My heart is full

My heart has been so full this month with it being Childhood cancer awareness month to start with. Then 2 amazing events with the Taylor Swift concert and the curesearch walk. Both of which Gracie was well and strong to participate in. Also this last Sunday was Gracie's first primary program!! I've shed a lot of thankful and happy tears this month and say random prayers throughout the days of simply "thank you Lord" I remember last years feelings as I watched the other kids her age up on the stand, as I was holding my 27 lb fragile 4 year old. A year ago this month, she was doing her stem cell transplant. Next month holds more fun memories to come. The state fair! which Gracie LOVES and wasn't able to do last year. She loves to ride the ponies. The other kids spend their money on rides and games, and she wants to spend her money on pony rides. after that, we head to Disneyworld for her make a wish trip to meet the princesses! We can hardly wait. I can feel more tears coming on just thinking of it. We are so blessed and God is good. Thank you all for your prayers always. We feel your love.

Gracie singing along to her favorite Taylor Swift Song!

Curesearch walk Sept 24 2011

Gracie getting her medal
Watching the angel balloons

Gracie and Briley-ready to walk for a cure!

The angel balloons, for all the children lost to cancer.

Gracie and Briley waiting in line to go on stage for their champion medals.

Gracie and Danielle

Gracie's favorite nurse Andrea

The whole family after the walk!

My pictures ended up out of order, so here's my post in order :)

Briley's family drove 5 hours from Texas to be with us for the Curesearch walk. WE met them at Cook Children's back in January and have seen them at the clinic several times, and formed a friendship with their whole family. We thought it was so awesome that they drove all that way to be on Gracie's team! They could've easily formed their own team, since Briley has leukemia, but they came to support us and walk on our team. We passed out team Briley bracelets to our team to honor Briley as well. We will go down to Texas in April to walk with team Briley!! Their family arrived at 10 pm friday night and we stayed up talking until midnight. The kids had such a fun time together! They also have a little boy that is Von's age and those two were hilarious together! They acted like old friends and it seemed like they had the same ideas and thoughts at the same time. lol. We wish we lived closer and they all could play more often.

Saturday we woke up at 7 and got ready to go. We arrived at the walk at 8:45 with donuts and water and gatorade for the team. The opening ceremony started at 9 and they had the parents that had lost children to cancer, release balloons into the air for their angels. I got pretty emotional. There were just too many balloons. 1 would've been 1 too many. After that, they honored those currently fighting, and those in remission. They had each child go on stage and state their name and recieve their medal for being champions. :) Gracie told me on the way there that she wasn't going to say her own name, but she did it. It was precious and made my heart full. We had 34 people on our team and we are so grateful for all the support! This was the first curesearch walk in Tulsa, and they had hoped to raise $40,000 but they raised $96,000!!! so awesome! and 96 cents of every dollar goes to research.

The walk was 3 miles long and we pushed the little ones in strollers a lot of the time. It took us about an hour, and the weather was absolutely perfect. After the walk, we headed home and had a little barbeque with Briley's family. It was a lot of fun to visit and watch the kids have so much fun. They stayed until about 4 or 5 and made the trip back home.

Taylor Swift concert!

Me and my sweetie.

TAYLOR SWIFT!

Gracie has loved Taylor Swift forever and her favorite song is "you belong with me." She has been able to sing every word since she was 3. I have a video of her singing it at 3 at Christmas, also a few videos of her singing it during the last 2 years, a couple of them, with a beautiful bald head. Well, when we heard Taylor Swift was coming to Tulsa, the girls were so excited! but the tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes. We have a friend of a friend that works for Cherokee casino and they have suite seats, so he was able to get 2 suite tickets for Gracie to be able to go! Then we bought 2 tickets on the floor for Chloe and Brandon to go as well. We figured it would be too overwhelming for Gracie to be on the floor, and we were right. The Suite seats were perfect!! they have comforatble seats and room to breathe! and also room to dance :) Gracie was beyond excited and loved every minute of it. the concert didn't get over until 11 pm and, the last half hour or so, she just snuggled on my lap cause she was tired. It was nice to have the comfy seat. We had a fabulous view! and Taylor even sang Gracie's favorite song!!

enjoying her chips and dip. She aslo had a soda in a "cool cup" and it was all free:)

Livin' the suite life

Gracie and Chloe waiting in line to get tshirts

On the way there!!

3 month follow up scans

Gracie started Daisy scouts last week and she loved it! She keeps saying "scouts is fun!" She is so excited to go again this week!

Gracie's hair is growing so fast! and it is long enough for little pigtails again. She is looking so grown up. We drove down to Ft Worth yesterday and left at 5 am. got there at 10 and checked in. They had her start with the gatorade drink that has the contrast in it. she is supposed to drink it a little at a time for 2 hours. This is where the G button comes in very very handy! I just hook er up to the tube and she doesnt even have to drink any of it. :) then they were running late, so they didn't call her back til 1:45 and then they did an IV for the IV contrast, which I had forgotten about since every other time, she had a port or central line. She was not happy about it at all but she held still through the tears. Once that was done, we waited another 1/2 hour and then it was finally her turn. She held real still for the CT and it was very quick. After it was done, she got the IV out and we went to eat. It was about 3:00 and we were starving. I never eat when she can't eat. She wanted one of everything it seemed. we got, pizza, turkey, loaded baked potato, doritos and candy bars to share. Aftere that we went to the Build-a-bear at the hspital. Cook Children's is the first hospital to get one and it is great. I was just going to let her get an animal without an outfit, but that was before the IV i didn't know about. :) lol so she got a much deserved dress to go on her new bunny, named "bunny" haha. We stopped back by radiology to get a copy of the scan and then headed home. We got home around 8:45. I gave the Cd to Brandon to look at and he said he didn't see anything as far as he could tell, and there wasn't a report yet. So today I called and asked if the report was done and it was. The results? NO evidence of disease!! We are so very blessed that She remains disease free and she is healthy and strong. Most days she doesn't even need tylenol. Thank you all for your continued prayers. We love and appreciate you so much! We will go down for clinic on Monday, so glad we don't have to wait til then for the results. She will just have labs and visit with the doctor.

"let us know what we can do to help"

1 in 5 children with cancer, will lose the battle. this number is even higher for Neuroblastoma. although it is only the 5th most common childhood cancer, it is responsible for the most deaths.
I hate how statistics like this constantly try and enter my mind! it is important for everyone to know this! but I already know and hate the constant reminders and worry. If it was your child, what would you do? Pretend for even a moment, if you can. This is not meant as a guilt trip. Please help us raise money to support childhood cancer research, if you can, even a few dollars, every bit helps. truly we all can make a difference together. http://www.curesearchwalk.org/tulsa/amazinggracie
September is Childhood cancer awareness month.
Next week, Gracie will have her 3 month follow up scans. This enters my mind several times a day, and I ask for your prayers that the scans will remain clear!