Maintenance!

Well, it's official! We have two weeks left in our current phase and then we will begin Maintenance! Lord willing, we will stay on this for the next year and a half of treatment. Maintenance brings many good things to our lives: clinic only once a month (yay!), spinals are only every 3 months, and the treatment is lighter and more gentle.

However, there are some scary things about Maintenance. Mainly the fear of relapsing. The treatment is lighter but with the light treatment comes a possibility of the leukemia returning. As with this whole journey, it's in God's hands and He is faithful!

So...Kari and I have been planning our spring and summer. On her list is the MAKE A WISH TRIP!! WOOHOO! We have been approved and we are waiting for an interview date where they will ask Kari what her wish is. Kari has said that she wants to go to the ocean to swim for a whole week and take her BFFs Macey and Kyndall with her. Chrissy, we have GOT to get you all there!! :)

A few more things on her list: fishing, riding a boat, picnics in the park, planting flowers outside, getting a new bike (she has one picked out at walmart that she is begging for), and a load of other things that I can't remember. Our summer was cut short last year since she was diagnosed July 8th. I'm praying that our spring and summer is all that she hopes it will be!

Kari is doing pretty good right now. Her counts are low but they seem to fluctuate pretty regularly lately. They may be 800 today and 5000 the next??! Malachi is doing very well...he is talking so much now (definitely my child) and it's hilarious to listen to him. He and Kari are getting to that stage where they like to "bicker" about who plays with what toy but, most of the time, they get along great. Malachi adores his big sister and usually lets her get by with whatever. As you can tell by this picture:


She got a new dress and has been wearing it around the house for days since it's too cold to wear it outside right now. She liked it so much she decided to share with her brother. :) Yes, I'm aware that he will NOT like me when he gets older and sees that picture. But it's hilarious.

I like this cartoon my friend, Kelli, sent me the other day:


So true. :)

Some Good News

I apologize for not updating before now! As you can see from the comments on my last post...I'm being harassed to post something! Ha ha!

We've had an interesting couple of weeks. We had a hospital stay this past Sunday night for another fever. We got home late Monday night. Kari is better, just more tired than normal. Her counts are up as well! Thank God!



In my last post I mentioned that I needed prayer for some things I was facing this month. Those things have come and gone and, thank God, He helped me through it! The battle isn't over but He's faithful to see us through each step of the way.

So, Kari has adopted a new coping skill for Clinic visits. She started taking her favorite teddy bear, Cinderella, to Clinic for check ups along with her. Dr. Greenwood and the nurses at Clinic are very good to take care of Cinderella. They even access her port and give her medicine when they do Kari's stuff.




Malachi has also taken to a teddy bear that he helps go to the potty.



We've had a few fun days out with friends. While we were at the mall playing, Kari met her friend Katelynn again and they had a GREAT time. Katelynn (I'm probably spelling your name wrong), thanks for being Kari's friend! She loves you!


For Valentine's Day, the kids and I decided to go out for dinner. After being in the hospital Sunday night and Monday, we rested all day then went to Reno's to eat. The kids were so good and looked quite smashing if I do say so myself! After dinner, we headed to Go Go Gorillas where the kids played for about two hours. Then to Baskin Robbins for ice cream! What a fun night!



EXCITING NEWS!!! The Lymphoma and Leukemia Society has chosen Kari to be their honored hero for 2012! We are so excited and grateful that they chose her. I'll be talking to some of you about getting involved with us this year for the walk and various other events. I think Farmers National Bank will be a great asset to our team. What do you think? Here's a picture of Kari and Jacky Space, the campaign manager for LLS.

She's such a sweetheart and I enjoyed our talk so much! Thanks, Jacky, for choosing our Princess!

On another positive note, I was updated last night on our friend, Heidi, in Alabama! She is now cancer free!! Way to go, Heidi!!

So, here we are...7 months into our Leukemia journey. We've had a few bumps along the way but God has been so very faithful to us. Kari will start MAINTENANCE next month. That is amazing! Also, her hair is growing back so fast that it seems to grow daily. She is so excited and we're hoping for enough hair for Easter to do a small bow instead of a hat. Kari is already looking for her Easter outfit and is excited about the prospect of picking out a bow to match.

As always, thank you for your support and continued prayer for us. We love you so much!