---

Sunday, July 1st, Adelaine celebrated her one year since diagnosis day. We gave our testimony at church. In short, we talked about how one year ago our little girl was sick, very sick. We took her to All Children’s Hospital, and then she was diagnosed with Leukemia, which is a cancer of the white blood cells, in the bone marrow. Doug and I knew that we had to either accept that she was going to die, or accept that God would heal her. We had to embrace faith, there wasn’t any alternative! We prayed, we prayed and we prayed and we prayed some more. Scott Graubard a friend and Associate Pastor from church, and his wife Julie came and we prayed with us. We all spent hours and hours praying over her. There were many many people praying for her. On our anniversary, July 2nd, the elders from our church came and laid hands on her and we prayed over her. With Adelaine sitting on my lap in her hospital bed, I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence in a way that is indescribable, we all did. In fact one of the wives later wrote a letter explaining what she had seen. On day eight of her diagnosis, six days after they did a single treatment, the doctors pulled more bone marrow and declared that she was cancer free and had gone into rapid remission. Praise God! We knew God had healed her, we are so very thankful. So now we are in the middle of a 2 ½ year treatment plan to kill a cancer in her body, which doesn’t even exist! A few weeks ago Adelaine danced in the sanctuary, it was like witnessing a miracle. The fact that she is here with us and is feeling good enough to dance, hop and skip around is truly a miracle, she is our living miracle!

On our way back to our seats, a gentleman stopped me. He asked if we were giving her chemotherapy. After saying, “Yes”, he told me to read Mark 16:18. I was not familiar with what that verse says, so I assumed that he was implying that we should not be giving it (chemo) to her. I have had many people stop me when we are out and ask questions and tell me that I should not give her such drugs, and bla, bla bla. Little do these people know how hard it is to give them to her. I know all these drugs can have long lasting, permanently damaging side effects, and many of which are known to actually cause secondary cancers. I have spent many nights crying myself to sleep, haunted about what the medications are going to do to her, and if we are doing the right thing by giving them to her. The bottom line is, how can we be positive that the chemotherapy given to her before more bone marrow was pulled, wasn’t what God used to heal her? We can’t know for sure. If I could go back in time, I would have insisted that they retest her bone marrow, BEFORE they began administering chemotherapy, after we prayed for her that night on July 2nd. If she came back cancer free, I could have taken her home and known for sure that God did not use these doctors to heal her. But as it stands, we don’t know, so here we are 1 year into treatment.

Now, back to the Gentleman in church… Wouldn’t it be great if it said in the Bible that all the drugs we give her would not cause her any harm? Well guess what, it does! Mark 16: 18 says, “… and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well”. This is in red meaning that Jesus actually spoke these words. When the Gentleman told me this I immediately burst into tears! God knew I was torn and hurting by giving these chemotherapy drugs to her, and He spoke to me not to worry!!!! Even more, the Gentleman’s daughter came over to me and said, “You should really listen to him, he is my dad and used to be a pharmacist. He filled many prescriptions for children taking chemo, and he always prayed this verse over them!” Do you see what I see? God didn’t just use any old Joe to point out this verse to me he used someone who has embraced it and carried it and applied it regularly! These words will not do us any good unless we do the same, so I have given these worries to Christ and I can now give her the medications with a clean conscience. Isn’t our God awesome!!!!

After church and a good nap, the Graubard’s came over, well half of them. Scott and Josh were on a mission’s trip in Costa Rica. Julie and Jesse came over and the boys played while the girls baked cakes. Little ones, pink with sprinkles, just like the princess likes it! We sang “Happy Birthday” to her, as she blew out her one candle. (We hope to have our composer friend, Erica, write a little ditty for next year’s “I beat cancer” party. It could go something like, “In the face of Cancer, bla bla bla”) we’ll let you know!! Anyway, Julie and Scott have been especially helpful through all this. Not only is Julie a princess herself, but just one year before Adelaine was diagnosed, Julie had finished treatment for breast cancer. She too had been healed! A few weeks ago, Julie came to church with freshly manicured blue toenails. She explained that it’s a cancer survivor thing, and that although she could end up on “What Not to Wear”, she didn’t really care! She and her survivor friends all painted each other’s toenails blue. It was just something they all did during and after treatment for each other. I guess it’s like they are in a secret cancer sorority or something. Well, Adelaine was initiated in on her anniversary date! Perfect timing too, we turned them into a red white and blue 4th of July theme. It will now be an annual tradition that Adelaine will have blue toenails at the first of every July!!!!

Julie, Adelaine & Mom celebrate with festive toenails!

While were at it…

All girlie girls have toe rings, right?

Alelaine and Mommy’s pedicure!

As they say, gold is a girl’s second best friend!

On Tuesday, Doug and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We waited so that the next day Doug would have off for the 4th. We went out to dinner and saw “License to Wed”, with Robin Williams. Robin played the priest who made this couple pass his class before allowing them to be married by him in his church. It was so funny. He put that poor couple through the ringer and made them see just how marriage can really be. The couple was under so much stress that they basically were hating each other, all while the audience was chocking on popcorn in hysterics! We have not laughed so hard in a long time. Doug and I both feel like we too are undergoing some of Robin William’s intense therapy sessions! Part of the movie took place in Jamaica which was where Doug and I got married. It was a great date.

For the 4th of July, we went over to the Burtock’s condo on Sun Set beach. We had dinner and watched the fireworks with the Burtock’s and their friends, Chic And Cici, from their balcony. We met the Burtock’s at the Children’s Cancer Center a few months ago. At the age of 15, Dana Burtock was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and has been in remission for three years. She is such a beautiful girl and has such a sweet angelic spirit. It has been an honor to get to know her and her family. Dana, her mother, Kay and 13 year old brother, Cody, all volunteer at the CCC. The children anticipate seeing them each and every week and just can’t seem to get enough of the Burtock family. Anissa has already made wedding arrangements for Peyton and Cody. She says, “Yea, it’s a little creepy now but when Peyton’s 25 and Cody’s 35, age won’t be a big deal”!!!

Dana, Cody, Adelaine, Mason, & Bowen

Their family has been such an inspiration to ours. They are the kind of people that you just can’t seem to get enough of. They radiate with Christ’s love and mercy. Dana has lost many people she cares about to cancer in these past few years. At school, she had worked with Mark Dameris, who was in the news cast with Adelaine over Thanksgiving last year. Dana met Mark before she was diagnosed with cancer herself. Mark passes away in February. A little girl Joanna, who passed away last year at age six was very close to her also. They met Joanna after Dana was diagnosed, and her family is still very close to Joanna’s who live in Georgia. Not to mention, her friends that are around her age that have also passed away from cancer. I can’t begin to understand many of the things Dana has seen and felt. I am amazed by her strength and beauty. She truly is an angel. When I first met her I couldn’t believe that she had ever spent one day of her life sick in bed. With her porcelain skin, beautiful curly locks and georgeous eyes that just danced with delight, I thought, “How could this beautiful angel ever have had cancer?” She has a smile that just lights up the room. Even after all she’s endured with her health and loosing so many people she cares about, she didn’t loose her spirit. Wow! She is truly an inspiration to us all! Last year we were 4 days into Adelaine’s treatments and watched the fireworks from the bridge at All Children’s Hospital. This year we spent it on the Burtock’s balcony with a beautiful family who has inspired us beyond words. Thank you Dan, Kay, Dana and Cody, also, Chic and Cici. You can read an inspirational poem by Dana and see her video on You Tube. Go to www.youtube.com. Type in Pediatric Cancer Dana. It’s titled, Hope for Children with Cancer.

Dana and Adelaine, aren’t they beautiful!

Angela

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!