May 19

Today Charlotte turns 4! :).

 

We thought we would take this opportunity to do a blog post all about her and the big sister role she plays in this cancer journey. We are so proud of her and how she has handled everything this past year. She is an easy going girl and always up for an adventure (or a trip to the hospital :).

She enjoys life to its fullest - always excited about whatever is going on. We have been very blessed that she is an independent girl who plays well by herself or anyone else - it's made things a lot easier with everything concerning Evelyn.
Charlotte and Evelyn have become quite the pair these last couple months.

They need each other, depend on each other and miss each other when they are apart. Every Thursday Charlotte goes to our Aunt's house for the morning while Evelyn heads to clinic and when they come home Charlotte can't wait to see what Evelyn picked from the treat box and Evelyn's all ears as Charlotte tells her what she did at the library. Charlotte is a sensitive girl with a big heart so when Evelyn is on steroids she's usually on the receiving end of Evelyn's rage but is also quick to help her or make her comfortable with her blanket and lion.
Charlotte is a girly girl through and through - afraid of bugs, lover of shoes, purses, dresses and anything princess. We can usually find her singing or dancing trying to convince anyone and everyone to dance or sing along :).

Her dreams are limitless and her imagination even bigger - we look forward to watching her live out some of those dreams :). She's loves to read, craft and write and can often be found at the table immersed in any of these.

 

For as quiet as she can be she is also known as the loudest one in the group - she gets excited easily and when she does her volume increases as well :). She's my right hand girl, my sidekick, my helper - always willing to do whatever asked of her - a mother couldn't ask for better.
She reminds us daily to laugh often, forgive easily, be kind and recognize the joy and beauty in the little things. God has blessed us beyond what we could have imagined in this sweet girl. We thank God every day for keeping her happy and healthy - we are so lucky to call her our daughter.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Lindsey and Stephen

Psalm 127:3 "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward."

 

 

May 12

Thankfully after a crazy couple of weeks things have settled down and the last two weeks have been pretty quiet. Steve was on afternoons last week so he tagged along with Evelyn and I to clinic on Thursday. Evelyn got a check up and she unfortunately lost 2 pounds over the last two weeks. We think Evelyn's been dealing with a bit of nausea the last couple weeks and hasn't had much of an appetite for anything. Because of this we have had a hard time keeping her sugars up and her readings have been really low - usually below 3.0. Sitting in the 2.0-3.0 range can put her at higher risk for seizures, among other things. We were advised for the weekend to give her Pediasure if she isn't eating much, try to give her the specific foods to maintain those sugars and continue with the cornstarch in her nighttime bottles. Our doctor also wanted us to check her sugars at midnight to see where they are sitting. This is a steroid week and usually her sugars go up - which they have but once she is off the steroids again if her sugars continue to stay below 3.0 Evelyn will have to get the NG tube put back in. That way we will be able to put the necessary nutrition down the tube to maintain her sugars instead of trying to convince her to eat what she needs to eat. Of course this is the last thing we want since Evelyn has been doing well without the NG tube and she's very proud to show everyone how well she does without it. We are willing to do whatever we can before we go back to the NG tube. This is a little disheartening because we expected to see her sugars rise since going off one of her chemo meds but instead they have continued to dip each week. Keeping track of and maintaining Evelyn's sugars is and continues to be a challenge - it takes a lot of time and effort to keep her sugars maintained but we continue to put do our best, say a lot of prayers for patience and hope her sugars stabilize soon. When we look at the big picture Evelyn is and has been doing really well over all so we focus on that and daily thank God for His hand in this journey. I'll end with pictures :)

Fun times with Charlotte

 

 

 

Steroids started off goofy this week..

 

 

Had a lot of this is the middle..

 

 

But is ending like this -

 

 

And check out the hair! :)

 

 

 

Lindsey and Stephen

 

Proverbs 16:3-4a "Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. The LORD has made everything for its purpose,"