Finally!!! We Have a Working Button!!!

Okay.....another try at posting this button correctly. It looks right on my preview but will it look right when I hit "publish post" ...that is the question of the day.

Thank you so much to Kele from Giles family of 5 and Adrienne from Our Unexpected Journey who worked so hard to make this button. Now if everyone could please post it on their blog so that little Emily's face will be seen everywhere and people will remember to pray for her. Tomorrow (Thursday) is the day they will go in and get started on this big battle to beat leukemia. Please remember to visit their blog regularly to offer your support!!! Just click on the picture below to get there.

<center> <a href="http://livinglifewithes.blogspot.com/"> <img src=" http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww352/sophblitz/emilybutton.png" /></a></center>

Button For Emily

Can someone PLEASE tell me how to put the little box under it with the code so that everyone can copy and paste this code to their blogs. I really want to get her face out there so that everyone can start praying.

DAMN LEUKEMIA!!!!!

Leukemia has struck yet another member of our Ds community. But little does it know what it is up against. Little Emily is one tough cookie with parents who have a strong faith in God and a huge army across this nation and beyond who are already praying for her. Just like Ella before her diagnosis, Emily's doctor has been watching her blood closely for a few months because it started to show some anomolies. She frequently had low platelets and in the last month or so, her Dr. started to see some leukemia cells showing up in her blood. Another bone marrow biopsy was done yesterday and it showed that there were now enough leukemia cells present to officially diagnose her with AML (the same type of leukemia that Ella has). She will be admitted to the hospital on thursday to get her central line put in and then she will start chemo on friday.

Oh how I wish this precious Angel didn't have to go through this, but I am so thankful that her parents have such a positive attitude about it. It truly makes all the difference in the world. Please go to her blog and read the amazing post that her mother did in regards to this new journey they are about to set out on. You will be amazed at her faith. http://livinglifewithes.blogspot.com/ Please let this family know that you are there to support them. I can't tell you how much it helps me to have so many people supporting us!!

PLEASE PRAY FOR A SMOOTH START FOR EMILY THIS WEEK AS IT WILL BE THE HARDEST!! Isn't she just the most beautiful little girl you have ever seen?



Can anyone either help me with or tell me how to make a button? I want to get this face out there for everyone to pray for!!

Round 4 Chemo Is Done!!!

Chemo finished yesterday around 5pm and they immediately unhooked her from the IV since she is doing a good job of drinking her bottles. I didn't realize how hard it was to have her attached to the IV pole until we got to go for our first walk FREE of all wires!! As you can see from the pics below, she had a WONDERFUL time!! Thankfully she only had that one bad day of feeling nauseous. Now we will wait for her counts to go down and come back up. I am really hoping that it will be a little shorter round like the last time. One can hope, right!! Thanks again to everyone for all the kind words and continued prayers.

How Is The Chemo Going This Round????

Day One and a Half....Feeling good with the Music Man


Day Two and a Half.....Not feeling so good, nauseous and even threw up once :(



Day Three and a Half.....Feeling good again!!!

My Confidence Has Been Shaken!!!

We are back in the hospital and have started round 4 of chemo. But I have to admit that my positive attitude has been wavering a bit lately. A few days ago, another sweet girl with Ds, Lois relapsed. She had just completed the same treatment that Ella is undergoing a few weeks ago and was moving on with her life. Then suddenly and unexpectedly, she relapsed. She cruised right through her treatment just as Ella is doing with very few complications. She was considered 100% cancer free just 3 weeks ago. Now her family is dealing with how to get her back into remission and trying to find a bone marrow donor so they can do a bone marrow transplant. Of course the logical side of my brain tells me that this doesn't mean that the same thing will happen to Ella but this has definitely given me a reality check. Yes, our kids with Ds do generally fare better than their typical counterparts when it comes to winning the battle against leukemia, but there are no guarantees in this ugly world of cancer. So please, continue to pray for Ella to stay in remission as well as for successful treatment for darling Lois. And just as important, please register to be a bone marrow donor. It is very simple just go to this website and sign up. You never know who you may be able to help.

Please pray for this precious little girl!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Are You Seeing A Trend Here???

Yep.....my child who had the quickest hand I ever saw at removing a hat from her head, is all of a sudden wearing hats. It all started with the witch hat to her costume. For some reason when she saw herself in it, she liked it and now she will wear a hat. She doesn't really NEED to wear a hat yet, she does still have some hair left although it has gotten quite short and thin and worst of all, I can't do her signature pony tail anymore :( So most of these pics were taken when she was just wearing a hat for heck of it. I feel like I want to keep her in the habit of wearing one as much as possible.

Can't remember if I posted about this last week or not but when we went to the oncology clinic for Ella's follow up last week, all of her blood counts looked great except for her ANC which had dropped down to 20!!! (She was 525 when we left the hospital the week prior). Anyway, for her to start her next round, her ANC needs to reach 1000. I was hoping that this week she would be over 500 so I would feel better about her immunities but not quite to 1000 so we could have a little more time at home. Guess what her ANC was yesterday.........3600!!!!! The little stinker jumped from 20 to 3600 in a week. So I had to beg and plead with the doctor to let us wait until next week to start round 4 because my mom is out of town right now and we need her to be around on my husband's work days. So as of right now, we will go back in the hospital next Thursday, the 23rd to start round 4.

I continue to be amazed at just how full of life Ella is. She is completely walking now, is almost always happy (except if she doesn't get her way)and continues to bring joy to those around her always. This amazes me so much because she is in the middle of chemo treatment!!! But I really think that it has much to do with her wonderful spirit....something that Ds kids are so blessed to have. A friend did a blog post yesterday about this very topic and I think she says it so much better. Please click on this link to check it out.

http://ourdailysmiles.blogspot.com/2010/09/if-heaven-is-perfect.html

Wordless Wednesday

Just Pictures!!

We decided that we had better take advantage of our time home and get our Halloween costumes picked out. Especially since I do a picture of them every year and want to get it done before it gets too busy at JC Penney's as I don't want Ella near the crowds. Abbey is a self designed fairy, Ella the cutest witch ever and Emma is a 60's girl



I wasn't even going to buy a costume for Ella this year but when I saw this, I just couldn't resist....best $20 I have ever spent!!!



Yesterday was my nephew, Ethan's 11th birthday.



This adorable, reversible dress was handmade by Erin, a blog/facebook friend. It was sent along with a HUGE care package for Ella and me from a group of Ds moms in Michigan.....you guys are awesome!!



Ella getting an unwanted kiss from a dog my sister was dog sitting!!



Ella continues to practice playing the drums while she is at home.



Enjoying a nice night out to dinner :)



For those of you who don't know what a broviac line looks like....here it is!!



Another gift from a wonderful blog friend, Tracy. She also sent me a big button that I have attached to my purse.

She's A Real Walker Now!!

Yesterday, Ella finally started walking EVERYWHERE!! It was as if she finally got up the guts to start trusting herself. It simply amazes me how just like that she went from mostly crawling with the occasional walk thrown in to walking almost constantly.

You may notice on a few of her closeups that he hair is REALLY thinning now. She lost quite a few big clumps this last week and now I can no longer do her signature water spout pony tail. We have regressed back to just sticking a bow in her hair but let me tell you, it is literally hanging on by a thread!!

She seems to be feeling great but we have to be very careful with exposing her to anyone because in the last few days, her ANC count has dropped to almost zero, something that usually we would still be in the hospital for. This round is definitely alot different from the previous rounds as her platelets and hemoglobin are still looking great. Just another day in the life of the medical mysteries of a child with Ds!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guess Who Is Home...........

I am......hahahaha!! (sorry for the horrible pic...it is my quick attempt at a joke)



Okay....well maybe this little one joined me as well :)

Yes, Ella got to come home today, just in time for the Labor Day Weekend. This round was so different than the first two. Normally by this time into the round, Ella's counts would be sitting at zero. Well a couple of days ago, we noticed that everything was starting to go up and it had never gone down to zero. In fact the lowest her ANC went was 490. Whatever the reason, the doctor said that due to the fact that her platelets were making big jumps the last few days and that her ANC is up to 544, her bone marrow is definitely recovering. I have no idea if she will get back to 1000 faster than usual or if her complete recovery will still take the standard 3 weeks, but I do know that we are just that much closer to getting to the end. Her timing couldn't have been any better since the big sisters are home for 3 days and now we can all just be home together.

Here are a few pics from the last day or two at the hospital....just having fun.

When we take our walks around the 3rd floor hallways, these animals are painted on the wall outside the OICU and Ella loves to stop and talk to them and then she ALWAYS walks away waving good bye and blowing kisses.

Here she is making her "ROAR" face


And this one is her "GRRR" face


This hat was sent to us from my husband's cousin. A friend of hers made a few of them for us to give to some of the girls on our floor which Abbey and Emma handed out last night. They had fun doing it. These pics are our attempt at getting a cute picture of Ella in it. But as usual, she doesn't cooperate much when trying to get a picture of her in a hat.

We Are So Blessed!!!

I know this may be a strange title to have while we are knee deep in leukemia treatment for our 2 year old daughter, but the truth is, that sometimes it takes rough times to realize your blessings or to see the selflessness of others. Most of the big blessings we have received, I have already blogged about such as our wonderful and successful fundraiser. But today I wanted to write about the little things that some others have done that have really touched my heart.



This blanket was made by a gal who has never met our family. She is the co-worker of the husband of a friend of mine whom I worked with years ago. This gal happened to start reading my blog after my friend's husband shared about Ella being diagnosed with leukemia. She then made this blanket for Ella. I am just amazed at the generosity of someone to spend so much of their personal time making something for someone they don't even know. Just another Angel who walks among us!!



This is Sophie. She is the daughter of one of my dear friends. She only met Ella once when she was just a few months old but since Ella was diagnosed, her mother has told me that they have been regularly praying for her. Her school does a recycling drive where they see which class can bring in the most cans and bottles. The winning class then gets to use part of their winnings and gives away part of their winnings to a cause. The kids all suggested various things that they could do with their "give away" money and then they all voted. Well Sophie suggested that they could give the money to "a little 2 year old girl who was battling leukemia". They voted and Ella won!! How cool is that!! What I especially liked about this was that Sophie thought of this all on her own without her mom's suggestion. Below is a copy of the letter she sent to me along with a check for over $50!!! THANK YOU SOPHIE!!





This is Emily and Sydney, daughter's of another one of my dear friends (Don't I have great friends!!) One day they asked if they could do a lemonade stand out in front of their house and give the money to Ella. They live on a fairly quiet street so no one thought they would get very many sales but they persisted anyway. They made these very sweet signs (oops, Ella is only 2 years old) and flagged down everyone they could. When it was all said and done, they had collected approximately $35!!! Not bad for a quiet street, huh? I am thinking that there is some pretty good parenting going on in my circle of friends to be raising such thoughtful and caring kids who want to do for others!! They have definitely inspired me to want to make sure and encourage my own kids to do for others any chance they get. THANK YOU EMILY AND SYDNEY!!!


I have said more than once recently that I believe that part of the reason that my family is going through these rough times is to teach us some things about ourselves. The thing that has stuck with me the most is that I am realizing how many people out there are willing to do for others without expecting anything in return. For example, a neighbor bringing us dinner more than once, another neighbor sharing their gardener with us every other week or friends and family keeping my older kids for days or weeks over the summer. I know I could go on and on about the little things that people have done for us and I certainly don't mean to omit anyone's act of kindness, but these are all things that I don't think I would have necessarily thought to do for others before going through this trial myself. Something else that I have learned is that it is so VERY hard to say yes when someone asks if they can do this or that for you. Even if I know it would be a great help, it is hard to say the word, "YES!!". So, from now on, when I know of someone in need, I will do my best to just arrange and do the task that I want to for that person without asking them and making them give me that very difficult answer. Another lesson learned!!!


Now on to this little stinker.........


I decided that I can't always post adorable and sweet pics of her. Once in a while, we need to show the tough and rumble side of her. I really hope that she ISN'T practicing a very naughty "F word" in this picture though!! And Lori...if you are reading this, that pillow case you sent Ella has been one of the biggest hits!!!

I am not getting my hopes up too much yet, but from 2 days ago til today, her numbers have actually gone UP!!! Yes, UP!!! We need to see what her numbers look like tomorrow, but it could be that she isn't going to go all the way down to zero this round and she may already be starting to go back up. If tomorrow's numbers are up versus down, we may be looking at home in the VERY near future. I had been expecting at least 10 more days in the hospital....