I have taken a couple of months off from blogging, not necessarily on purpose, but time flies, and bam long time no blog.
It's not that I haven't been stamping and doing workshops but I just haven't had the time & energy to blog. I've just been drained. Not nearly as much as others in my life have been, but still, it's affected me I've discovered.
Are you ready?
Some of you know that I have a sister who moved to Africa this fall to start a missionary journey with her family. My sister, her husband & 2 nieces packed up everything they owned and either put it in storage, sold it, or moved it to Africa with them. Let's just say, whoa luggage! While they were there my niece, Lola became sick. They went to the hospital (I use that term a bit loosely) and found out that Lola tested positive for Malaria. Now, before you all freak out, I guess that it's really not that bad & treatable with meds.
After a while Lola still wasn't feeling herself. So they decided to take her to the capital of Tanzania, Dar, to go to an English speaking hospital. Previous to this Lola hadn't really been walking for a couple of weeks. Odd, yes, scary I bet. At some point they saw another Dr & told them that Lola most likely had mono, but she continued to go down hill. They traveled 3 days via car to reach Dar. While they were their they found out that Lola could either have mono or Leukemia but they would have to send the tests to South Africa. During this time the mission organization that they are with told them that they were coming back to the states. Keep in mind that it was 100 degrees in Dar so they only had what they brought with them, summer clothes. They of course didn't have 3 days to drive back home and 3 days back to Dar. They left everything behind and boarded a plane to the states.
They arrived in Chicago on Saturday February 11th. The next morning they headed to the new children's hospital here in Grand Rapids, MI. On February 14th Lola was officially given a diagnosis of ALL Leukemia. Her prognosis is good and she is currently finishing (or just finished) her second round of chemo. She is also considered in remission already! She is doing great overall & her sprit has returned. :) The treatments will continue for a couple more years or so. I'm not sure if that will be chemo the whole time or if that time span includes followup. You can read all about their amazing story (with pictures) right here!
The good news is my adventure baby gets to go and see her cousin tomorrow! She hasn't seen her since October!!! We have been keeping Adventure Baby away from Lola so far because of her illness.
There you go a snippet of what is going on in my life right now or I guess really I should say in my niece's life. :)
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