Today is transplant day!

We are filled with gratitude and quiet awe. EvanMarie has bravely endured the heaviest round of chemotherapy yet. The past six days have been very, very trying, long hours, tough side effects, moments that stretched our family to its limit. But by the grace of God and some amazing nurses, she made it through. Thank God we are done with that portion.

Now comes the next step: her own preserved stem cells will be infused back into her body. It is a remarkable gift of modern medicine that we do not take for granted. We thank God for the doctors, the science, and the wisdom that makes this all possible.

For now, the poor girl is confined to her hospital room to protect her from infection as her immune system rebuilds. It will be a slow and careful recovery that could take up to 3 more weeks. 

Please continue to pray, for protection, for strength, and of course for complete healing. But today, more than anything, thank God with us. She has made it this far! The treatment is working. And hope is still very much alive.

Glory to God in all things.

​Friends, 
We are entering what is likely the most intense phase of EvanMarie’s treatment: an Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant.

In the coming days, she will receive six consecutive days of high-dose chemotherapy, followed by a day of rest, and then the return of her own preserved stem cells to her body, cells that were collected last fall in preparation for this moment. After that comes recovery, which can take three to four weeks. EvanMarie will be inpatient at TCH for approximately a month. She will then have three weeks at home, and then go back in and do it all again. And that takes us to about May. 

It is daunting. But it is what we and our doctors have concluded is her best shot at complete healing. We walk into it with eyes wide open and hearts surrendered. We trust. 

And thank God for Texas Children’s Hospital. We feel profoundly cared for there, not just medically, but personally. EvanMarie is known and loved by the nurses and doctors, and that gives us deep peace as we step into something this serious.

And we need you, our community, perhaps more than ever.

We are asking you to consider making a holy hour this week for EvanMarie, specifically praying for her peace, protection, endurance, and complete healing. And as always, we entrust her in a special way to the intercession of Blessed Stanley Rother and the Holy Family.

Jesus, we trust in You.
Jesus, we surrender.

In addition to your prayers, we humbly ask for some practical support. While we are spending extended time at the hospital, meals are a tremendous gift to our family and to EvanMarie’s siblings, who are walking this road so bravely alongside her.

And because joy still matters, if you’d like to show EvanMarie your support, we are asking you paint your nails pink (the more sparkle the better). Men, toenails absolutely count! She loves pink, and she loves you, and photos of your smiles and nails will remind her that she is surrounded even when she is stuck in her hospital room.

We are grateful beyond words for this community. Your prayers are not abstract to us. They are tangible. We feel them. They steady us everyday.

This is a serious battle we are facing. But we know we are not alone. 

Glory to God in all things.

After a whole week at home surrounded by her family and friends and her favorite things, our precious EvanMarie returned to the hospital today for more disease assessment. This time, she underwent another bone marrow biopsy.

She was so very brave today. She handled the procedure beautifully, and we felt the covering of your prayers over her and us the entire time. Even in the hardest moments, there was a steady peace that can only be described as grace. She is now back snug in her bed at home and happy. She should only be sore for a few days. 

If you remember, last time this test was performed, small amounts of cancer were found in her bone marrow. Today we pray boldly that the chemotherapy she has already endured has cleared it completely. We now wait with hope for the results, trusting that God has been at work in ways seen and unseen.

On February 19, EvanMarie will be admitted for approximately one month to begin an autologous stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant (BMT). The stem cells collected from her last fall will be returned to her after extremely high doses of chemotherapy, given with the hope of eliminating any remaining cancer cells and resetting her immune system. And she will undergo this intense process TWICE.

It is a lot to take in for us. And yet, we remain steady and hopeful. 

If you are still reading please pray with us.

Pray for her comfort through the next few days. Pray for courage and protection as we approach transplant. Pray that every remaining cancer cell would be eradicated. Pray for peace to guard our hearts.

We are beginning the Surrender Novena again tonight and warmly invite you to join us. “Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything.”

Thank you, from the depths of our hearts, for walking with us this far and for holding us in prayer. We believe in grace. We believe in miracles. We know God hears our prayers.

​Dear friends, we wanted to share the results of EvanMarie’s MIBG scan honestly and from the heart. Her Curie score came back as a 1. Medically, this is an expected result and is not bad news. And yet, after months of better-than-expected and even extraordinary progress, this news landed with a quiet thud.

It caught us off guard because it feels, once again, like a diagnosis, a reminder that our dear daughter still has cancer, a nasty and aggressive form of childhood cancer. We always knew this would be a long and difficult fight, but this result brings that truth back into sharp focus. We are just not finished yet. 

And so, dear friends, we keep going.

We continue to fight.
We continue to hope.
We continue to storm heaven for EvanMarie’s complete healing.

Today, we once again surrender our daughter into God’s eternal and good plan, trusting that He is still at work, even when the news is harder to hold than expected. Thank you for standing with us, praying with us, and believing in miracles with us as we press on together.

​If you’ve been wondering how EvanMarie has been doing, we apologize for the radio silence. This has been the slowest and hardest recovery from chemotherapy so far. It’s been a long stretch that tested everyone in our family, especially EvanMarie. But today we finally have some good news: she’s feeling better, and she hasn’t experienced the extreme nausea in over 24 hours. Thank God. That feels like a real turning point. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your ongoing prayers.

Now we turn toward the next step in her disease assessment. Today, EvanMarie will undergo another MIBG scan. You may remember this is the scan from October 16th, when her Curie score came back as a 2 (!) when we were bracing ourselves for something closer to a 22. This time, we are praying boldly and with hope for a score of 0, meaning no active cancer in her body. Regardless of the outcome, we surrender fully to God’s will. 

Please pray especially for her comfort. She will need to undergo anesthesia, and the recovery from that is often difficult for her. Pray for peace, gentle rest, and for God’s continued healing hand to be clearly at work. We expect miracles. 

As always, thank you for staying with us. We cherish your presence. Blessed Stanley, pray for us!