Spinal Chemo Done!!

Abbey's last spinal is OVER :)!!! The day went as good as can be expected. It was an emotional day for me as my mind was flooded with thoughts and memories over all that she has gone through these past 2 years, but most of what I was feeling was thankfulness for how far we have come and where we are now. Jacob came with us (we let him stay home from school that day) and it was so good to have him there for Abbey to play with and just for us to be together that day as it was a huge milestone for all of us. We blasted some of our favorite worship songs on the way and watching them sing to the music filled my heart to overflowing. They are neat kids and I truly am thankful that God has given me the job of being their mommy!

Abbey and Dr. B at clinic before her IV chemo was given

Abbey and Jacob painting and killing time while waiting for her medicine

I took lots of pictures (below) in the sedation unit. I rarely take my camera out there as there is so much about it that I want to forget, but I know when Abbey is older I will want to be able to show her pictures of everything.

One thing I have noticed about pictures though is that every time I take them and go back and look at them there is something about them that so evidently shows God's goodness and faithfulness to us. Her face always looks so peaceful and calm. Even the pictures from the very beginning when things were so unknown and scary and she was so sick. It is such a reminder to me of how God has carried us through this time and has been so real in our lives through this trial.

The sedation unit is across the hospital from clinic. It's a beautiful unit, but a sad place to be as the faces in each room usually tell a sad story.

These two are best buds!

Getting hooked up to everything before she's sedated

Abbey sleeping peacefully.

It's over! Abbey sipping some hot chocolate as she's always starving when she wakes up!

They always give the kids a special treat when it's done :)

Thank you for praying for her and us last Friday. It felt amazing to walk out of there and know that I will never again have to wait in the hall and stare at the door of her room, waiting for the doctor to come out and say that it's over.

Abbey always starts her steroid pulse for 5 days after her monthly IV chemo. They upped her dose this month because of how much she has grown. It was a rough week for her as she had a horrible headache for three days and felt pretty miserable. They don't know if the headache was from the spinal or the increase in her steroids, but she was on the couch with a blanket over her eyes for those days as the light was really bothering her. It was heartbreaking to watch her feel so crummy. Thankfully, it has passed and the steroids were over as of yesterday so she is starting to feel more like herself. We are getting there and truly cannot wait for it all to be done! For now, we can say goodbye to spinals and soon... goodbye to it all :)!!

Last Spinal!!!

Tomorrow is a big day for us! Abbey has had countless spinal taps and chemo injections in her spine since she was diagnosed. At first it was weekly, then there were parts of her treatment where it was monthly, and since Maintenance Cycle it has been every three months. Needless to say, she has had many. Well, tomorrow is her last one!! We're pretty excited to say the least :)!!

We will have a long day tomorrow as we will have to be there from about 10:30am till after 3:00pm. She won't be able to eat till it's all over, which is never fun. We will start at clinic where she will get her monthly chemo in her port. We then will head over to sedation where she will be sedated and get her LAST spinal tap and spinal chemo. There are no words to tell you how awesome it's going to feel to walk out of there with her tomorrow, knowing that she has finished that part of her treatment. We still have a few more months of chemo, but to know that we can check spinals off our list FOREVER feels pretty amazing :)!

And there truly are no words to tell you how very much I love this kid and how proud and amazed I am that she has endured so much and has shown strength beyond what I can even comprehend. Tomorrow night can't come quick enough. Being able to look her in the eyes and tell her that she has made it through this part of her treatment is going to be an amazing thing.

Would you please pray for her tomorrow? Pray for her blood to look good and for there to be no issues. Please pray for all to go smoothly and for strength for Abbey as it never gets easy going through this.

Abbey has a book of paraphrased Psalms for kids that we have been reading every night and they encourage both of our hearts as we snuggle up and read them together. One of our favorites is ...

Psalm 91

When I trust in God, It's like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

With God on my side, I am not scared of anything -

not during the day, not during the night.

I hope this verse encourages you today as it did Abbey and I before she went to bed tonight. Thank you for your continued love, prayers and support. We are forever grateful :)!

Caleb John :)

Just wanted to share his dimples with you :)

2 Years - Journeying Through Leukemia

October 2nd, 2008 is a day that will be etched in our minds forever. 2 years ago today, we found out that our precious Abbey has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.

This journey that we have been on has been the hardest of our lives, yet I know and see everyday that God is using it for good. I would never want to go back even a day, but to know and see where we've come from is an amazing thing. We aren't quite done with this journey, but we are confident that come January 8th, 2011, Abbey will be done for good with cancer and that she will lead a normal, healthy life. I also know that this story will never be forgotten, both in our families lives and the lives around us.

2 years... Journeying Through Leukemia

Abbey, just days before we found out she had leukemia

Again, just days before she was diagnosed

A few days after she was diagnosed. At this point she had already had surgery for her metaport to be placed in her chest, several doses of chemo, platelet and blood transfusions, spinal taps, bone marrow biopsies, heavy duty steroids and lots of other medications.

One month into treatment. Abbey was so sick, swollen and miserable. Hardest 4 weeks of our lives.

Her hair starting to thin and fall out

Praying for healing

Smiling through it all (well most of it :)

Lots of blood draws

Oreos and milk whenever her little heart desired :)!

Trying to do "normal" things

Our bald princess

Protecting her from germs while going to and from clinic

Hospital admission when we found out she had a blood clot in her brain

I've always loved this picture of her. I think she's so beautiful :)

Her hair coming back in :)!!!

It came back sooo fast :)! We were thrilled!

Our sunshine

And today, so close to being done :)!

God is so good! We could've never gotten through these past 2 years without Him. It hasn't been easy, but His faithfulness, provision, protection, love and care for our Abbey and our family has been nothing short of amazing. He has been intimately involved in this situation and seeing His hand at work in our lives and the lives around us has carried us through each day. Our prayer is that He would continue to use this story for His glory. That our kids would tell the world about God's great love. That we would never forget how He has walked us through this and that we would continue to have opportunities to share our story. Would you join us in praying for those things? As well as for Abbey's complete healing from cancer. That she would never relapse or get any other form of cancer as a result from her therapy. Thank you to all of you who have loved, encouraged and walked these past 2 years with us. We are forever thankful and grateful for you!

Blessings to you!

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Home Sweet Home

Some long overdue updates... :)

Our move went as good as can be expected. We had lots of help and I said more than once that day that I'm really glad I'm not a guy! They worked so hard, carrying heavy stuff up and down steps and in and out of the truck and houses. It was exhausting just watching them! Everything went smoothly, but it was a long, overwhelming day. I don't think I realized how much work it was going to be, but we did it and it's over :)!

Our first week in our new home has been wonderful!! The kids have adjusted so much better than we anticipated. I am so surprised that none of them have asked to go home or that they haven't been talking about our old house much. My mom kept saying before we moved that they will adjust fine because what makes it home is our family. I guess she was right because they have amazed us :).

Unpacking has been going pretty fast and everyday I feel more settled and organized. Jim's parents were here for a little shy of 2 weeks and they were a huge help! Between my mom and my in-laws, they all worked and have been working so hard to help us get everything just right :).

One of our new neighbors brought us some cookies the other day :). Everyone that we've met so far have been so friendly. We love our neighborhood!

And here are a few pics of our new place :). We still haven't hung much on the walls and have a ways to go, but we're getting there. We are painting the living room and dining room right now so I'll post pics when we're done with those rooms.

Great Room

Foyer (we're painting the dining room pictured in the back)

Kitchen

Our Bedroom

And a few pics of the peanuts :)...

The Crew :)

Caleb & his second mommy

Caleb pulling up on everything :)

And I wanted to update on our old home and how God so amazingly pulled that all together for us. There is a family from our church that is moving in in a couple weeks! We couldn't have hand picked a better family to love, care for and be blessed by our old home. God's timing is so perfect and we are so excited for them and so thankful for how perfectly it has all worked out :)!

And lastly, the video that I put a clip of in my last post at our church went great! It is such an encouragement to us when we see God using our story! Our church has some big plans for the future with taking our story to the community, but more to come on that soon :). If you'd like to see the video click HERE.

Thanks so much for checking in and hope you all are enjoying fall :)!!

Abbey's Story

*Be sure to pause the blog music*

Western Reserve - Grace Church

1066 East Aurora Rd.

Macdonia, Ohio

Saturday, September 25th - 5:30 pm

Sunday, September 26th - 9:30 am & 11:15 am

This weekend our church is doing a documentary on our journey through Abbey's leukemia. Our Pastor (Pastor Jason Haymaker) is doing a series called "Our of the Ashes" and it's about pain and suffering and why bad things happen to good people. There are a very talented group of people working hard on the video and our prayer (as it has been since the day Abbey was diagnosed) is that God would be glorified through this journey that we have been on. We know God is going to use our Abbey in big ways as we share about this great trial in our lives and the way that God has loved and cared for our family in huge ways over these past two years. If you live in the area, we would love if you could be there! If you have any questions, please e-mail us at colbert06@yahoo.com. Above is the trailer that they showed this past weekend in church so I attached it so you could see too :). We hope to see many of you there :).

I will soon do an update of all going on here in our new home. We have been busy, busy, busy, but all is going so well and we are blessed beyond words by this gift that God has given us :). The kids are adjusting beautifully and we are just so very excited :). Hope this finds you all doing well!

I totally should be packing...

By about 10 p.m., I have been hitting a brick wall and have been too tired to do one more thing. I should be packing right now, but I'd much rather sit here and veg while the kids all sleep peacefully in their beds and I wait for Jim to get home from work.

We have gotten a lot done, but there is still a lot to do. Last time we moved, was 8 years ago and it was just Jim and I moving from a tiny apartment to this house. I think we were able to pack our place up in an hour. Now, with four kids, we have accumulated so much more stuff and the packing is a little overwhelming. Jim keeps reminding me that we need to just take it one room at a time and eventually it will all be in boxes. I roam from room to room way too much and end up having projects started all around the house. We'll get there!

Things at the new house are coming along beautifully! I will post some pics of the inside once we are in :). Yesterday I spent the day painting Jacob's room (along with my step dad and dear friend - thanks John and Marcie :)) and it was so much fun! Painting is so rewarding because you can see the progress so fast. His room looks great! We did three walls tan and the accent wall is a greenish/brown. Jacob is very into anything camo/army so he thinks it's pretty sweet.

Thursday, Jim's parents are coming into town which will be so nice! We can't wait to see them! The kids are itching with excitement and we all can't wait to show them our new pad! This Friday is Abbey's clinic/chemo day. We are going to be accompanied by a couple guys from church who will be videoing some of her visit. They are doing a story on our journey for an upcoming video at church and they want to get some footage of her at the hospital. Should be pretty neat!

Well, thanks for checking in on us :). We sure do love all our blogger friends out there and are so excited to walk with you all through these big changes for our family :). I'll update again soon!

(and a few pics, just for the fun of it!)

Giddy With Excitement!

So all of you guessers were right! Yes, we're moving!!! We are giddy with excitement here!

Jim and I bought our first home 8 years ago and it has been a wonderful little house for us. We started as 2, then a year later went to 3 and now eight years later we have filled this 1300 sq. ft. home to the max with the 6 of us. We have had a couple go's at trying to sell this house over the past few years, but nothing had panned out to sell it. We've had some interest and even an offer, but after hearing nothing after 2nd showings, then a buyers loan falling through we decided to think about renting. A few months back we got hooked up with an awesome realtor (if you're looking for someone, let us know because she is amazing!) who has shown us the positives in renting in today's market by making our property work for us and by allowing ourselves to move into something else while interest rates are so low and while so many great deals are out there. There are tons of bungalows for sale in the same town that we live in and stuff isn't selling much, but is renting like crazy, so we decided to rent this house out for now and then eventually, down the road we will try to sell it again.

So, all that said, we bought a new home!! It's a dream come true for Jim and I :)!! It's beautiful and just perfect for our family. We are going to have so much more room and the layout is exactly what I've dreamed of having for years. The neighborhood is everything that we were looking for too with a community pool, sidewalks and a quiet cul da sac street.

I can't even tell you all the ways that we feel like God perfectly worked things out for us to get this exact house and every minute we spend there we find more things to love about it! We closed last week, but we are spending lots of time there getting everything clean and ready before we officially move in. Next Saturday is our big move day when we will move all our furniture so it will be our first night sleeping there. We can't wait :)!!!

Not only will this be a new house, but in a sense it is a new chapter in our lives. Abbey is almost done with her treatment and we are almost done with this whole cancer thing. As much as we have loved this home, it will always be the place where we brought our precious little cancer patient home to. It will always be the house that we made into a bubble to protect our family from germs while Abbey was in her intense treatment. I will always remember vacuuming up hair from these floors and crying in these bedrooms. We have lots of wonderful memories here too, but we are ready to move on with our lives and be done with this cancer journey.

God has been so very good to our family and we truly feel blessed beyond words with the way that He has cared for us and worked this all out for us. We can't wait to get in our new home and fill it with love, laughter and memories :). Thank you for crying with us through the hard times and being excited with us through the good. It's so fun to be able to do these posts and get to share our blessings and excitement with all of you :)! I will leave you with recent pics of each of the kids since they are growing right before our eyes :). And more pics to come soon as we make memories in our new home :)!!!