Well after twelve days of "I don't know's", we finally have an answer. They tested Elijah for a virus called cytomegalovirus (AKA, CMV) and this morning it came back positive. This is the virus that they check pregnant women for because if you get it while your pregnant it can be harmful to the fetus. This is what I know from the conversation I had this am with Dr. Al-Zien. 85% of the population will get this virus sometime in their lifetime. To any of us this virus would feel like a common cold. Of course in the immuno-compermised person it presents itself very differently, as we have come to find out. Just to get this out of the way, he is not contagious after the three days of antibiotics that he has had for this. We do get to go home today which is great news!! The bad news is that we have to do 6 weeks of IV antibiotics at home and be in to the doctor frequently for the next few months. When Dr. Al-Zien came in this am, he was actually relieved that this CMV came back positive, because he was starting to become concerned that he was maybe relapsing. As weird as it sounds, I am grateful for 6 weeks of antibiotics. I could write more but I am trying to pack up to go home. I will try an update a bit later. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Love you all!!

Hi all,
just a quick update on Elijah. Still having high fevers and impressive hives. In fact yesterday he had his highest fever yet and got the worst hives he has had yet. All of the nurses were very impressed and he was like a show for everyone to come and see. All cultures are still pending and Dr. Woods said yesterday that Elijah won the award for the week for being the most confusing pt to try and diagnose. When Elijah doesn't have a fever he seems to be in pretty good spirits, but it seems in the last couple of days he has been much more irritable. I feel his pain and I think we are all very sick of being in this hospital. Elijah seemed different yesterday in that he acted more like he wasn't feeling well. He did have more frequent fevers yesterday and higher, but even when he was in between he acted more like he didn't feel well. Dr. Lonzarich (our primary pediatrician) stopped to see Elijah yesterday and brought him some presents. He is so great to us and it was so sweet for him to stop by. Last year he drove to Iowa City on Christmas Day to see Elijah. Dr.Lonzarich was the one we went to see last year on Christmas Eve when this all started. Great guy and even better doctor. a huge thanks to him!! I'm posting a picture of one of the gifts he brought, it is a LEGO dump truck. He told Elijah he had 24 hours to put it all together and sure enough we had it done before bed last night. Dr. Woods did a test to see the level of Elijah's immune system (immuno-globulin). The test came back that his count was low which isn't surprising for a child with Leukemia, however they like to see the number over 400 even for immuno suppressed kids and Elijah's was around 300. A normal level for a healthy person would be between 5oo-600. They are going to give him some immuno-globulin through is IV today to try and boost his count and help him to fight whatever his body is suffering from. They get the globulin from blood products (sort of like platelets). They have to watch him close while they do the 6 hour infusion for reactions, most commonly fever and hives, haha!! I'm guessing they won't be able to tell if the fever and hives, he will most likely get, is a reaction from the infusion or from his illness. We will see what happens. They plan to start this any time now (10:30am). I'm also including a picture of the hives Elijah got yesterday after his high fever, the pictures don't really do it justice but you can get an idea. I'll update more when and if we ever know more. Love you all!!

Hello everyone,
We wanted to give a quick update on Elijah. Some of you already know that Elijah is in the hospital as of Christmas day. What kind of a Christmas would it be for us if we weren't in the hospital??? We woke up on Christmas day and had a great morning of opening presents and watching the kids be amazed at what Santa brought them. It was great, but right after we got done opening presents Elijah said he was tired and wanted to go and lay down. Levi came back in the other room where we all were and asked me if I wanted to go and feel his head. I said, NO!!! He better not have a fever!" Well he did and so I called the doctor. We were able to give him some Tylenol and not have to take him in right away. His fever broke for awhile but after a few hours it was back and we had to take him in. We went to the ER hoping that his counts would be high enough to just give him some antibiotics and send him home. Dr Al-Zein saw him in the ER and I was a little pushy to have him discharge us. His counts weren't great (ANC was around 800), but Dr agreed to send us home if we would follow up in the clinic the next day. We went home and at about 5am Elijah woke up with a fever of 103 and hives all over his body. I knew that we were headed back to the hospital for admission at that point. We have been in the hospital ever since (which is why I have time to update our blog). Elijah's counts dropped over the first couple of days to around 400 ANC. They had stopped his chemo until his counts recovered. On Monday his counts were back up to 950, but he was still having the fevers and hives. Dr. Woods (new partner to the group) said that she had thought about sending us home since his counts had recovered, but she was baffled as to why he was still having fevers. They have thought all along that he has some virus because none of the cultures have grown bacteria. She told us that she wanted to give him one more day of antibiotics but she would probably let us go the next day. Then, because Elijah is Elijah and he can't be normal in any kind of way, he had two of the highest fevers he has had since he was admitted lat night (Monday night into Tuesday morning). One of them got to 104. She apologised this morning when she came to see him that she had told us that we might be going home, because he was going to be staying. Not only did he have those two really high fevers, but his counts that had recovered have now started falling again. Since Dr. Woods is new to the group I had to inform her of Elijah and his non-normalcy. I told her if she was thinking that he would do something then he would do the exact opposite. She decided to order a CT scan from head to toe to look for a source of infection, and really to start ruling things out. She said when he is on his 5th day of fevers, you have to start running tests to rule things out and not just rely on him having a virus. Elijah has had a couple more fevers throughout the day today and we haven't heard anything back on the CT scan yet. At this point it's hard to know what to think or what to expect as far as going home. Woody and Melissa (Levi's older brother and sister-in-law) have willingly taken the girls once again and we are so grateful to them for doing that. They have four of their own, so adding 3 more isn't an easy task. A HUGE thank-you to them for being so great!!! That's all for now, hope all of you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year!! I'm starting to think that we will be ringing in the new year the same as we did last year, from our hospital room. Well, I do have to say that we are in much better shape than we were last year at this time and we are defiantly grateful for that. When we were admitted, Dr. Al-Zein told us that he was on his way to sign a DNR (do not resuscitate) order with a family whose little one was not going to make it. As sad as I was about being back in the hospital on Christmas, it put into perspective how lucky we were to just be in the hospital with a fever. We love all of you and hope you all have happy holidays!!
Love, Levi, Amanda, Michelle, Elijah, Alivia and Tysa

We're alive

I know you are wondering if we have dropped off the planet or are in witness protection. That is that we are all ok and have been very busy. We will be on in the next couple of days to give you an exciting, detail filled, riveting look at what we have been up to in the last month and a half. Thanks.

OK. The time has come again for me to update the blog. I had a slightly one-sided conversation with Amanda about whose turn it was (you'll find it's kind of the same conversation as when I tell her it's her TURN to change the diaper) to do the update. It went something like this. "Babe, it's your turn to update the blog." Arched eyebrow, no response. Again "Babe, you look great, it's your turn to update the blog." Smirk, no response. Again "Babe, you're the apple of my eye, it's your turn to update the blog." Small smile and BOOOM. "Sweety, why don't we count how many times I have updated, count how many times you've updated, subtract your number from my number, wait until your number actually reaches my number, and then it'll be my turn to update the blog." Ouch. Usually I win our verbal forays which probably explains why all my completely innocent remarks are usually greeted with silence. With that in mind, it looks like you guys are going to have to here from me approximately 39 more times until you here from Amanda. Weeeelllllll, on to the family business. I'll start with me and work our way down by age (feel free to enter a joke about the age difference between amanda and I because I had a couple go through my head). I am still working 7 bagillion hours at work every week. That still remains absolutely great. I recently had a stint of doctor visits because I thought I was having a heart attack. It turns out that I have an irregularity in my EKG that the doctor just want to "have checked out to eliminat any questions." She then proceeded to schedule it two weeks later. I'm thinking to myself, what if I have a heart attack while doing something totally normal? All who know me know what that is really code for, and if that happens, how is Amanda going to get out from under me??? Sorry mom, I know that is tacky but that is what I thought. I don't know the results yet, but I'll keep you posted. On to another topic that mom will love, it turns out I have hemmorhoids. Nice. I can tell you that the doctor owes me dinner after that appointment (and I watched her wash her hands). Other then those two things, life is pretty ok aside from the mild stress about the economy and owning my own business. One thing of note, I have learned a hard lesson on how I should control my temper. I was carrying a basket of clothes upstairs (barefoot) and stepped on a toy in the hallway by our bathroom. I was quite angry that toys had not been put away and promptly punched a hole in the bathroom door. I turned around and saw all the kids with wide eyes and fearful looks. Thats the last time I will let my temper out of control. Amanda is doing well for a person that has 4 kids, a slighty off-kilter husband and 2 dogs. I don't know how she stays sane becasue everytime I hear two kids crying, it is like someone is cutting my brain with glass shards. She has been on a kick of trying to get me healthy for some reason, but I constantly thwart her intentions. Michelle is doing well. I still have a hard time actually having a child that has reasoning of her own that sometimes might actually be right. I still have the trump card though "Becasue I'm the dad and I said so." YEAH. She is doing well and enjoys school. She is also in dance and seems to like that as well. Elijah is doing good. He was able to make a wish with the Make a Wish Foundation and he decided he wanted to go to sea world to see the animals, and kiss a dolphin, and watch some SHARKS. We are really excited to go and I think they are going to spoil him rotten. We still have the pleasure of giving him 3-5 medications every night, but he is getting better taking them. The doctor told Amanda that they want to increase the chemo dosage becasue it is not knocking his counts down far enough, but they have kindly consented to wait until after we get back from Florida. He also is still on steroids once a month, but it is a lower dosage so we don't get the I love you/I shall kill you looks 1/2 second apart anymore which shows something about me that I look back and kind of miss that. Alivia is doing great and gets more firey as the days pass. She is starting to spit out semi-recognizable words like juice (which happens to be jhoooo), Michelle (which happens to be shheeooooowww) and Elijah (which happens to be Yih-yaahh). She is a sweety and manages to smile and laugh while smacking her siblings. I think it's hilarious when I hear SMACK "Stop it Alivia!" Once again my thoughts turn to my own childhood. Tysa is doing excellent. She is sort of chunky, but we don't seam to have kids any other way. I'm convinced that if we had gotten Michelle while she was young, she would have started out chubby. Tysa is smiling alot, she learned how to suck her thumb, and is overall a very contect baby. For all who would like to come, we are having her sealed to us Thanksgiving weekend at the Temple in Omaha, Ne. With us will be a lot of the birth mom's family (my cousin Bridgette), so it will be wonderful for us to have them there to support us as we do this. Thanks to Bridgette for sharing this wonderful girl with us, and thanks to her family for supporting us as we go through this together. That is all the news that I have for now, for a more detailed and, let's be honest, accurate description of any points brought up in the preceding words, it's probably best to talk to Amanda. Thanks for all you love and prayers in our behalf! We truly can't explain how much you all mean to us, and how we are thankful for all the love and support we get. Love you.

Sorry for the delay

Just wanted to drop a quick note and let everyone know that we are doing ok. We have been VERY busy and also had to have Isaac re-set the password since they were the ones that set this blog up for us when we were in the hospital. I promise we will get on in the next couple of days and give a detailed and complete update. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Just a quick note......We got some family pictures taken and wanted to share some of them with all of you. I was really happy with how they turned out. I thought it would be massive chaos to take them all for pictures, but all of them really did well and were cooperative with the photographers. It's still a little strange to look at our family picture and see how much we have grown in the last three and a half years. I really thought three and a half years ago we would never have kids. This is awesome, even with the chaos, I am having sooooo much fun. I love it and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Once again, we have been remiss in updating the blog. I will therefore endeavor to write what has been happening with a semblance of accuracy. I promise that my imagination will not contribute. I also promise that I will leave at least half of the information out since that is what I do, my calling as a man, my station in life. Poor Amanda married down heh heh. Anyway, we have had a good couple of weeks. Elijah is off of the steroids and his actions and emotions are much less of a roller coaster. He also has thinned down again because the steroids made him gain quite a bit of weight. He was eating for awhile during the steroid regimen, but that was as short lived as the steroids themselves. It did think it was pretty funny that Elijah, while he was puffed up and chubby, had a rather large belly. We were swimming and he looked at his tummy and looked up to me and said "I have a big belly like Dad's." How tender and sweet! We are almost done with the most intense phase of his steroids and will soon be going to the doctor only once a month. We did find out that he would be taking a low dose chemo every day in pill form for the next 3 years. We foolishly hoped that we would not have to keep giving him medicine every day but alas, that is not the case. Michelle is doing very well and getting ready to start school. We went and bought school supplies for her and I felt like an old man. I kept saying "This isn't how things were in my day. Why, in my day all we needed was a pencil box, some pencils and paper." Apparently I also walked to school uphill both ways in the snow carrying all of my siblings. She is pretty excited and I must say that I am so happy that we were able to get her a Hannah Montana folder for her. Oh joy. Hallelujah. Yippee. She was also excited that she was able to buy a backpack. It is kind of a luggage piece because it has wheels on the bottom and you can pull it. It seems to me that they should be able to carry their stuff, otherwise they might get fat (says the fat dad to the skinny hyper youth). I must confess that I was also pretty excited to get my first eye roll from Michelle and I could see the thought flashing across her face "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard and will not dignify that with a response." At least she is smart enough not to actually say that. All kidding aside, she is excited to go to school and we love having her as a part of our family. Alivia is still doing well. She is the one that we might have to worry about when she is older. I find it mildly amusing (very mildly) that if you try and grab her hand to lead her where she wants to go, then she will jerk her hand out of yours and sort of run away. It is hilarious when she does it to Michelle, not so hilarious when she does it to us. We are still unsure as to what to do with her since our other children are all mellow. I always come home and am prepared to see her walking around the kitchen, right arm swinging wildly, going for Elijah or Michelle to annoy them in some way. It is kind of fun also to watch her grab Elijah's blanket, juice, toy, food, or anything else he might have and look up at him to see how long it will take him to yell at her. She does it with a smirk on her face, and all I can think of when I see that is "My poor parents.". How fun it must have been for them to see me antagonize Isaac until he smacked me full force in the back with a broom handle. Or watching me push Zach around because he was too skinny to hurt me. Or watch me put Angela in my movie for school and call her a serving wench. Or watch me make Melanie cry because I told her that she was faking her vibrato when she sang. Or watching me slap the glasses off of Jenny's face (she got the best of that one, she can punch reeeeeeallly hard). Or watching me convince Jordan that it was ok to slide off of the roof on a saucer because the 6 inches of snow would pad his fall (this was a failure because I went off first with Zach and couldn't hide the pain when I thought I pushed my coccyx into my throat). Or . . . I couldn't do anything to Woody because he as an evil imagination and would win. Period. I digress. The point is, I shall reap what I have sown as a youth and am not looking forward to the harvest. Tysa is doing very well. She is finally sleeping through the night which is great! For Amanda. I must confess that I didn't get up very often, but I think I commiserated well her when she told me about it. She is a cutie and we love her. Also, a big thanks and a large hug to our friends the Hancocks who moved to Idaho this week. Bill (Beeeaal) and Georgia are our long lost (he would say bastard) southern brother and sister. It is hard to describe how much they meant to us and how we will miss them. Bill was so very thoughtful and did Elijah's adoption pro-bono when he first starting out as an attorney. He is a spiritual giant and we will miss his sense of humor, his humility, and his love for god and the gospel. He would tell us about how the lord had to make do with him in the callings that he was in, but everyone who knew him knew that there wasn't another person as diligent, as kind, and as thoughtful as Bill. Georgia was always next to Bill with a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her face. I will always admit that my wife is the one who does all the work and makes me who I am, and I know that Bill feels the same way about Georgia. She is a great woman. Bill and Georgia, we love you more than we can ever express and hope to see you soon. Also, thanks to all of you who are too numerous to name that have helped us. All of my family (and I mean all, even those that I am not able to talk to much) thank you for everything you do. All of Amanda's family. All of our friends. Thanks for all the help, the prayers, the thoughts, the calls to see if we are ok. Thank you from the bottom of our heart. I am going to stop before I start crying (all who know me very well know that it is a distinct possibility, especially if there is an opossum who is dying). We love you all.

Well....Amanda has been very busy and so it is my turn to create the blog. I know that many of you are ecstatic that I get to wax poetic about how things are going with our family, but try to contain your amazement at my mastery of the english language and sit back to enjoy this verbal feast. Things have been going well with our family. First and foremost, we were able to go to the temple and have Alivia sealed to us. Poor girl is stuck with us as parents for eternity! AAAAAAHHHHHHH! Oh well. She'll have to make do. All joking aside, we are thrilled that it is finally done. Thanks to all who helped us through the heartache of thinking we would lose her. Elijah is doing well, he went through a round of chemo that included steroid treatments. Yikes! We lovingly like to call him Mr. Angry during this process because the steroids made him freak out at the smallest provocation. Amanda has two pictures that were taken about 25-30 seconds apart and in one he is smiling, and in the other he is yelling. Fantastic! We also added another to our family. We welcomed a young lady named Michelle to our household. She just turned 10 and is fitting in very well with us. She is remarkably helpful and is a sweet girl who is happy to laugh and have fun. She especially loves all of her new cousins like Isabelle, Ava, Tia, and Abby. Tysa is doing well but still eating every two hours. She must be related to all of my thin relatives because she doesn't seem overly big. She is starting to get a little chub though. Amanda is not yet bald from pulling her hair out, but I think it might happen in the near future. I try to ease her burden by antagonizing her (only in order to make her laugh. Oddly, she doesn't seem to laugh as much as I do. HHHmmmm). She is a great mom and wife and we all appreciate her. I am sure that she will update you all soon with more information but in the meantime, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We would not make it without that. Thank you also for your willingness to drop what you are doing and help out when we are in the hospital with Elijah for a week (especially Woody and Melissa who took all of our kids for 3 days. YIKES that is 7 kids 10 and under!!). We love you all.

Hi there all! First and foremost thanks for all of your prayers, Elijah's bone marrow is CLEAN!!!! This was great news and we are so thankful for our blessings! They also did a spinal the same day as the bone marrow ( which was the most awful day of pokes) , and his CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) had lots of WBC in it. Dr Al-Zein said that it had about eight times the number of white cells that it should so they decided to send it for culture. The culture came back with three different kinds of bacteria in it so it was necessary to do a repeat spinal. Dr. Al-Zeins thoughts were that there is a good chance that Elijah had a viral meningitis when he was in the hospital this last time. He kept spiking fevers and they kept running tests, but nothing came back positive. He finally stopped the fevers and we were able to go home on Thursday with no answers as to why he was having the fevers. Now we may have the answer, and he thinks that the reason he has WBC's in his CSF is left over from that virus. They repeated the spinal today and gave me a call this afternoon with the report that he now has a normal amount of WBC's in his CSF. Dr. Al-Zein expects that the cultures will all come back negative. We should know that tomorrow. Elijah has started on the next phase of chemo as of Friday called Delayed intensification. I think that the last time I said he had started a phase I stated it was this one, but that one was actually inter-maintaince. I'm trying really hard to keep everything straight!! This phase is basically the first two phases (induction and consolidation) put together. So yes, he will be back on the dreadful steroids that make him a different person. We are not excited for this, so we are hoping that the next month goes by fast. On the other hand, the steroids should make him want to eat us out of house and home. This is what they told us the first time and it never rang true so we will be anxious to see if happens this time. Elijah also received the first dose of the medication that is replacing the one that he was allergic to today. He did fine, other than the shot part, but luckily no allergic reactions to this one so far. It was funny to watch the anxiety of the nurses in the clinic after they administered the shot, just waiting for him to puff up. Elijah gets really blotchy skin after he has been crying and one of the nurses said, "now did he look like this before we gave him the shot??" I assured her that this is a normal response to him crying and not an allergic reaction. We should be done with the big pokes for awhile. He will receive a total of 6 shots with this medication that he will get every other day, starting today. Lots of trips to the clinic, bummer!! Elijah is doing a Zoo Camp this week every morning and seems to be loving it!! It was nice to finally get him doing something outside the home and away from me a little. He was great with me dropping him off, which is a little sad, but I'm just glad he didn't have bad separation anxiety.

Alivia, Tysa and I have gotten to spend some extra quality time together with Elijah being gone in the mornings this week and it's been fun to spend some time with just them. Alivia is good and busy as ever. Tysa is as cute as can be with her little dimples and little bit of chub that she is getting. She is starting to smile more and eating more if that's possible. She is probably close to around 9 lbs and is eating 4 oz at a time now. She is still up a couple times a night, but I can hope that that will get less and less the bigger she gets. She is still only as big as what some babies are born at. Elijah and Alivia really love her and want to be close to her all the time. I was totally expecting Alivia to be jealous when I was holding Tysa that she would want to be held. Really she just gets mad because she wants to hold Tysa, not that she wants me to hold her. She likes to squeeze extra tight when she holds her, not really getting the gentle concept. Elijah is a great big brother and helps out when he can. Tysa is now realizing when she is not being held and much prefers to be held. She lets me know it, and how do you not hold such a cutie!! She might be a little spoiled, but then I think all of my kids are a little. I am going to post some new pictures, thanks again for all the continued prayers and support. We love you all!!

Yet another long stretch and it's time to update a little. Never a dull moment at the Hancock residence. Things have been good (and busy) since we got home with Tysa. Elijah just loves her so much and even Alivia is doing better than I thought she would. She like to hug her and squeeze her. There has been a few times when she has needed me and I'm feeding Tysa, so she is a little jealous but for the most part doing quite well. This last Saturday Alivia ran a fever all day and had been feeling crummy for the couple of days before that. I thought she was trying to cut teeth, but on Saturday night her fever got to 104 and she didn't want to walk on her right leg. I wanted to cry, we have played this game before!! We ended up taking her to the ER because we didn't really know what to think. Her white count was high and she has a virus called hand, foot and mouth. This is the third time she has had this in the last few months and it is highly contagious. I was trying to be so careful with my immuno-suppressed child and newborn baby, but Elijah ended up getting a fever last night (Monday) and we had to come to the hospital with him. Alivia is doing better and is staying with Woody and Melissa ( Thanks soooooo much to them!!!). We are so lucky to have such a strong support system around us and people so willing to watch our kiddos on a moments notice, even when they are sick. We are currently at the hospital with Elijah and Tysa. Elijah is doing okay, but as of about an hour ago has gotten another fever. We were supposed to be leaving in the morning, but I don't know now?? Elijah is showing no signs of the virus that Alivia has, so we don't really know why he is getting fevers. Dr Al-Zein was in today and I talked with him about a few different things. First, Elijah has been complaining lately that his legs are asleep. It's hard to know what he is feeling, but I can tell it's something. Dr. Al-Zein said that he might be developing some nerve issues from the chemo meds that he has been on the last couple of months. He started him on a new medication for it and also is starting him on physical therapy. The second thing that Dr.Al-Zein talked about was his numbers. He has been watching some of them the last few weeks and they just aren't where he would like to see them. He wants to do another bone morrow next Friday to make sure his bone morrow is clear of leukemia cells. I guess because Elijah is in a high risk category, he wants to pay close attention to this. He ultimately said that he isn't happy with the way his numbers are right now. This makes us very nervous and we are praying that everything is still okay and that he is just trying to break more records (not really). Lets all keep our fingers crossed and prayers are always appreciated!! I'll try to keep everyone updated in the next couple of weeks when we find out anything more. As for our third and newest child, she is awesome. Absolutely adorable and really an easy going baby. I weighed her tonight at the hospital and she is a whopping 8lbs!! She eats great and now that she is a bit bigger, she is starting to sleep a little longer at night. She is still very alert a lot of the time and even smiles a little. I know it seems pretty early for smiles, but she has done it enough to be more than just gas. We are so happy to have her in our family and truly appreciate the opportunity. We love all of our kids so much and feel blessed to have such a great, busy group. Love and thanks to all of those who continue to give us support, you mean the world to us. Love you all!!

Here is a link to some of the cutest pictures you have ever seen!!! This was the photo shoot that Holly surprised us with. It was so fun!! Huge thanks to Holly!! These pictures are only going to be there for viewing until May 16th, so don't miss out...
www.joannataylorphotography.com/Tysa

Hi there all!! Wow what an emotional few days. We are all doing well and we are so blessed to have Tysa. She is sooooo precious and so far is a great baby. Tysa is very content and is alert a lot of the time. She has beautiful brown eyes and beautiful skin. She is such a petite little thing. I'm use to handling babies, but I haven't held or taken care of a baby this small for a long time. She has soft black hair, long fingers and long feet. So far, I have had to wake Tysa up at night to eat and just today we have heard how she can cry out loud. As I'm sitting here writing this Levi is holding her and we are having a big laugh because she just filled her pants in a way that I would have never thought someone so little could do!!! The newborn diapers are huge on her.
On Saturday we went to Bridgette's (Tysa's birth mother) caseworkers office to sign all the paperwork. This is a much different situation than we have ever taken part in. We have gotten very close to Bridgette and I can't begin to explain how hard it is to watch her grieve so much. She has been absolutely incredible and her strength is truly amazing. We have never gotten this emotionally involved and it's a very different feeling than we have ever felt. I have always known that a birth mother is a special person and the most selfless person. These statements have become more evident to me in the last four days. I have a hard time feeling like we are the ones causing Bridgette all of the pain that she is feeling. I know that everything that she is feeling and doing is very normal, but like I have said before we have never watched from this angle. I'm so glad that she feels comfortable with us and she has said numerous times that we are the best parents and she is so glad that Tysa s going to have us as her parents. She is being a great mother by giving her child what she feels is in her best interest. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers to be comforted and stay strong.
We are missing our kiddos like crazy!!! We have checked in every free minute that we have had and it sounds like they are doing great!! We can't wait to bring this sweet baby home to meet them and start our new routine. We can't wait to introduce Tysa to all of you and hope that you can stop to see her, she's worth it!! That's all for now, hope to keep updating and get home soon. We Love you all.... A huge thanks to all of you who have taken care of Elijah and Alivia. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Tysa Marie has arrived!! Weighing in at 5 lbs and 13 oz. She is 19 inches long and has lots of black hair!! Sooooo cute!

Hi all. Have a few things to update on. I misspoke with the last post, Elijah is in the inter-maintence phase not delayed intensification. I think this has been the hardest on Elijah for quite awhile. The medication he is on is really doing a number in him. He feels soooooo lousily. He has no energy and absolutely no appetite!! He is taking two to three naps a day and he literally eats a couple bits of food a day. The doctors put him on an appetite stimulant to try and get him to eat. He grew 2cm, but he has lost a pound and so they were concerned enough to give him medication to get him to eat. Dr. Al-Zein said that if this doesn't work then they would have to look at alternative method like a feeding tube. I said no way!!! I am trying to do anything to get him to eat. He also has an extremely heightened sense of smell. Everything smells bad to him and I think that also has made food taste bad to him. I'm ready for this phase to be over already and we have about 8 weeks left. The worst part for me is thinking about leaving for Utah to meet our new baby and having to leave him for a couple of weeks. He just hasn't been himself with all of this and I haven't been away from him for a day since he got sick. He tells me all day long that he is tired and that's what he was doing for the two weeks before he was diagnosed, so that freaks me out a little and of course I think that maybe there is something else wrong that we don't know yet. I can't imagine if something happened to him while I am gone. We are leaving him in good hands, but I'm still pretty stressed about it. Poor little guy, I just want him to feel better soon. We are also keeping a close eye on his legs. A couple of weeks ago Elijah told me that his leg hurt and at first it didn't occur to me that this is a symptom to watch for during this phase of his chemo. He is getting a drug called Vincristine that can cause toxicity and the first and biggest symptom to watch for is leg pain. He was walking a little funny and Dr Al-Zein noticed so now if he mentions anything with his legs then they will give him yet another medication for the toxicity. We were back in the hospital last weekend just overnight becuase Elijah spiked a fever. Turns out, both of his ears were infected. He hasn't had an ear infection since he was 15 months old!!! What the crap. Luckily we got to go home the next day since his ANC was high enough. They would have kept him for the normal three days if his counts would have been low. I think we have just had bad luck with ears lately, Alivia is getting tubes in her ears on Monday.
The kids and I decided to come to Kansas with my sister this last Wednesday and stay through the weekend. It has been a good trip other than the occasional bad mood from Elijah. We went to the zoo on Thursday and have just been hangin' out the rest of the time. Actually pretty relaxing and just nice to get away from everyday life in the doctors offices for awhile. Levi and my mom came tonight (Friday) and we are all leaving on Sunday. I am going to put some updated pictures on finally, sorry it has taken so long. Baby day is getting closer, we are so excited!! Talk to everyone soon. Pray that Elijah will feel better soon. Love you all!!!

P.S. Hi Kami. So good to hear from you. I checked this last time we were in the hospital and you weren't working, but we will try again next time. It would be great to see you.

Hi there all! We are doing well. Elijah, Alivia and I all had a long and rough day on Friday at the clinic starting Elijah's next phase of his treatment. He started Delayed intensification and it was a big day with lots of expectations from him. Everything was traumatic and now that Alivia is finally walking, she was a handful on top of it. He had to have a spinal to put a medication called methatrexate through his spinal fluid. It took FIVE pokes to finally get this done and you would think I would be use to seeing him suffer. I am here to say, I believe no matter how long we have been doing this, it doesn't get any easier to watch him have to go through these very hard times. We are better now, but it's days like that when I honestly wonder how much more I can take. After a few good days, or at least not so bad days I feel like I'm ready to conquer a little more. Alivia is a busy body and into EVERYTHING!!!!! I guess we knew this was coming. She is still pretty cute!!

On another note, I think it's time we make it official and let those of you who don't already know our new news! We are expecting a baby that will be joining our family in May. It's coming right up and we are super excited to be growing our family by yet another one. (No, I'm not pregnant)! It will be another little girl and her name will be Tysa Marie. Please pray for us, HaHa.
Love you all!!

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finally done with Alivia's battle. The apalette court sent the ruling down and affirms with the district court!! YEA!! Here is her in her blessing dress that we will finally get to use, and very soon!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support along the way.
We LOVE you all!!!

I figured that it's time to write an update since we have been admitted to the hospital twice in the last week and a half. Our first heart pounding experience was about a week and a half ago when we were at the clinic for elijah's weekly chemo treatment. He received a chemo drug called PEG Aspargnaise (sp?). When we were in iowa city they did teaching with us about this drug and told us that it is the most highly allergic chemo drug that he will receive. They also told us that most patents won't have an allergic reaction to it with the first dose, it is usually with subsequent doses. When he received it that day I hadn't been thinking about that and wasn't prepared for what happened. Within a minute or two of giving the dose, Elijah's face started swelling. First his eyes, then his nose and eventually everything else. It was so scary. They immediately gave him epinephrine and then some benadryl. This helped, but he stayed swollen for the rest of the day. They kept us for a couple of hours and then sent us home when he was stable. Almost as soon as we got home he started getting hives. He bod became covered in them and so we were instructed to give him benadryl every four hours. By early evening, this wasn't cutting it. He was miserable and looked awful. The doctor then decided to prescribe a steroid to help. The part that made this even more interesting was that the doctor seemed to be in denial that this was truly a reaction to the PEG????? An allergic reaction to this medication use to be much more common because they use to give it through an IV. They would have the reaction almost immediately, because that's hat happens when it goes directly into the blood stream. Now they give it as an IM (intra-muscular) shot. They have less reactions, and when there is an allergic reaction it doesn't happen usually for 30-50 minutes. This is because with an IM shot it is a slower release, and therefore a longer period of time for a reaction to occur. The doctor was saying that it must be a fluke or wondered if when we were all holding him down for the shot, someone was holding his head too tight. I was a little baffled that he was really trying to blame this n something else because of the history of allergic reactions to this particular drug. He said that he shouldn't have had a reaction that quickly after administering the drug. I questioned him to see if it could ave been from the other medication that he received that day, and he said for sure not. So after that I thought is he really trying to blame this on something else??? Moving on with this story, the next morning he was still braking out in hives and mid morning was lying on the couch watching a movie. He had been coughing on and off for a bit and Levi and I wondered if his throat was irritated in some way from everything. The next thing I knew he went to say something to us and his voice was raspy, and then quickly lead to almost a whisper. I FREAKED!!! I thought that his airway was starting to close again and called 911! I might have over reacted a bit, but I think this young man has given us one too many close calls in the last few months, and I wasn't messing around. Within a couple of minutes we had several emergency vehicles outside our house and our neighbors were probably wondering what the heck was going on. He was still a little raspy and his lungs weren't clear when the paramedics listened to him. Levi had talked to the doctor and he told us to head to the ER, and so we told the paramedics that we could take him but they said since he didn't sound clear, had hives everywhere and was so young that it was safer to have him ride down in the ambulance. I couldn't really argue since I did call them to come and help. The problem I saw with this situation is that if his airway did close, there is nothing I can do at that point to help him. You can't give mouth to mouth without a functioning airway!!! Anyway, we ended up staying over night to make sure he wasn't going to have any more problems, and got to go home Easter Sunday in the afternoon. Needless to say, I know carry an epi pen with me so that I don't have to be so quick to call 911. The doctor said that it would be more cost effective. HaHa!! He continued to have a rash on and off for a couple of more days, and then has been fine since. We were back in the clinic this last Friday and he received more chemo. (By the way, the doctor said that he finally proved that he did have a true allergy to the PEG, and will not be receiving this drug anymore) On Saturday I noticed that he was starting to cough a little and have a runny nose. I had been sick a couple of weeks ago and thought that since he didn't get it when I did that we were in the clear. Well as most of you know and have probably experienced, everyone has had a little touch of some kind of sickness, and if you haven't you can consider yourself very lucky. So there is no telling where he picked it up, but he did. He went through the weekend with a low grade fever, and finally about noon he spiked to 101.8. I called the doctor and he teased me by telling me to bring him to the clinic and if his counts were high enough then we could just treat him at home. Well, this last Friday his ANC was around 1600, so I thought there might be a fair chance that his ANC would still be good enough to go right back home. No such luck, in the last few days Elijah's ANC has dropped to around 200. Bummer!! So we are stuck until at least Wednesday, and hopefully no positive cultures. Dr. Al-Zein mentioned the words, "we want to make sure it's not his port that's not infected." I hadn't thought about that because I assumed it was all due to his cold and cough. We're praying that it's that and not his port. When we got admitted today there was another interesting story that I was told. There was another young boy that received PEG in the clinic today and had the exact same reaction as Elijah. As it turns out, it's really uncommon to have had two allergic reactions within the same couple of weeks. When I was talking with one of the nurses, she said that it's been at least a year and a half since they have seen a patient with a reaction. They are looking into the batch of PEG, because both were from the same LOT numbers. Dr. Mitchell said that they decided to go ahead and just admit him because they learned their lesson. I told him that we were glad to be of assistance.

My sister had a baby in February and his pediatrician admitted him to the hospital today too! Turns out, it's not a good day for my side of the family. Please keep both of us in your prayers. Love you all and I will put some new pictures on when we get home and get the camera back. I have some great swollen face and body rash pictures. Good Night!!!

WOW!!! What an awesome support system we have. We never expected the benefit to turn out so great! A HUGE thank-you goes out to our friends Kevin and Jennie for organizing it for us and also to all of our friends and family that helped make it happen. There were so many businesses and volunteers that donated items for the auction and raffle and that really made it great. It was truly incredible to us haw many people stepped forward to help that we didn't even know, so to all of you thank-you sooooo much. I hope everyone had fun and I think that we had lots of people walk away with some pretty neat things. THANKS again so much for EVERYTHING. We appreciate each and everyone of you. Elijah is doing well. His counts were high enough to start chemo again this last Friday and so having a couple weeks off of it made him feel pretty good. By the middle to end of this week I think I'll be singing a different tune. The doctor said that by the end of this week his counts will be low again and we will possibly be in for more transfusions and possible fevers. Not looking forward to that, but this really is the roller-coaster that Elijah will go through for the next few years. It is nice to have at least a couple weeks of break. Today we went to see a pediatric surgeon to discuss putting his port back in. He scheduled this for tomorrow because he wants to got this done before his counts are too dangerous to put him through surgery. It will sure be nice to have his port back in, but I hope and pray that it won't get infected this time. So now every time we go to the clinic I will put a numbing cream on the port site because they will have to access it with a needle for all of his treatments. So I will update later this week with the details. Love you all and Thanks again for everything!!!!!

Hi there all!! We were able to come home on Sunday afternoon. Dr Al-Zein said that he was breaking his own rules because Elijah's counts had dropped even more, but he trusted us that we would bring him back if he got a fever. Nothing grew on the cultures and he stayed fever free so thankfully we were able to come home. It was the first time I had heard Elijah say that he didn't want to come home. He was having so much fun with all of the toys and felt fine, not to mention he had mom and dad 24/7 with our full attention!!! I would be loving it too. After the first day of pokes, they weren't really doing much to him so he thought it was a-okay! We are back to our normal routine now at home and it's just much better for all of us. We are continuing to do the radiation this week, and I can't wait for it to be over. Today was the first time he has been in a good mood to start, and actually woke up in an okay mood too. I had his favorite chips waiting for him so I think that helped!! We will for sure remember that the next couple of days. I had the radiology tech take some pictures of him with the radiation mask on and the machine they use so I posted those for everyone to see. The mask is actually a little disturbing. Good thing he has never seen it or even know that he wears it! Elijah will probably be getting more blood and platelet transfusions in the next week or two. He won't be getting anymore chemo until his counts (his ANC) are up to 750. Since they are at about 20 right now, Dr. Al-Zein said that it might be a couple of weeks before he can start up again. This also means that as long as the ANC is low, he is at high risk of fevers and hospital admissions. Lets all pray for big numbers next time he has his counts checked. That's all for now, Love you all!!!