Why I am Grateful Today

Labor Day (and September 7th) marked the 2 year anniversary of day our blissful life was jarred with the news that Ella's belly pain and fever was more than just a virus, not the appendicitis we had feared, but a nasty cancerous tumor growing on her kidney.
Yesterday as I washed dishes I listened to my girls, full of giggles,  playing in the living room and was overwhelmed with gratefulness to God for all the blessings I see as I look back to this time 2 years ago.

- Ella's 1st complaint of belly pain and a low fever happened on the day Greg and I were leaving for Ethiopia to bring Biniyam home (6 weeks before diagnosis.)  What if the tumor had been found then, how would we have gotten Biniyam? And what if it had been found while we were in Ethiopia? Oh, I can't imagine how hard it would have been to be so far from her at that time!

- The fact that  Ella got her fever and lethargy on a holiday expedited her diagnosis because we brought her to her the ER.  Had it been a regular week day I would have called her pediatrician, maybe got an appointment that day, maybe been asked about constipation and told to watch her. Either way Greg would not have been there, and we needed him with us!

- The most vividly painful moment for me was in the emergency room at Children's when the oncologist came to admit her and told us that the first place that the cancer would metastasizes would be to her lungs. I remember reaching and grabbing Greg's hand and I don't know if I said it out loud or only with my eyes, but my thought was that it was in her lungs.  She had complained twice that week of pain in her upper chest, pointed to her lungs and said it "it hurts here" and I had thought it was weird, not a usual place for a kid to complain about, but cancer, no, that wasn't even a thought that passed through my mind,  I had told her she must have pulled a muscle. Yet in the ER when the doc mentioned mets to the lungs the fear gripped me, her complaints made sense.  I am so grateful that I can say that those were the worst 24 hrs of my life thus far, because once we received the CT results, then ultrasound results and finally biopsy results, the news kept getting better.

I truly believe that a miracle took place the night we entered the ER and people across the country began to pray for Ella. I believe that our prayers were answered and that Ella's tumor was shrunk back to a stage 1.

Thank you Lord!

We also rejoice in this, that last week when we went to children's for Ella to get an ultrasound and x-ray everything came back clean and healthy.  Praise the Lord!

Ella doesn't realize the significance of this week, so if you asked her about life she'd most likely tell you that she (finally!) lost her first tooth!

or that she was a summer superstar reader

Or that there are fairies living in the fairy garden that she, Mekdes, and Nana planted last week! 

 Or the biggest news, That today Ella started 1st grade!!

 Ella was a bit nervous about starting 1st grade, even though she goes to a montessori school and 9 out of the 10 kids in her class went to kindergarten with her.

 What did Ella think of 1st grade? "I LOVE it!"

Oh Ella, what a joy you are to us and what a blessing it has been this summer to see your kind and generous heart towards your new sister

1 Year Cancer Free!

One Year!!! It feels like a very big milestone for us that Ella has reached her one year FREE from cancer, chemo and her pesky port.  Praise God!  I love being past the one year mark for many reasons but among them are that we know recurrence is most likely to happen around 10 months, and it didn't.  We also know that recurrence which happens after one year has a better overall prognosis.
We had her appointment at children's 2 weeks ago (yes, behind in my blogging as usual)
 Ella's wonderful nurse practitioner, stated "everything looks great" as she walks through the door to begin our appointment, I love that she never makes us hold our breath for a moment longer than we need to as we anticipate with uncertainty the results.  Ella had had a week of complaining of stomach pain since her last scans.  That week was also accompanied by a fever.  The fever was probably due to her cold/cough and the stomach pain to constipation but it wrenches our guts, the deja vu of those complaints and my rationalizing them.   I spend a lot of time praying "Lord if this is something we need to know about make it clear to us, if it is nothing make it go away completely!" Meanwhile charting her every trip to the bathroom and giving her a laxative. Her complaints and fever went away completely.
Look at this girl, hard to believe she ever had cancer.

an outfit we found in a Souk in Dubai, in the second photo check out Bini, our little mimic wants to show off his belly too. 

Rockin' the good health

Ella ready for a daddy-daughter date

9 months since chemo ended and this girl is a superstar of health! This week we went to Children's for them to check her out and gratefully we were told that there is no evidence of disease, she looks great.  Of course they didn't tell us that until 2 hours after they'd taken 3 extra x-rays and left us wondering what they'd seen.  The other scare we had related to her health happened in September I brought her to her regular dr's to catch up on immunizations and mentioned that she'd been complaining of right leg pain.  After the dr checked Ella's leg she spoke to me in that too calm voice and told me it wasn't Ella's leg, it was her hip and that they would get an x-ray and I should probably also talk to her oncologist.  I spent about 2 hrs with my stomach in knots thinking we could be right back in this again but this time in her bone? We waited for the x-ray results and thankfully it showed nothing abnormal.  Two days later Ella couldn't put any pressure on her right leg so I talked with the oncologist.  I was to keep an eye on her and if it didn't go away or got worse in a week they'd do an MRI.  Praise God it completely resolved in a few days.  Tis' our life for the next 4yrs 3 months,  going along just fine and then some odd symptom makes us wonder if we're back "in a ding" (Ella's phrase for going through something unpleasant-like chemo)
Otherwise Ella has been doing great.  She's only had one runny nose this fall, which is amazing testament to her strong immune system!