Little victories are oh so BIG!!!!

The last few days have been a blur. Actually, let me change that. The last 5 months have been a blur! But, just when you think you can't handle anymore, God gives a breather. This nice breather has come in a few different ways. First, Ansley's vomiting and overall yucky-ness is better today than it has been in 4 days!! She is having a big treat tonight and sleeping in her brothers' room! She hasn't felt like doing much of anything since Saturday. But, today she feels a lot more energetic. Zofran is an amazing drug! Our family was also blessed by the Dickert family. These sweet people brought gifts galore to lavish on our family for an entire month!! It has been so fun to watch Ansley get excited about asking, "I wonder what today's gift is, Momma?" She has already gotten fun stuff that we took to clinic today. Thanks isn't enough to all you sweet Dickert's!!
And, finally, clinic was great today. Ansley's labs were remarkable!!!! In fact, her counts were so good, for the first time since diagnosis, we get a week off of clinic! That means no clinic next week !! We will go the following Wed. for chemo but we have next week off! The little victories are so very big!!
Blessings to all the precious people praying. I am a tired but thankful momma tonight! Continue to plead for healing for our baby girl. We are 5 months down, 7 to go. Psalm 31:24 "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord."

treats

Headed down to clinic with lots of fun treats thanks to the amazing Dickert Family!!!

watch out...ansley is driving!

today's counts

Counts look great!!!!!!!!

Chemo has been ordered!!!!!!!

hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!

clinic day

Back at clinic - pray the port access goes well!

Great news!

Ansley is out of surgery and everything went well. Will let you know when we are headed home. Thnx for praying!

Yahoo!!!!!

Today was a great clinic day. We got there at 9:45 and were gone by 11:30! Labs looked great. Her ANC (which is a very important number when you have cancer) was up from 480 2 weeks ago to 2,080 today! This makes surgery a go for Friday. Ansley was energetic all day long. We attempted to eat out tonight with some friends from MUSC. About 20 minutes after arriving, Ansley came up and said, "Mommy, I itch all over and my mouth really hurts. Can we please go home?" Both of those complaints are normal responses to chemo. And so, we got our food to go and headed home. So, so small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. We are thankful that the only rough spots today were itchiness and a sore mouth.

Friday morning will be an early one and our plan is to have a very low key weekend as Ansley recovers from her surgery. Thanks for continuing to ask Our Savior for perfect healing of our little girl. Rejoice with us today! Tomorrow will worry about itself...

Oh what a week!!

We are slowly getting back into the groove of early mornings, homework, laundry, work, cooking and clinic. Words can't really describe what an awesome week we had in Orlando! It was packed full of activities and we give God all the glory for allowing Ansley to feel so energetic. We met some really amazing families at Give Kids the World and I am humbled to see families fighting right along their children suffering with diseases very similar to Ansley's. Give Kids the World is a beautiful place full of hope, joy and fun. We are thankful to everyone who helped raise money through Make a Wish to get us there.

On another note, clinic is tomorrow followed by surgery on Friday to have her 2nd port placed. Please pray that the surgery is uncomplicated and that her body is able to handle another port. We have wonderful doctors and nurses at MUSC and we know God has provided all we need. A momma's heart, though, is a bit fragile at times like this so you can pray for me, too. No matter how many times she goes in for surgery, it never gets easy. This is just not how it's supposed to be. But, for now, this is what life looks like and so we press on.

I wanted to share a sweet, encouraging story with you. Ansley about 2 months ago prayed that God would bring her hair back. And, I was sad to think this request would not be answered any time soon. In the last month, Ansley's hair has begun to grow. She has hair on her head!!! Now, it's not much, but it's hair! Yesterday, Ansley and I were praying and she said, "God, thank you for answering my prayer and giving me hair again." She is seeing God and His faithfulness in the midst of her cancer. I think this taught both myself and Ansley that nothing is too big for God. No, she doesn't have long hair or even much hair, but her prayer is being answered and we are thankful.