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!


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Challenges, Yet Peace




So the first picture is my Nikola, technically my nephew, but when get's home next week, he is all mine! Is he not the cutest little thing? I kid you not, I have the most beautiful 9 nieces and nephews in the world. Everyone of them gorgeous and uniquely perfect, I just love them.

Well, we had a bit of a rough week with Bella's chemo. A couple weeks ago when Bella had a flu bug, she had to have her blood drawn by a different nurse and it was not a happy experience for her. Bella is a child that requires earned trust. So this past week on Monday when they tried to access a vein, she was not thrilled even though it was her regular nurse. Her veins were week from the the flu bug and on top of that, she worked her self up in to a terrible fearful fit. So after 5 poke efforts, they stopped and rescheduled us to come back Thursday. We did, and went through the same thing again, only this time, after 4 pokes, her nurse threw everything done and said "that's it, were done, were putting in a port". Nurse Mary was broken hearted as Nurse John and they quickly made the executive decision that Bella needs a port. They love her dearly and they just don't want to see her suffer needlessly and either do we. So Tuesday afternoon Bella will have minor surgery to have an internal port installed in her chest that will allow the nurses and doctors easy access and no pain for Bella. So, with the benefits of no chemo and no steroids this week, I took Bella took the park and we had a great time playing together on the slides and swings in the 60 degree sunshine. God as always made good of an ugly situation and we have wasted no time enjoying our steroid free princess.

Our oldest Nate is in his high school musical "Cinderella", last night was opening night. We took Bella along and she really did enjoy it, however, every time the lights went out for a scene change she would yell "all done" and you could hear the entire auditorium chuckling. Every time Nate was on stage she would yell "See Nate, See Nate!". Sadly, he did not hear any of it.

We are absolutely loving this Indian Summer week we are having in November, so completely out of the ordinary. The heat has been off and the doors and windows have been open. We took the liberty to put up the Christmas lights as all to soon, the snow flakes will be flying, but oh how we love the snow.

Have a blessed week, again, we so appreciate all the prayers and warm thoughts. God is so faithful and we receive Bella's healing every day!



Friday, November 6, 2009

Before Thanksgiving.....


The Cousins for Trick or Treating


Bella and her cousin Joe Joe



My 3 boys and the Princess



My kids and more cousins!


I thought I should post the remainder of the Halloween pictures. These photos are from Halloween. We had such a great day, we headed over to My Aunt Susie's in the morning and the kids got to see their Great Grandma and several of their second cousins (this is normal, we are so blessed to have this). We then had lunch and naps, visited with Grandparents and then headed over to my brothers for dinner and trick or treat with the cousins. At the end of the night, we piled the kids in one room with the tv, put the babies in bed and left Jake in charge and the four of us did a very amateur make up job, put on our Kiss Costumes and headed out to an adult neighborhood party. Dave and I have been married 18 years and we have dressed up for every Halloween, this years costumes were are absolute favorite. So a good late time was had by all.

Bella is just the most absolutely sweet little girl. She always has been, but with all her talking, she just gets sweeter. I love putting her to bed, she loves to be rocked like a baby and tells me "Night Mommy (not Mama but Mommy, so love that), I love you Mommy", and she say's it with a soft sweet voice. It makes it really hard to leave the room. When referring to herself she say's I and me every time, that amazes me, she is only 2, my boys never did that at this age. She can repeat almost any word you say to her, at least she always tries. She sings her abc's, twinkle twinkle little star, Barnie song (thanks Malae) and its bitsy spider. If you ask her who is in her family, she recites all our names including the dog and will do the same with all of her 12 cousins! Chemo has not stopped this child's development what so ever!

Monday is her once a month intervenious chemo and 5 days of steroids. The good news is, we are closer to being done with treatment. December 22, 2010 is her cutoff day for chemo. We have just a little over a year left and already 1 full year behind us. The majority of ALL Leukemia patients treatment is 2 years 3 months for girls and 3 years for boys. So much victory in such a short time. All Glory to God..."His living Word is alive and active", all we have had to do is speak it and believe it, regardless of current circumstance.

Lastly, my sweet husbands birthday was on Halloween, I have always said, "he's my treat not my trick".

Blessings to all,