Fun Fireworks & Carrie Underwood!

Well it has sure been a crazy couple of weeks. Madeline started radiation 3 weeks ago, the first two weeks were pretty uneventful. On the 3rd week, she underwent simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation for 5 days. The two together have made her nauseous and uncomfortable. But we still managed to pull off a short family outing to the Stadium of Fire, and not only see great fireworks, but also see Madey's favorite country singer and George's celebrity crush, Carrie Underwood. It was an amazing show, both Carrie and the fireworks, but mostly seeing Madey's
adorable smile. After the show, George got us all lost finding his way back to the hotel, but we soon found our way and had every one bedded down for a hotel slumber party. After returning home, Madey has spent most of her time recovering from our excursion and the continued side-effects of chemo and radiation. She only has 12 more days of radiation left...we can't wait! Michelle has been especially busy taking Madey on her daily drive to Huntsman for the procedure, she is an amazing example of Christ like love in our home.
Madey continues to get stronger, but we are still in need of your many prayers on her behalf. May God bless all of you especially as we celebrate the freedoms of our great nation.

Wishes Come True...

It has been a busy couple of weeks! One of Madey's wishes was to be able to attend the last week of school and be a part of all the fun

that happens when 9th grade is over. It took some convincing, but Michelle was very adamant that Madey be able to go. So we postponed chemo for a week, and what a week we had. From fishing with Grandpa, to a movie with her cousin Riely and her sister Hillary, to the 9th grade dance, to the closing assembly to the signing of yearbooks, and to top it off a party with friends, that included, volleyball, the trampoline, smores, and an outdoor movie. Madey thought that her week would be complete with all of these events, but there was one big surprise for her mixed in. A few months ago we met with the Make a Wish Foundation and Madey wished for a family trip to Florida. As part of the closing assembly, in front of all of her classmates, Prince Charming, pictured above, sought out "princess" Madeline with her missing slipper. With the help of the students at Fairfield Jr., they announced that "princess" Madey's wish had been granted. It was a really tender moment as her classmates gave her a standing ovation and honored her courage and bravery in this fight against cancer with their applause. It was definitely one of those moments that seemed frozen in time and the emotion of it all tugged on the strings of our hearts. All we can say is Thank You 'Make-a-Wish' and Thank You Fairfield Jr. High.
After all the fun died down late Friday night, reality began to set back in. Madey checked into the hospital early Saturday morning to begin her next session of Chemo, but the good memories of the last week seemed to carry her through and her spirit and attitude appeared to be unaffected. Now that this round of chemo is finished, Madey began the next phase of the battle today at the Huntsman Cancer Institute: radiation therapy. She is feeling tired, and starting to miss her friends, but she said the procedure was a piece of cake. She will continue with radiation for the next 6 weeks, with additional chemo treatments dispersed throughout. We know we still have a ways to go in our battle, but we are confident that through faith and prayer Madey will make a full recovery.

Movie, Church, and a High Five.

It has been a couple of weeks since the blog has been updated, sorry, no excuses I just forgot. This week Madey has been feeling pretty good, she was able to attend the sports recognition night at Fairfield Jr. High, where she was honored as the "Most Inspirational" member of her team, it was fun to see her honored along with teammates she has played with for the last three years, congratulations to Megan, Cheyne, and Shelby for their accomplishments this year and thank you to all the girls for including Madey in spite of everything. Madey also got to go to the Movies Saturday night with her sisters and some friends, they had a blast. It was also a blessing for her to be able to attend the whole three hour block of church on Sunday as well, thanks to our Bishop and Aaronic Priesthood Young men for taking care of the sacrament for her. Its a blessing to have days when she can feel like a 'normal' kid again. We are now waiting for her blood counts to get better so she can do her next chemo treatment. After that we will work on a speedy recovery so that she can attend the last week of school and participate in assemblies, yearbook signing, and all of the other stuff that is monumentally important to a 14 year old girl. When that has concluded she will start radiation treatments at Huntsman for about 6 weeks, chemotherapy will run in conjunction with radiation. There will be lots of trips to Salt Lake, I think our car can find its way there on its own by now. We continue to be blessed and try to do our best to enjoy all that life has sent our way.
Michelle and also got the opportunity to get up extra early on Friday morning to be part of a KSL "High Five" for Staci Hardy along with the committee members that sponsored and organized the 5K FunRun MilesforMadey. Staci had been nominated by her mom and we wholeheartedly supported that nomination. She and her committee have been a tremendous blessing in our lives and it was a small gesture of gratitude on our part for being the beneficiaries of so much love and support. We have learned in so many ways that it is the little things that count, whether it be having dinner together, smiling, laughing, attending church, or watching your kids race each other on the go carts at Boondocks. The little things matter!

Courage to Continue Chemo

We are still battling cancer and Madey still doesn't like being in the hospital. Friday her Oncologist met with us and told us that since her chemotherapy is having such a positive impact on the cancer cells in her hip, he recommends that she continue with her chemotherapy, in addition Madey will start receiving radiation treatments in conjunction with her chemo. The feeling is that the two together will be the best treatment for eradicating the tumor from Madey's hip. He also informed us that it appears from the scans that the bone in her hip has already begun to repair itself. We are thrilled with Madey's progress, but are a little discouraged knowing that we are still not quite half way done with her treatments. Madey knows it will be a long journey, but hopes that as she continues to improve she may be able to begin to participate in 'normal' activities again, like attending school or maybe going to girls camp.
Lindy is done with school for now and still working at America First Credit Union, she is a huge help when Mom and Dad are traveling back and forth to the hospital. Hillary has one more AP test to take and then she hopes to breath a little before starting a six week 8 credit chemistry course at the University of Utah this summer. Landon has been busy playing baseball (watching from the right field) his Red Sox team is 2 - 0 so far, he is also in the school musical this week, he plays President Roosevelt in the musical Annie. We look forward to watching his performance.
We definately feel blessed, the Lord is taking good care of us and we are continually surrounded by people that want to make a difference for Madey and our family. Thank you.

Good News and Gratitutde

Life is definitely a roller-coaster ride and for the last three and half months we feel like we have endured most of the twists and turns that could be thrown our way. From the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. We were so overwhelmed by the turn out two weekends ago for the MilesforMadey fun-run that we didn't know if we could feel more gratitude for amazing friends, family, neighbors, community and church members. From the messages of love and support, the prayers, the kind words and the meals we have received, it has been obvious that there are many good and generous people in the world that want to bless a 14 year old girl and her family. All we can say is thank you and do our best to be genuinely grateful for all the blessings our Heavenly Father gives us and work to pay it forward.
This last week we received some good news. Madey went to the hospital on Thursday and had several scans done to assess the effects of her treatment on her cancer. We were thrilled when Friday afternoon her oncologist called and told us that her tumor has been reduced by about 70%. Yahoo! We did the 'dance of joy' quite a site if you haven't seen it before, and were immediately filled with gratitude for the progress that Madey is making and the hope that this report gives to us. We know we are not done, but the news was definitely huge. Madey went to PCMC today to receive a blood transfusion and we are hopeful that she will have her final Chemo treatment of this series at the end of this week. Our cancer team is meeting on the results of her scans today to determine what our next course of action will be, please pray for her and for the doctors that they will make the right determination for the best possible results for Madey.