November 2011 Clear Scans and Port Removal!!!!

Well- once again I have gone a month without writing on the blog.  I was told by a few people lately how long it's been and I don't know why I can't seem to find the time.  We have had an awesome past few weeks and I'm amazed how much busier it is being home with 4 kids than being in the hospital with one!  We have had a few colds and sicknesses go through our family but Brynn hasn't been one of them and she hasn't had one fever since we left the hospital in September!  We are so grateful for that and continue to feel the prayers of so many.
I'll fill you in on our lives this last month- She was able to go to her first sock hop at the school for Halloween and trick or treating too.  She continues to train our puppy and that has been a great thing to keep her from missing Zoe too much- still doesn't fill the void though!  We have a tutor coming to our house everyday and doing school work with Brynn.  She is doing amazing and taking the same tests as her classmates.  Her teacher is so surprised that she is getting in the 90% range on her tests and says she is at the top of her class!  We are so glad that she is able to keep up with her schoolwork and she looks forward to joining her class after Christmas!  Two weeks ago Brynn came to us and said she wanted to do 4H and get a calf!  She talked us into it- had some very good arguments- and we went to buy her one.  The friend we were buying the calf from said they really shouldn't be alone or they might quit eating so we decided to buy two and let Sadie do it with her.  Our neighbors were kind enough to offer their barn across the street and their 12 year old daughter joined 4H as well.  Brynn is loving the responsibility and going over to feed the calves twice a day.  She loves all animals so much and knows what we do at the end of 4H when we sell the steer and what it is used for.  I'm sure there are going to still be alot of tears when the show and sale come!
We had all her scans 2 weeks ago including a PET scan which is very microscopic and scans your whole body.  I was so nervous as this was our first scans since we finished treatment and her body is done with the chemo treatments.  They said her MRI, Bone scan and CT were all good but we had to wait a few days to find out her PET scan results.  We were waiting for the phone call and didn't hear anything so I started thinking that they didn't want to call because the news wasn't good.  Finally the next day I couldn't stand it anymore and called and they said our nurse was sick and that was why she hadn't called but they would check and see if the results were back.  That was the longest few minutes of silence on the phone as I waited and they read the results to me.  They were all clear and there was no signs of anything on the PET scan!!!!!! I started crying and so did the nurse!  Then Brynn saw me and said "Oh no!"  I quickly told her they were happy tears and everything was good!  It was honestly the best gift we could have recieved and we felt so humbled that our prayers had been answered.  Now we just have to go through that every 3 months for the next two years!  At least we can relax and enjoy Christmas this year and just live in the now!  Right now I have a healthy happy daughter and we are going to have the best Christmas and be home for the whole month of December! That is something that our nurse JoJo taught me- that each day you just live in the moment and don't look to far ahead.  It can be a hard thing to do but you sure enjoy life more when you aren't living in tomorrow!
 Last night we went as a family to the Christmas Carol play with the kids cancer foundation at the Max Bell Theatre here in Calgary.  It was such an amazing performance and the kids had so much fun.  It was good for Sadie and Brynn to see some of their friends from Kids Cancer Camp that they met in July.   What a fun night and a great tradition to do every year!  At home we have a church nativity pageant that we always attend and my mom received a call asking if her family ( which includes my brother and sister's family as well as mine) would be the actors for the pageant this year!  The kids are very excited and Brynn says she just wants to be where the animals are -so we think she is going to be the stable boy who takes care of the donkey.  We will make sure to get pictures and put them on here!
We have a very exciting milestone in the morning!  Brynn gets her IVAD taken out that she has had in her chest for the last 16 months!  This is one surgery she is excited for and Dr. Steve said he would even save it for her to take home if she wanted! So exciting:)
 Well, I will see if I can get on here before Christmas again-I apologize to those who follow this blog for how little I post on it and how random and jumbled my thoughts are when I finally get around to typing late at night when I am so tired!  We continue to pray for our friends who are struggling and haven't received as good of news as we have- we want them to know how much we love them and they are always in our thoughts!