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.