Happy Birthday, Maggie!

I apologize for my lack of updating.  We have had so much going on that I would like to share with you.  First, today is a special day for our family.  Maggie turned six today.  I can hardly believe we have a six year old.  As I reflect back on her life, I can remember Andy and I thinking we might not even see her turn one, and here we are, celebrating six years!  We've come so far.

Another big event in our lives that I have yet to share with you is Maggie's beginning kindergarten.  This fall, Maggie was all smiles as she walked into the building and never looked back.  When I picked her up at the end of the day and asked her how school was, she responded, "It was awesome!"  She continues to enjoy school and her teacher says that she is a really hard worker.

In November, Maggie will go back to see Dr. French for check-up.  She is going every four months.  Please continue to pray that Maggie remains healthy and cancer-free forever.  We also thank you for your continued prayers and following our family through the blog (though I do a terrible job of updating).

Maggie's first day of school (8/20).

A cool day at the zoo (9/22)

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Birthday fun at Chuck E Cheese

Five Years

Today marks our five year anniversary (or crapiversary) of the day that Maggie was diagnosed.  It's a bittersweet feeling, knowing that we've come so far, however it's changed our life so much.  We spent the day doing normal things and celebrated with Maggie's choice of dining, tacos at Chipotle.  Maggie doesn't know anything about this day, nor anything about what she (or we) have been through.  We don't feel that she needs to know anything about that until she's older.  When we go to Dr. French's, it's just a doctors visit to her.  We are so thankful that she does not remember anything about her treatment.

Maggie finished preschool this May.  She loved it and we saw her come out of her shell because of it.  She will speak to others when spoken to, and is not nearly as shy as she once was.  When Maggie was diagnosed, Dr. French read us all the possible side effects to the drugs she would be receiving.  No parent wants to hear those things, and we have wondered how Maggie would develop.  After going through parent teacher conferences and kindergarten screening, we are happy to hear that Maggie is right where she needs to be, both intellectually and physically (which is amazing considering Maggie began walking at the age of 3).

Maggie continues to see Dr. French every four months now.  She goes back for her checkup in two weeks.  The checkups continue to make me nervous, but we pray that each one shows that she is in remission always.

In other news, our family has been through some crazy times in the past couple of weeks.  We ended up in ICU with Colin a couple weeks back because of reactive airway disease.  He had a pulse oxygen level of 83 when we went into the clinic and after several breathing treatments they could not get him up above 90.  They ended up transporting him in an ambulance (he called it a bus) to Akron Children's Hospital to the ICU.  During the trip they gave him several doses of steroids and breathing treatments which ended up helping immensely.  He spent several hours in the PICU before they moved him to the floor for observation over night.  He has been diagnosed with asthma and is doing breathing treatments daily so hopefully this doesn't happen again.

During that week, Grant had been at the urgent care because of a swollen lymph node.  After several days, I returned to the doctor because it wasn't getting any better on antibiotics.  Because the lymph node was larger than a walnut, the protocol was to do a CBC to rule out cancer and an ultrasound.  This put great fear in us. Given our history with Maggie, CBC's are a scary thing.  Anytime a doctor is doing one to rule out cancer, it's a very hard time for us.  Grant's CBC showed an elevated white count which most likely showed he was fighting an infection.

We were scheduled to have an ultrasound on Thursday afternoon, but Colin was than admitted into the hospital on Wednesday.  While Andy spent the night with Colin at the hospital, he spoke with the doctors about Grant's lymph node.  I came the next morning to allow Andy to go to work and a doctor came in to take a look at Grant.  She suggested we go right to the ER because it looked infected.  We then spent the morning in the ER while the doctor's ran tests, another CBC (to rule out leukemia), and an ultrasound (to rule out lymphoma and determine what it was).  After a stressful morning, they determined that Grant had an abscess on his lymph node and they scheduled surgery for the evening to drain it.  Colin was discharged from the hospital and Grant was admitted overnight for observation after surgery.  It was a crazy week and couple of days.  We were a popular family in the hospital, unfortunately.  Maggie made a comment during all this madness that both her brothers were sick, so now who was she going to play with?  We found it kind of ironic that Maggie was the most healthy one in our family during that time.

All is resolved now and we can once again live a "normal" life.  We are so grateful for good health and pray that we don't ever have to go through a cancer scare again.  I also pray we never spend another night in the hospital.  Every one of our children have been through a CBC to rule out cancer.  How often does that happen?  My nightly prayer is for good health in our family.  We thank you for your continued prayers for our family, especially Maggie.  We pray that she remains cancer free forever.

This is a picture from a trip to the Cleveland Zoo--One of our favorite things to do this summer.

3 Years

Today marks 3 years off treatment for Maggie.  It was 3 years ago today that we spent the last night in our house not knowing what the next 10 weeks would bring.  Those ten weeks would prove to be the hardest trial we ever faced, even more difficult than being told our daughter had cancer.  We (I) are still traumatized by the events that we faced 3 years ago (as well as almost 5 years ago).  But, we are happy to say we have our little girl and she is a thriving, normal 5 year old.

Just a couple of weeks ago we had Maggie's parent teacher conference and listening to what the teacher had to say made us very proud.  Physically, Maggie can keep up with her peers, though she is timid (and considering that Maggie has only been walking a little over 2 years).  Intellectually, Maggie is right where she needs to be.  She was described as a quiet, respectful, sweet little girl.  We've always known this about Maggie--she really is a sweet, gentle spirit.  Our hearts are exploding with pride and love for her.

Maggie also took her first ballet class this past month.  She spent 4 Sundays dressed in her leotard and learned dance.  This past Sunday they had a mini recital since it was the last class.  Again, we were so happy and proud of her.

It's hard to believe how far we've come and we look forward to continuing this normal journey with Maggie and the rest of our growing family.

The love of big sister and little brother.

Maggie got an award on the last day of ballet.

Maggie and I had a date and went to Miss Molly's Tea Room.
She loved pouring the tea (aka lemonade).

Our Annual Christmas picture

A Peace-Filled Christmas

We continue to remain busy in the Bixler house.  Maggie is doing very well.  She is enjoying preschool and counts down the days that she gets to return.  We all went down to Dayton on Monday for Maggie's clinic appointment to see Dr. French.  He was happy with the way she looked and her counts checked out well again.  We are especially happy for that.  She goes to get her counts checked every three months and it feels like a week or two before we go, something comes up that starts to make us worry.  This time it was petechiae-like spots on her trunk (petechiae often are a symptom of low platelets).  This of course had us scanning her body multiple times daily checking to see if there were more petechiae or more importantly, were they going away.  In the end, they did disappear and did not seem to cause any harm, but it really stressed us out.

With Maggie's doctors appointment and good counts, we have been blessed with a worry-free holiday, the best Christmas present we could ask for.  We go back to visit the clinic in March where Maggie will receive an echo, EKG, and have more involved blood working looking at several organs and how they are functioning.  Please continue to pray that Maggie will remain in remission always and she will not have any long-term effects to the chemotherapy treatment.

Since our last post, Maggie and Colin celebrated their birthday.  Maggie turned 5 and Colin turned 2.  We had several celebrations with our family and Maggie got to go to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time.  She had been asking to go for awhile and we finally took the plunge.  We all had a great time and she was asking to go back the next day.

And finally, we had some family pictures taken by a college friend in November.  She posted some of these pictures and a reflection of our family on her blog.  To view the pictures and read her comments you can click on the following link http://www.runningchatter.com/2012/11/i-offer-no-apologies-for-this-picture.html.  She did a great job of capturing our family on camera.  Thanks again, Summer!

We wish you all a Blessed,  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Big Family Moments

It has been too long since my last post.  I have wanted to post, but time doesn't allow for it with all the new changes that have entered our life.  But, for now, I have a moment and want to share what we have been up to in the last 4 months.

First, Maggie had her last clinic appointment to see Dr. French almost 2 weeks ago.  Andy and she made the trek down to Dayton together.  Her blood counts looked great (Andy didn't ask for the numbers and they didn't give them so even though it was very hard for me not to know the numbers, I am moving forward knowing she is good).  Maggie told me she talked to Dr. French for the first time.  She is really opening up to others and while her talking was probably a few words, it was an improvement.  Maggie is now 2 1/2 years off treatment- another little milestone.

A big moment in our family's life was the introduction of Grant Sebastian on August 13.  He weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 1/2 ounces.  Another big baby for us!  I was worried about how Colin would welcome him and handle the change, but he has shown us that he is very flexible and ready to be a big brother.  Maggie has been wonderful.  She loves on Grant and wants to hold him all the time.  She is a big help, getting diapers, burp cloths, giving him baths, and calming his fussiness.  Even Colin has joined in the help of trying to change his diaper, not necessarily something I'm ready for, but he is trying to be helpful.  Grant has been a very good baby, sleeping much of the day, and getting up every 2-3 hours during the night.  He seems to be pretty laid back, which is a good quality considering the crazy family he has been born into.  He is able to sleep through the screaming and yelling of children playing (for the most part).  Not to say though that Andy and I aren't really tired and back to the old sleep deprivation that we remember so well with the other two children.

We have struggled for the last almost 4 weeks of illness, which has been very frustrating.  Colin started with the stomach bug for 5 days, gave it to Andy and Maggie, and now we are dealing with colds in our family.  So much so, that we had to take Colin to the ER this morning due to retraction in his ribs, fast breathing, and grunting.  Thankfully he doesn't have pneumonia, but it's just one more thing.  Everyone is sick except for Grant, and I pray it stays that way.  We can't afford to have Grant sick.  So, I am very ready to have some normalcy in life- life that doesn't consist of illness.

Another big moment in our life was Maggie's first day of preschool!  She is going twice a week in the afternoons and was to begin on September 11, however, do to the stomach bug, she missed her first week.  Andy and I were so disappointed, but Maggie didn't seem to mind too much.  She started this Tuesday and loves it!  I was very worried there would be tears, but she left my side and didn't even turn back.  She has really matured in the last year and we are so proud of her.  Four years ago, we weren't sure she would ever see this moment, but here she is and we have met another HUGE milestone!

Maggie's first day of school- 9/18/12

Grant- 5 weeks old

Colin being Colin- 9/16/12

Mickeyland!

I apologize that it has taken me so long to share our Special Wish trip with you.  We have been so busy with moving and unpacking, as well as life.  Below are some stories, pictures, and memories from the most amazing trip anyone could ever take.  We are so appreciative of the organization A Special Wish for providing us with so many wonderful memories.

Our trip started out a bit rocky, as we were rushing to get our house packed up (we were closing on our house a couple of days after our trip) and the kids had been sick with colds.  Maggie had a temperature the day before our flight was to leave, which caused me some worry and stress.  However, amazingly so, she showed no sign of temperature the next day or throughout the trip.

We were picked up by limo very early in the morning.  We woke 

the kids (Maggie had told Andy she wanted to be tickled awake)

and rode the limo to the airport.  From the moment we entered the limo, 

Maggie never stopped talking.  She loved every minute of it. 

 The kids first airplane trip.  They both did very well (Colin slept

much of the trip).

 We stayed at the resort Give Kids the World.  It was an amazing place, basically a big playground.  They had a carousel, swimming pool, playground, arcade, all you can eat ice cream and buffet, pizza sent to your villa, putt-putt golf, and so much more.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy all the amenities because we also received passes to Disney, Universal Studios, and Sea World, and we spent as much time as possible at each park.

We spent a day and a half at the Magic Kingdom.  One of the perks of staying at Give Kids the World was that we didn't have to wait in lines.  It was so nice to go right to the front and hop on the rides.  The first ride we went on was Snow White and this did not go well.  Both kids were crying due to some scary parts (who would think it would be scary?)  After the first ride, we were still unsuccessful with the Winnie the Pooh ride.  We were not redeemed until "It's a Small World."  Both kids loved riding in the boat and watching the children sing.

One of the kid's most favorite things was riding the carousel.  There was a carousel at the resort and after breakfast, we always had to take a couple of rides.  Each park had some type of carousel and Colin always pointed it out and wanted to ride.

We met Dora at Universal Studios.  A rare family picture that turned out okay.

Universal Studios had a play land that the kids loved.  A pit full of balls?  What could

be better?  Maggie also rode her first roller coaster ever.  When she got off, she was

all smiles, but opted not to ride again.  She said it was, "too fast!"

We found Thing 1 and Thing 2 at Universal as well (with Thing 3 on the way).

Maggie enjoyed riding the Dr. Seuss rides.

And yet again, the carousel.

One morning for breakfast, Maggie chose to go looking like this.  It

was a bit funny that a very shy girl who doesn't like attention wanted

to go into public this way.  She gained many stares, smiles, and inquiries.

We thought it was pretty funny.

We visited Epcot.  This was one of our shorter days as Maggie fell asleep around 6-ish and didn't

wake up until the next morning.  We ran these kids (or they ran us) until we were exhausted.

I joked that we needed a vacation from this vacation because we were on the go the

entire week.

We went to Sea World and while the shows were enjoyable for Andy and I, the kids

(or rather Maggie), much preferred the rides.  Who would have thought that the 

little girl who got car sick on the hills of Holmes county would enjoy the twisty,

up and down, and around in circles rides.

Maggie's favorite princess is Snow White, and she is the only princess that

we got a picture with.  Maggie was, of course, super shy and wouldn't

talk, but after the fact, she loved the visit.  

Maggie and Colin both did not do very well meeting the characters.  

She wanted to meet them, but as soon

as we were up close, they both got very shy and scared.

The day we left the resort, they had horse rides.  I thought the kids would be too scared to ride them, but they both loved it.  Maggie was all smiles.  What a wonderful opportunity!

Thank you A Special Wish for a wonderful experience!

And now we have a cowboy and cowgirl.

I think these two final pictures summarize our experience perfectly.  We had an amazing time and we're so happy we were able to go on this trip with our princess!

More Changes

We continue to have busy lives trying to transition from Dayton to eastern Ohio.  While, I haven't gone through the pictures of our Disney trip yet (which was the trip of a lifetime), I will be sharing those pictures and stories very soon.  When we arrived back to Dayton from Disney, we had one day to finish packing up our house.  We signed papers and as of March 15, we no longer have a house in Dayton.  We spent 7 1/2 years in Dayton.  Dayton has many good memories for us, as well as some not so special memories.  We bought our first house, had our two children, received a Master's and Doctorate degree, and watched our daughter fight and beat a horrible disease.  Dayton will forever hold a special place in our heart.  

During all of the packing, moving, and selling of the house, we had Maggie's clinic appointment.  This appointment brought a lot of anxiety for me as this marked her 2 years off treatment (as of February 24).  This is a big mile marker.  It seems like a week or two before we have our clinic appointment, I always start seeing things on Maggie's body that would not normally make me so worried, but given the timing, my mind starts working in bad ways.  However, we had a great appointment.  Maggie actually said a few words to Dr. French (outside his presence, she is very fond of him).  Her numbers looked great and we haven't heard anything about her EKG or echo, so that must have gone fine too.  We have now moved to seeing Dr. French every 3 months (we'll see how I handle the gap).  We are very happy with Maggie's progress.

Within a week of selling our house, we found a house in Medina and as long as all goes well, we'll be moving in the end of April.  We will be very happy to be settled in our own house again.  We have been very grateful to have my grandparents house while they are in Florida, but the kids (and I) will be happy to have our own things again.  And hopefully we'll see Andy more as he will be closer to some of his sites that he counsels.  

And finally, we had an unexpected surprise given to us around Christmas time and are happy to announce that we will be adding to the family in August.  Maggie has said she wants a girl baby because we already have a boy, and if we do have a boy, she will give it to someone else to enjoy.  We'll see how that all works out.  

Thank you for continuing to follow along with us.  Our life is continually changing (all wonderful changes) and we look forward to seeing what comes next!