Blessed Time

The Barnett and Mills families have truly had a blessed week. I am very happy to be writing good news!! First of all, on Tuesday, Ally and Evan both had their first days of school. Ally is in fourth grade and Evan is in second grade. Let me show a small example of how far we have come. I noticed while looking through my pictures a remarkable difference (really in both of them)
This picture is last year, 2010. The hair had just started to come back, but she still chose to wear a hat. (as she did the entire 2nd grade year too!)
And here they are on Tuesday. 2011, a full year of hair growth. Looking much healthier with longer hair (a full year's worth) and even a little chubbier (another year of steroids!) What a difference.

The very next day, Wednesday, my sister Melissa and her husband Gavin welcomed their third baby into the family. They had a healthy baby boy, named Camden, weighing in at 10 lbs 7 oz. He has stolen my heart. Ally asks to see him literally almost every hour. So about once a day I have been walking across the street with Ally (my sis lives right across the street from me!) and we get a little snuggle session in with him. Now my sister can officially start her own show titled "My Three Sons" or have her own baseball team or in her case, with her big boys, her own defensive line. (Man, those jokes are gonna get old, Melissa) I had one of the most awesome experiences of my entire life because I was right there by her side when Camden was born!!!! I am very proud of my sister (no drugs!) and very proud of my nephew.

So on Friday...another HUGE day for our family. It was Ally's last spinal tap! I am hoping FOREVER. She went under sedation and got her last dose of chemo into her spine. She also got her last dose of chemo into her port in her chest. She will continue with her daily chemo until September 17....and then she will be done with that! Most importantly, the spinal fluid was clear! After our last spinal, which went horribly because they had to try three times, I was worried. But she seemed very relaxed going in (not sure why) and she did great. One poke and done. She wanted to see what it was like, and I wanted to be able to show her, so I took a bunch of pictures during the procedure after asking Dr B if it was okay. I guess I am not the first person to document this. It was a good thing for me to do because it kept me busy and not crying through the whole thing! Anyway, I will share those pictures later with everybody. I took a lot! We showed Ally. The only reason I showed her what they do is because she doesn't have to do it again. She has never remembered one thing about any of the spinals, which is a blessing in itself.

Dr B also decided not to do the bone marrow test at that time. It makes sense now that I think about it. He wants to wait and do the bone marrow during her surgery to get her port out. She will be under general anethesia at that time and won't feel it. It will also allow us to see how her body is doing after three months without chemo. I just wish I would have known this sooner so I wouldn't have worried so much. So we will wait for that to be done.....

And finally, on Saturday, the 2nd Annual TJ Chumps Rally for Ally motorcycle run was held. Lots of caring people on motorcycles rode all day from 9-4 for our cause. They went to all 3 TJ Chumps, even running into my Dad at the Fairborn location, and also several other bars. My friend Lori Fultz, who is former co-worker of mine, spends a lot of time and effort organizing this on our behalf. She is just one of those people who have a heart of gold and does it for no other reason than to just be nice and help a good cause. I am so grateful to her! Because of her hard work, the donations of many kind people for the raffle (TJ Chumps donated a 40" flatscreen!), and all of those that participated we will be adding $700 to our Curesearch total for the walk. I was so impressed that some of the wait staff at Chump's were giving half of their tips to our cause. So to Lori and Jim and everyone else: THANK YOU SO MUCH! And we were so blessed to have Jerad's Uncle Bill and his friend Steve ride down all the way from Junction City to represent our family in the event.

Here is Ally welcoming the riders back in:

So that was our busy, blessed week in review. I hope to have many more good posts to write about. The power of prayer is what got us to where we are today. With God all things are possible.