Sunday, March 28, 2010

Counts Creeping Up

Natalie's counts are slowly going up day by day. We were afraid that she was coming down with an infection last weekend, but she never got one. We are grateful for that.

Natalie has been in a happy mood and she is keeping herself busy. She is learning and exploring from her little hospital room. She recently won an award for the movie she made, she is now editor-in-chief of the hospital school newsletter, and she is staying busy with drawing. Her new mission is to find a portable microscope so that she can look at her own cells from her next biopsy. One of the doctors has been coming in whenever she is free to give her some medical lessons and she promised Natalie that she will teach her all about her cells under the microscope. It's interesting that she is also learning about the world from all the wonderful staff at the hospital who share with Natalie about their travels. One of her teachers just got back from Mexico and got Natalie a hand-painted beautiful treasure box with a hand-painted elephant. Another friend is going back to London to visit family next week. Natalie has asked him to bring her back a stamp for her new stamp collection. She is really excited that he may give her his old stamp collection if he can find it.

Natalie will most likely get a biopsy this week as her counts are going up. Please please remember to pray for the biopsy results to show that she is in remission! Thank you.

Monday, March 15, 2010

A Little Update

Natalie has been done with chemo for almost a week now. It was a hard one for her physically and we were worried about her liver. She seems better now and is active again. She's still not eating the way she did the last round, but she is eating a little.

Her aunt and uncle are here for a couple of days to take care of her at the hospital so she is happy. They are working on building a dollhouse together for her Polly Pockets. It's made of wood and looks really great so far.

Please continue to pray specifically that her leukemia is in remission after this round of chemo!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Important Prayer Request

Natalie started her second cycle of chemo today. We really need all of you to please pray that this cycle of chemo will get her cancer into remission. Natalie needs her body to be in a good remission in order to have a successful transplant so it is super important to us that you are all praying for that. Please also pray that she does not get a bad infection or any complications as this chemo will hit her immune system hard again.

We feel very grateful that we were able to spend 5 days together as a family from Friday-Tuesday. Natalie was so energetic so we were able to do a lot together. Natalie played in the backyard, had some adventures with Sean, and finally got to go to Tiffanys to pick out something with all the money she made selling bracelets. Of course, we had to call the store first to explain our situation to make sure it was safe for Natalie to go inside. We didn't want her exposed to too many people because of her low immune system. The great thing was that they were so supportive. They made sure that there was not too many people in the store and had somebody showed Natalie around the moment she walked in. Natalie only wanted to go to the section within her budget so she didn't even want to wander over to the section to look at the diamonds. She's such a practical girl. It took her 10 minutes to pick out a silver heart necklace that she wanted to engrave her initials on. After she paid, they told us that it would take 2 weeks for her necklace to be ready. However, they really wanted her to leave with something since she's been waiting so long to go to Tiffanys, so they surprised us with two matching heart necklaces all wrapped up for Natalie and I to take home! They also gave Natalie a design book wrapped up in a beautiful blue box with a shiny white bow. It was an unforgettable shopping experience for Natalie and she's been telling everybody all about it.