From Sunrise to Sunset

As we left yesterday morning, we were ushered out by a beautiful sunrise. Even today as we drove down to Denver Esther asked if we could see the sunrise again.  I told her we can only see that if we wake up really early in the morning, and we wouldn't see it today.

Tonight, as we exited the interstate, we were blessed to wait through two cycles of the light. Esther sighed, "Look at the sunrise, Mommy."  The sunset to close our journey home almost brought me to tears.  What a sweet, sweet day.  

You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

Psalm 65:8b

Sunrise

Sunset

Psalm 65

Praise is due to you,O God, in Zion,
    and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer,
    to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
    you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
    to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
    the holiness of your temple!

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
    O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
    being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
    the roaring of their waves,
    the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

9 You visit the earth and water it;
    you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
    you provide their grain,
    for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
    settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
    and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
    your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
    the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
    the valleys deck themselves with grain,
    they shout and sing together for joy.

The scans said...

Esther's CT scan, bone marrow, and MIBG scan revealed no cancer! She has one lab that will take a few days to process, but this is great, great news!

 

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Scans are Wednesday and Thursday

Esther's scans are tomorrow, Wednesday the 25th and Thursday the 26th.  With dentist appointments, well child check ups, orthopedic surgeon appointments, supportive care, and Esther's scans our family will have had about 25 doctor or dentist visits in about 4 weeks. It wasn't supposed to be that way but things keep being rescheduled for various reasons, and now they're all piled up.

I will probably wake up in the middle of the night anxious, but for now, I'm SOOOO looking forward to mid-October when all of these appointments are finished.

We will post updates as we get them.  Please pray Esther would be cancer free and remain that way for the rest of her life.  Thank you for running with us through this finish line.

48 bald heads

Just a quick note to say the St. Baldricks shave-a-thon was amazing. Over $13,000 were raised to support childhood cancer research. 

There are some great pictures coming, but for now, look at the beautiful woman who did a fantastic job planning the event. I love you, Robin. 

Scans are next week! And...what are we going to do with all that hair?!

First...Esther's scans have been rescheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday, September 25 & 26th.  Please be praying.

Now...on to the hair!

There is an impressive list of people ready to shave their heads Sunday, September 22!  I hope there's a lot of people who come to watch and cheer on these brave men, women & children!  Even if you're not planning to shave or donate, please come.  It's going to be a celebration and I can't wait to see the final total a humble group of people can put together to help cure kids with cancer.  The event is nearing $7,000 of online donations.  I know there are other checks coming the day of.  Wouldn't it be amazing to raise $10,000?  There are some AWESOME raffles, and it will be a great time!

Sunday, September 22nd at 2pm

Summitview Community Church Gym

1601 Drake Road, Fort Collins 80526

www.stbaldricks.org/events/EstherAlvarado

Thomas and Esther in August 2012

It is such an encouragement to see how many people are shaving their heads, I think there will be over 30 people!  My sister, her husband, and their kids, my dad, my grandpa, our pastor, and lots of old & new friends. I've also had reports of people who aren't ready to shave, but are going to get a significant trim to donate their hair. There is also a very dear family participating...our friend Thomas, who was in treatment about 6 months before Esther was diagnosed, and his three sisters are all shaving their heads.

I can not express what a mercy it was to have seen the Maeda's faith and white knuckle grip on the deep faithfulness of the Lord.  I don't know why it happened that two students in the same home school program would be fighting cancer at the same time.  Maybe God knew we'd need each other... We love you, Maeda family!

Now, what are we going to do with all that hair?!

I've hesitated to bring this topic up for some time because I know hair is quite personal. However, I've decided it's worth the uncomfortably because I would want to know. Over the last year several of you have cut your hair and donated it while thinking of kids like Esther.  That is great! Unfortunately the most commonly known hair donation organization, Locks of Love, isn't all that great.

They do give away wigs to kids, and that is great!  They can't use all the hair that is donated for various reasons, so they end up selling a lot of it.  Understandable.  However, the organization needs a lot more accountability in the way their executives are paid and what is done with the money they make from the hair that is not to their standards.  The part that gets me is that they ride the coat-tails of misunderstanding about who gets the wigs.  I've read articles and seen news stories about people regularly donating their hair to Locks of Love for "kids with cancer"; however, they don't actually provide wigs to kids or adults with cancer.  They have kids with permanent hair loss from things like burns or alopecia as a target population. I think a wig would be a wonderful gift to a child in those circumstances; however, I'm not okay with them utilizing this secondary marketing of oncology patients.  As I've learned more about their finances, it just makes me sad.  A simple google search will give you lots of things to consider.

There are several organizations that are better options.  A few suggestions are Pantene Beautiful Lengths, Children With Hair Loss, Wigs For Kids, and the Childhood Leukemia Foundation.  There are also other organizations that may be unique to your area of the country like Wigs 4 Kids in Michigan.

I think the first need is for your hair to be dry, dry, dry!  The second is it should be braided with a band at the top and bottom.  Unfortunately, colored hair is often unusable in these circumstances; however, I read one suggestion about selling the hair on ebay and donating the money.  Apparently wig makers who don't have as many requirements buy it this way.

I guess this is a reminder to research organizations you aren't sure about.  It is infuriating to me that many organizations are at the least are not responsible with donations or profit from other's suffering.  Here's a list demonstrating this horrible practice, and here's an article that gives some thoughts on being wise with your giving in case you aren't sure it's a good organization.

Thankfully, St. Baldrick's is an awesome organization with lots of accountability.  I hope we get to see you Sunday!!!!

Blue Stars in the Making

As part of our new normal, we wanted to give the kids something special to do/learn.  When our friend posted about some openings for piano lessons, we knew Lydia and Frannie would love the opportunity to play.  Rourke wants to do a soccer skills class and Zinnia hasn't decided yet.  She has an extreme, irrational fear of dogs, so we might have to get a puppy, just for her to get over it!  Probably not...I think we have enough going on, a sweet, huggable puppy will probably add more chaos than I could handle.  Anyway, back to piano lessons.

When we lived at Brent's Place we learned about a really neat organization, Blue Star Connection.  They are a great non-profit supported by musicians and music lovers alike that gives instruments to kids with various diseases and to their siblings.  I went back & forth for a few days debating if we should contact them or not for a keyboard for Frannie and Lydia to practice.  After some prompting from Miss Rachel at Brent's Place, I asked.

The director, John Catt, emailed me back right away and said he had just the keyboard.  We made plans to go to Denver to pick it up.  The next day he received an email from a family who wanted to donate a digital piano and he wondered if we had room.  Well, we had the perfect place!  The couple donating the piano even delivered it to our home a couple of weeks ago!  We are so thankful for all the generosity.  I'm excited to have something all seven of us can learn to play.

Mrs. Amy and Mr. Mike, the generous
givers of the piano

This was pre-broken leg.
Everyone loves the piano!

Because of Esther's broken leg, Frannie and Lydia just had their first lesson this Monday and have been practicing finding middle C and practicing their C-scale.  They are thrilled and can't wait to learn more.  They keep asking when will they be able to play "fancy songs" aka classical music and the Charlie Brown song that Mr. Jimmy played at Brent's Place.  Next summer at the Blue Star Music Festival, maybe they will have a piece to play!

Lydia

Francesca

As the girls have plinked out the notes on the keyboard, I have been struck with how peaceful a simple scale can be.  While normal is very relative, the notes sounded sweet, just perfect to represent what a day should be for little girls.  We are thankful for an opportunity for them to learn and an avenue of healing for everyone.

Family Reunion

Today was a good day, in a very strange way. The rains let up here in Northern Colorado for a bit, and I was able to venture out to something I've been looking forward to for several weeks.

Over the past 4 years, I have spent many, many hours with some very dear friends. Since we have two sets of twins, we felt like God would want us to get to know and serve other families with twins. There is a great multiples club here in NoCo, and it's supported by one of the biggest non-profit consignment sales in the country! It's really cool that along with several hard working friends, I got to help grow this consignment sale from a tiny sale to a successful fundraiser that supports it's community at large by giving families both a way to make and save money on the things for their family, provides for the needs of an organization that supports families with multiples, and even makes enough to be generously charitable. It is well organized and run strictly by volunteers. I have missed this group of people terribly.

A year ago our friends from the twins club put on a huge fundraiser for our family with raffles and they collected donations. It was a lot of money. At this fall's sale, they handed out gold ribbons to promote childhood cancer awareness and gave me a spot right in a thorough fare to put a display. On the display I was able to feature some of the kids we've met on this cancer road, many of them from Brent's place. When I see each of the faces on this display, I don't just see a child, but friends we've cried with, prayed with, and fought with. I see the supportive, loving friends from Brent's Place and the incredible caregivers from the Children's Hospital. I humbly say, it was beautiful.

Then my sister and two of her kiddos came out to make sure people didn't just walk by the faces. They bravely approached people and offered them some information about how to be an active participant in the lives of kids with cancer through research, awareness, head shaving, and practical support.

Today I spent the day here and there and all around the sales floor, hanging up clothes, putting away toys, telling about brave children, talking to old friends, and making new ones. With my sister and her kids, my friends from the twins club and the Grow With Me Sale, and the faces of children near to my heart, it felt a bit like a family reunion. Running around that floor, basking in extroversion not bound by a fear of germs, I felt like myself. Amongst toys and bottles and books and clothes, there was a glimpse of an old and new life coming together. What a good day.

 

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