The count down is on!!! Yesterday was Dezirae’s 5th from last chemo and now only four more to go!!

We will still be at the hospital all week to flush the chemo out. We added fun homey touches to the room and are settled in for the week.

Dezirae still isn’t allowed to put any weight on her left leg. This is very frustrating to her. She is getting much better with her crutches, but isn’t able to carry anything for herself, because her hands are full of her walker or crutches.

She has been extremely independent from the time she was a toddler!  She could lift a gallon of milk with one hand at one year old!

This carried on through her preschool years when she was blessed with twin sisters and was a HUGE help!! During this time we watched Dezirae developed wisdom and patience beyond her years. She could calm the twins down and wasn’t rattled by extreme behaviors from one of the twins(we later learned she had an egg allergy and Sensory processing disorder).

A couple years later, when Dez was 7, God sent her a big sister! Her independence and Strength served her well in helping Sarena! One day I found Dezirae(7 1/2) with Sarena(14) on her back, carrying her up the ramp at our house!! Within months of Sarena coming home Dezirae and Pippi could both help Sarena and load and unload her wheelchair from the van!

Twenty months later Dezirae traveled to China with my dad and I to adopt her two brothers. What a blessing to have her to help with Theo! She carried him and played tirelessly with him while I tended to more pressing issues with Isaac.

She has welcomed each sibling with love and extended forgiveness in tougher than normal circumstances! She is no longer the oldest child, however she has the most English and knows best how things work in our family so she was always my go to when I couldn’t be two places at once!

Littles having a melt down she knows what to do! Bigs having a meltdown she knows the protocol…….mommy is sick she can fix food and mother the others!

She has been robbed of this huge part of her. She now relies on the littles to bring her things and the bigs to get her wheelchair/walker or crutches. The loss of mobility has by far been the most difficult part of her cancer.

Yes, she knows she could die. Yet she chooses to curse the devil when things go wrong and Praise God when there is a victory!

Chatting with our favorite Hospital Chaplan!