Happy New Year

We wish everyone a Happy New Year! May all your wishes and New Year Resolutions come true!

We wish for health and happiness for our children! We pray that Josie will continue to do so well after having completed her therapy last year. We hope that Sammy will continue to do well at school and that he will find a "best friend" who's good to and for him.

November

Josie's final test results were all great! The bone marrow was clean, her MRI didn't show any issues with her brain, her kidney function test was fine and so on. We don't have to go back to Clinic until early December. That is soooo weird! We are so used to the weekly Clinic visits by now. But we are so happy that it's finally over and so far, we've really kept our emotions in check (as far as being overly scared or worried is concerned). I just detected a nasty bruise on her shin and I am proud to say that I did not panic! The doctor at the Clinic told me that if Josie were to relapse, we would know it. There is NO missing that. She'd get sick fast. But Josie WILL NOT and MUST NEVER relapse, so that's that! :-)

I have been super busy with school. I come home late on Mondays and Tuesdays but it is definately worth it! In the end, it'll be all worth it!!! I have great teachers, some of them are Americans and I get along great with them. We chit chat a lot before and after classes. It's kind of funny that my teachers are not much older than me! But then again, this is my second university degree, so it makes sense. I like it this way, I look at things differently now and I can talk to the teachers better.

Sammy can't wait for Christmas vacation. He is busy writing his wish list (which must be many feet long by now). He's learning fast at school and his reading and writing gets better on a daily basis. I hope that he will soon make one really good friend who he can rely on and who likes Sammy for who he is. He does have friends but not a "special friend" if you know what I mean. He had Jack, when we were in the States and Sammy still misses him and talks about him. They're pen pals now which is wonderful!

Josie likes her new Kindergarten a lot! She's become quite sassy recently, which might be because of this change in Kindergartens. Also, she's one of 25 kids now (instead of 10), so she's learning to "use her elbows" to get what she wants. For some weird reason her rash has been getting worse once Chemo stopped, so that's something we're "working on". So far, we're trying a homeopathic cream since we want to avoid steroids. She had plenty of that in her young life and we wanted to give her little body a break. But she's scratching and if it doesn't get better, we'll need to apply some steroids after all to prevent scarring. Dr. Lothschuetz also said that we might need to consult a dermatologist but we'll try it our way first.

Thank you all for your comments to my last posting! It makes me happy to read how many of you are still thinking about us. :-)

It is OVER!!!!!!!!

Prepping for the EEG

Josie right after the bone marrow biopsy

Hurray! It's OVER!!! :-)

Today is Josie's end of treatment day! It is finally OVER! 2 years and 4 months of chemotherapy and other treatments for leukemia are over and done with.

To be honest, this day is very odd for us in a way. Tim and I don't know whether we should laugh or cry. It probably sounds weird to people who haven't gone through what we went through, but by giving her chemo every night we KNEW that we were doing something against the cancer. Now we feel like it's a "let's wait and see" game...But of course we are very happy that she doesn't need to take any chemotherapy anymore! If you think about it...Josie's been sick longer than she's been healthy in her short little life. We'll finally have our healthy lil' girl back!

We've had a long day at Clinic today. First Josie had to get an EEG, then she was scheduled for her final bone marrow biopsy. Today for the first time in her treatment, the doctors weren't able to access her port. Poor Josie got poked like 6 or 7 times but nothing went in and nothing came out. So they had to put an IV into her arm to put her under for the biopsy. She wasn't happy about that at all as you can imagine...But while Josie was under, the doctor was able to flush out whatever clogged the port up. After the marrow we had to wait til she woke up and wasn't dizzy anymore, then we went to the nuclear medicine lab for a kidney function test. All these tests are routinely being done for all kids to make sure nothing got harmed by the chemo. We don't have results yet. Next week are the final tests, she has to go to the eye and ear/nose/throat doctor and she's scheduled for a brain MRI on Thursday. Then we'll only have to go to Clinic every 4 weeks for blood counts. They explained to us that there are 2 reasons for the Clinic visits these next 5 years: nr. 1 is that they want to make sure that she doesn't relapse, that the cancer doesn't come back. Nr. 2 is that they need to keep a close eye on her to see whether there are any long term effects from the long chemotherapy treatment.

So...it is over and we are a little shocked that this day actually came! I hope you will all cheer with us to celebreate the end of 2 long years and 4 months of cancer treatment. Many of you have read this blog from the day Josie was diagnosed on or joined us somewhere along the road. Thank you for being there for us and for all the many encouragine words we've received. Today is a day of celebration!

"Make-A-Wish" Part 3

Josie and friends in the little house under the tower

She had sooo much fun that day!!!

The cake that "Make-A-Wish" had ordered...cheesecake...yummy!

The playstructure from the backside..you can also see parts of our house in the background

I love this close-up that my friend Bianka took of Josie on her big day! :-)

We had a wonderful time! Josie (and all of us) will never forget her "Wish Day"!!!

"Make-A-Wish" Part 2

Kevin from "Make-A-Wish" finally gave her the green light to go outside and look...

Yiiiippppppieeeee.....

Cutting the Ribbon...

And down she went on her brandnew, bright red slide for the very first time! :-)

Josie's "Make-A-Wish" Day, Part 1

Josie's "Wunschtag" (wish day) had finally arrived...when Kevin and Melanie from "Make-A-Wish Germany" visited us in April, Josie told them that she wished for a playground for her backyard...

Everyone looked a little skeptical when the contractors piled up wood and a few bags of concrete...didn't look much like a play structure yet

Putting the little tower up took the longest...all the guys you see on the picture actually donated their time and tools to put this play ground in for Josie

The kids' table waiting for the little guests

Josie was soooo excited to finally see her surprise

Josie, the Prima Ballerina

It has been Josie's wish for the past couple of years to take Ballet lessons. Here wish came true last week, when I finally found Ballet lessons for kids her age in a neighboring town...

Here she is on her way to her ballet lesson today...

"First Position"...she loves watching herself in the mirrors

Josephine Ballerine...

Just 5 min ago...Sammy doing homework. He's had a great time at school this week and the teacher is real happy with his progress!

Josie was coloring while Sammy did his homework...of course she colored ballerinas... ;-)

Tomorrow Josie's wish is supposed to be fulfilled. "Make-a-Wish" ordered a play structure that is supposed to be built in our yard tomorrow by a local company. They need to pour some concrete and put it all together. Unfortunately it is pouring down rain at the moment and they are not sure whether they can built the mini playground tomorrow. That would be a real bummer since Make-a-Wish already ordered a cake for the party and we invited her friends to be there when she sees it for the first time... Let's hope the weather holds. I will post pictures of the event.