Week of Feb.13th

If you have stayed with us over the past week, thanks for coming back and checking in! I am going to start checking in once a week unless something is going on with Ella. My hope, is that...this is getting boring!

Josh and I left for Florida on the 13th, and Steve and Ella spent the week together.  For Valentine's Day, Ella came up with a list of things she wanted to do, and they spent the day marking them off one by one.  You can see her pancakes and pizza above. Everything Steve cooked had to be heart shaped. They best Valentine's Day gift for me was how Steve spent the day with Ella.

On Tuesday Ella had clinic. Her red, white and platelet counts were all low and she needed a blood transfusion. Ella fell asleep at clinic during her transfusion because her reds were so low. When she has a transfusion she has to stay for a bit afterwards to make sure she did not have a reaction. They were at Loyola from 9am-5pm. Long day for daddy and Ella. thank you again for those of you who have donated blood!  The rest of the week they had to stay in the house to make sure Ella stayed healthy. Steve got to play Barbies and Build A Bear for hours this week. Gold Star for daddy.

Josh and I had fun in Florida. We did Disney and Epcot, but the first thing we did was decorate shells with glitter and send them home to Ella. Josh had 3 adults catering to his every need. He was a pretty happy kid all week. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled both of us pretty good this week, and I am so very grateful to both of them. They decorated our rooms for Valentine's Day too. I even got flowers, heart pillowcases and little heart towels in my bathroom.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

There is a great foundation that works to take care of the families of kids with Cancer called Bear Necessities. They asked to use Ella's picture to help promote their foundation and raise funds. So, we took a bunch of photos for them of Ella with their signature bear and soon they will be in a video. Here is one of them above. She was in a really good mood when we took these and she has nick named this bear "Fuzzy". As you know, Ella loves bears. So, kinda neat for Ella!

Steve and Ella picked us up from the airport. I don't know why, but it was kind of a shock when I saw Ella in the back seat with her shiny little cue ball head. I don't know why it took me by surprise, but I just started crying. It is just such a visual reminder. She was trying so hard to stay awake in the car on the ride home. When she realized she was falling asleep she started crying and staying "I wanna snuggle with Momma!". I had to promise her I would still snuggle even if she fell asleep so she would stop crying.

Ella doesn't have clinic again until March 1st. If her counts have gone up, this will mark the beginning of Maintenance for Ella. It is the longest phase of her journey (almost 2 years) but it is also the last. She will only have to go in once a month to clinic for chemo and take it daily at home. This phase is also a little scary because I won't know what/where her counts are for an entire month, and that uncertainty is scary.

I started working on making Ella's blog a book. When she is done, I am going to have it printed and save it for when she is ready to read it.

Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers, support, and words of encouragement.

Blessings~Katie