Pages

On June 1, 2010 our two year old, "Little Air Bear," was diagnosed with Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Type M7. After enduring 146 days at Primary Children's Hospital, Erin is now in remission and living a full life at home with our family. Her strong will and constant happy smile is an inspiration to us all. Through our difficult circumstances we found great strength and peace in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for checking in on us.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Make-a-Wish Star Raising

The end of August Erin received an invitation to visit the Make-a-Wish "Wishing Place" to raise her star.  I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of Erin's star raising.  It was such an emotional time for me.  I felt so much joy knowing Erin was through with cancer and raising her star was a signal that we are completely through with cancer (we always pray that she'll stay in remission).


Erin at the Wishing Place with Renee and Cris.


Make-a-Wish hangs up each wish child's picture with their wish.


First, we went outside to the wishing pond and each of the kids were given a special token to throw into the pond and make a wish on. 


Erin throwing her token into the wishing pond.


Our family in the Make-a-Wish gardens.


Then we went upstairs in the Wishing Place and looked around and remembered what it was like to be there the first time to have Erin make her wish.


The kids outside the Wishing Tower.


Erin putting her key into the Wishing Tower door.  I have such vivid memories of being inside the Wishing Tower the first time.  Erin's wish process was such a magical experience.


Erin was given a purple star to color.


She drew her name on it and decorated it. 
I wrote her name on it too.


Our family just before the star raising.


Getting her star ready to go up.


This is one of my most FAVORITE pictures.


A video of Erin raising her star.


Looking up to see her star.


Each wish child gets to raise a star up to the ceiling of the Wishing Place.


There were so many stars, it's beautiful to think of the hope many families have received from Make-a-Wish.


We had cake!


 Erin's wish granters put together a book of Erin's princess party.  She worships this book!  It's been 3 months since she received the book and she still looks at it regularly.  Just the other day I caught her writing her name on one of the pages.  :)


Finally, every wish child has a scrapbook page at Make-a-Wish. 
This is Erin's page.


We are so thankful for the Make-a-Wish organization.  It was last December when we found out that Erin was accepted as a wish child.  During Erin's treatments we used to wish and hope so much that she would be accepted by Make-a-Wish.  We needed something to look forward to during that very difficult time.  I don't think it is possible to show how much we have loved our experience with Make-a-Wish.  They gave us so much hope, they gave us memories we will NEVER forget, and they gave us laughter and joy at a time when we mostly wanted to cry.

Thank you Make-a-Wish and all of their volunteers who give their time to make wishes come true!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Christmas and Leukemia

My husband was kind enought to pre-set FM 103.3 on the radio so when I turned it on in our family room I was enveloped in the sounds of Christmas music.  Of course I didn't turn it off - I'm a Christmas music in November advocate.  The second song "Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire" came on.  Erin was helping me in the kitchen and I just started bawling. 

Last year, Erin finished her treatments the week before Christmas.  I was barely able to feel the spirit of Christmas last year.  Hearing Christmas music today and thinking about buying presents for our kids has brought back a flood of emotions of how hard last year was, especially around the holidays.  My tears of pain eventually turned to tears of joy that we all get to be together this year as we celebrate this wonderful time of year.  Erin kept asking me what was wrong, she even told me to show her my happy face.  I told her that sometimes we cry when we're happy.

But, now I sit here again.  Crying.  I just found out that our friend's AML has relapsed.  What was thought to be a mosquito bite on her arm (that didn't go away) was really a tumor on her arm.  Brielle was diagnosed with AML shortly after Erin was and she received a bone marrow transplant from her sister.  She will go back to Primary Children's for ANOTHER bone marrow transplant. 

Please pray for Brielle Beus and her family!


Brielle & Erin at the July 2011 CureSearch Walk