WSU Weekend (lots of pictures!)

Saturday went really well for us. I was a little worried when Ally was up in the middle of the night with leg pain and belly pain. But she was a real trooper and had such a busy day! She started out the day by making a snow fort in the front yard, going to her brother's basketball game, then had her whole event at Wright State (lots of pictures below), followed up by hanging out with her ENTIRE family from Jerad's side at the hotel Saturday night. Whew. I don't know too many kids who have a schedule like that following a day full of chemo and getting blood!
The Wright State event was very very nice. They planned it out so well...pink balloons and streamers decorating the arena, they made all five of us pink Ally's Army jerseys with our names on the back, the team even wore pink socks and special warm-ups. A section of the arena turned orange for the game...as we had 50 Ally's Army supporters there in their orange t-shirts. Thank you so so much to all of you who took time out of your Saturday afternoon to show support for our girl. Things like this are very encouraging to her and honestly she deserves any encouragement that she can get. She walks a tough line on a lot of days....and sees more pain than anyone should ever have to...so it is always nice when that is recognized and she gets a little boost to keep her pushing forward.

At halftime, Coach Williams presented her with a special signed and decorated ball and dedicated the game to Ally. She also mentioned that the Butler coach is battling breast cancer and asked her to say something to Ally. Which she did by whispering to her "you look much better bald than I ever did" as she walked off the court to talk to her team. You can see in the picture that the ball looks awesome and I know Ally was really happy to show it off to her friends. I really want to thank Bridgette Williams for doing this for Ally...it was all her idea and her work in planning and organizing. We are blessed to have so many people supporting us as we go through this trying time. Even nine months into it....there are still those people who have not forgotten we are in the midst of fighting the fight against leukemia.




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Ally is right in the middle of this!

Amazingly enough, Jerad's whole family was in town (even his sister and family who live in Florida)...this is really a quite rare occurrence so at Mom/Grandma's request we took next year's Christmas card picture. We were even color coordinated. Thank you to all 24 of them for making it! They stayed at a local hotel and Ally even got in the water to swim, which was nice to see.Sunday was not as good of a day for sweet Ally. I felt bad as she suffered most of the day with belly pain and spent the day on the couch. We were probably partly paying the price for over-doing it on Saturday. And some of it is just those nasty chemotherapy drugs. I know they are saving her, but I hate when they hurt her in the process. I am hoping she starts feeling better again soon. She has lost quite a bit of weight again, and failed to eat much of anything again today.

Thanks for praying for all those fighting cancer and all the families that are right there supporting their loved ones through it. Please pray for strength for all of them.