Our life is nothing short of an adventure...

Wind in our hair and screams of delight but also unpredictable turns and unknown outcomes. We are a family of six; Dave, Susie, Nate, Jake, Sam, and Bella.

God has been faithful in our marriage and through the birth and blessings of our boys.

God has been faithful during our adoption journey and united Bella with us in May of 2008. We were privileged to visit with Bella's birth mother; therefore, Bella's family in Guatemala will always be dear to our hearts.

On October 16, 2008, Bella was diagnosed with ALL Leukemia. We are now battling the disease with 2 years and 3 months of treatment. We believe God will continue to be faithful!

Our family is committed to living life to the fullest...even on the hard days. Thank you for checking in and journeying with us!


Thursday, April 23, 2009

Finally the Park and Maintenance!








Yes...it's true, we received official word on Monday that Bella will begin 1 1/2 years of Chemo maintenance on Monday the 27th! I find it interesting that Monday is also the one year anniversary of the day we left to pick Bella up for good. We will begin the day with a physical for Bella, discussion on what maintenance will entail and then she will have another spinal tap and chemo. Maintenance will still involve chemo, but not as often. By mid June, we will go from twice a week apt's to once a month with a few blood counts in between. According to our nurse, our life will start to resume a little more normalcy. Dave and I are just so thrilled to have the toughest part behind us, Bella is so herself again, strong, happy, laughing and walking. It's good to be "normal" again.

Today, I was finally able to take Bella to the park. She has not had any chemo for 2 weeks now, so I took advantage of her normal blood counts and we spent some time climbing and swinging. I just feel so incredibly blessed and hugged by God to have had this last year with Bella. I am not sure what our life would have been like with out Leukemia her first year home, but I do know that God gave me back all the time I lost with her when she was in Guatemala.

Today is our 1 year anniversary of receiving our PINK from US Embassy....will post more later today.







17 comments:

Jaimee said...

Yahoo for maintenance! And Happy 1 year anniversary of receiving pink. She looks so beautiful and happy swinging at the park.

Alex and Sam said...

what fantastic news!!!!!! bella must LOVE being outside playing...happy one year pink anniversary... cant wait for more pics

alex

~ Lisa @ AbidingThere~ said...

She is as adorable as ever! Great news - so glad things are going well :)

Jack said...

Awesome news! We keep you in our prayers! Bella you are adorable!

Vanessa said...

Glad to hear things are looking up! My prayers are still with your family!

Cheri said...

Last year I was saying CONGRATULATIONS to you and feel it is only fitting to feel that way today. So, so happy for you that life will start feeling a little more normal. God is GREAT. PINK, PINK, PINK....that was our mindset last year. I think I called you from Guatemala. You know I love having days to celebrate....April 23 could be our PINK day and we could wear PINK each year. Let me know. Love.

Joe and Erin said...

Big PTL for Bella! She look so good, Sus! Love ya

Anonymous said...

PTL to bella!

Happy forever family day!(SOON)

She looks sooo good in purple!

hugs,leslie

nikki said...

Wonderful news. So happy the worst phase of treatment is behind Bella. She looks so precious playing and having fun in the park!

Heather said...

What a beautiful day and a beautiful God we have!Maintenance is not so bad either!!

Robyn said...

Wonderful news!! Happy Pink Anniversary!!

Becky said...

She is so, so sweet! And HOORAY for maintenance! You're in our prayers.

Stacy said...

YAY! We are so happy for Bella to be moving on to maintenance! She is such a doll! Can you believe it's been a year? What a year it has been ~ huh!?! What a relief to be looking back at the past year with the "worst part of chemo" behind you! God is good! We need to celebrate with the girls again soon!

Amanda said...

I'm so in love with that little girl. I know exactly how you feel about that one year thing. Yesterday was our Gotcha! God turns all hard, painful, yucky things into glorious blessings. I'm so glad we're here to raise them, aren't you?

So happy for your family, Susie! Love,
Amanda

The gFamily said...

Thank you God!! I am so glad that the worst is behind you!! So glad you got to spend time at the park and enjoy the swings and slides! I love the pic of Bella peeking out and smiling so big! Beautiful!!!

Mama Bear said...

so incredibly happy to hear how well she is doing and she looks so terrific in that cute little outfit and hat!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Bella's expressions! She is so precious! She just makes me wanna scoop her up and give her lots of hugs and kisses!