in the coming months, but we will see.

IEP

This past Thursday we had our first IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting with the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system. Sarah is a part of MD Infants and Toddlers, which is a division of the Special Education services of the MD Department of Education. This is the program special education are involved with prior to pre-school.

The meeting went great, and each lady that was a part of the meeting was fantastic. Sarah's oncology doctor had written a letter to the board requesting special treatment for Sarah because of her suppressed immune system and susceptability to sickness. The school system agreed, and therefore agreed to have all Sarah's therapy be in-home!! This is really good news, because otherwise, Jen would have to take Sarah to a school for her therapy up to 3 times a week. Not fun. However, now all the therapists will come to our house and work in our own living room!

We are off to Hilton Head, SC for vacation on Tuesday. We are hoping Sarah does well at the beach and enjoys playing in the sand!

I love him!

Ag Farm

Today we went to a class at the Ag Farm. What an amazing place! We had such a fun time.  The girls were able to participate in so many activities. Tug of war, looking for insects in a stream, a water filled relay race, egg toss, and a potato sack race. The most hilarious part of the day was that each team was responsible for taking care of two young goats for the two hours we were at the farm. The kids loved it! Basically we walked the goat on a leash going from each activity, and if we were up for it we could let the goat off the leash and let him run. Since we only had three moms in our group, I had responsibility for one of the goats most of the time. If you know me at all, this was a site! My friend Mieke took a picture, so when I get it I'll be sure to prove that I really did it. We all had an amazing time. I hope since we live so close we'll be able to take advantage of more programs and classes at the farm. 

34 - Happy birthday!!

I always remind Jen that she will always be older than me...and, I like to remind her of that often.

This past year has been a bumpy ride for our family, and it is true to say that this year has hit Jen harder than anyone else in our family. Jen is the one who is at home all day with Sarah, working with OTs, PTs, and all kinds of other therapists. Jen is the one who has to patiently deal with Sarah all day, through all of her irrational behavior. Jen is the one who primarily takes Sarah to Hopkins for her all day infusions. Jen is also the one who takes care of the 3 other kids we have all day, while I'm at work. Considering what Jen does all day long, I look at work like its a vacation. She works much harder than I do!

The kids are SO excited about blessing mom on her birthday. They are literally counting down the days til her birthday. This is just a picture into how much they love their mom!

In asking what we should get mom for her birthday, they each had their own suggestion...which ironically, really identifies something of their personality as well. Caleb was easy...he wanted to get mom candy. I'm sure there is a secret ploy for him to be able to eat the candy himself, but nonetheless, we still got mom her favorite candy (chewy, fruity anything...in this case, swedish fish and chewy jolly ranchers). Mikaela picked an outfit. She walked all over Target and was sizing everything up. She ended up with something nice. Alethea, very thoughtfully, remembered that Jen looked for a book last time they were at the library, but it was checked out. She had the idea of going to Borders to get the book. So we went and bought "My sister's keeper" for Jen to read. I ended up getting her tickets to the American Idol tour at the Verizon Center. Jen's hooked on that show big time.

The kids also wanted to make Jen a cake. I think this was partially motivated by one of our favorite shows called "Ace of Cakes". They were inspired and off we went. All three agreed that mom's favorite colors were green and orange. Then Alethea drew up the master plans for the cake.


So, this was our goal. We scaled it back a bit to 3 tiers, and went for it...






Caleb was pretty much good for nothing but licking the bowl of icing. That kid is a total goof ball.

...in the end, we achieved our goal close enough.




On the morning of her birthday, she'll wake up to this cake, her presents, and her favorite breakfast.

Happy birthday babe! I love you, the kids love you, and we are grateful for everything you do for our family!

Dave

Happy Father's Day!

    I don't even know where to begin. Dave is such an amazing father! The way he balances loving, caring, training, and correcting is provoking. I want to be more like him. He totally has our kids hearts. They run to him the minute he walks in the door. They just love to be with him. And who wouldn't? He is so much fun!! The guy can make any regular activity seem like it's the best thing ever. Most importantly though, he instills in them a love for God and the church. For that, I am grateful. 

    I never would have guessed what the last year and a half would hold for us. I can say this though. I am so grateful that I get to walk through this trial with Dave by my side. He listens to me, cries with me, challenges me, and loves me. And oh boy, does he love Sarah. The way he cares for her is so sweet to watch. She and all the kids are so blessed to have a Dad like him. Here's just a glimpse of all the fun things Daddy does...

Living your childhood through your kids

Its pretty funny how that works, how your kids end up liking and doing the same things that you did when you were little. Its probably because we buy them things (and do things) that we loved so much when we were kids. I think I like some of these things more than my own kids do!

Here's a couple examples:

Caleb's love for baseball and for the O's! I must admit, I've trained him hard in this. Notice the jacket in this picture? It was mine when I was his age. My mom kept it all these years, and now I've passed it on to him.



Big wheels! Man, our neighborhood big wheel crew terrorized our street with big wheels. My mom got one for Caleb, and he loves it. Brings back tons of memories for me.








The girls just finished up another year of soccer. They did really great and loved it. Their team color was orange, which reminded me of when I played, because my team color for "Kings Contrivance" was always purple. Its funny the things I remember, like my team color, and all the practices with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Pollock at Atholton ES.
There are lots of other childhood things we've passed on to our kids...matchbox cars and tracks, peanut butter play dough...

Sarah update:
Sarah recently finished up a new protocol for a drug called Rituximab (as Jen mentioned in an earlier post) and is now back to receiving IVIG. This is the drug that helps her movement the best. She still shakes a lot, but is a fighter in every sense of the word. She hasn't ever let her muscle tremors stop her from doing anything she wants!

She is starting to talk a little bit more too. The muscle disorder effects her speech a bit. She is putting 3-4-5 word sentences together, which is really cool to watch develop!

Jen continues to be an amazing mom to Sarah and the other kids. Sarah needs oversight and watching pretty much 24/7...which makes it pretty hard to do stuff during the day. But, somehow, she makes it all work and manages to go on walks, go to the pool, go strawberry picking, etc...
No wonder Jen wants to go to bed at 8pm every night!