a new journey

This is not a journey we ever imagined that we would be traveling. Especially not with our precious little girl. But here we are, trying to take it one step at a time.

It is hard to know where to begin. Here is a glimpse into the past few days:

Thursday afternoon we went to an appointment to make sure Cora's ear infections had cleared up. Joel decided to come along because we were frustrated that she kept getting sick. I felt like she just wasn't herself and we had noticed a few things we were concerned about. Cora's stomach seemed very tight, she had gotten two "mystery" black eyes recently, and she wasn't eating very much. Our pediatrician decided to do some blood work and x-ray her abdomen. After lots of waiting he came back into our room with tears in his eyes. He told us that from the x-ray he could tell that Cora's liver was enlarged. He said there is a chance it could be nothing, but in his experience it is usually related to cancer. We left his office in shock and headed straight to Wesley. I don't think Joel and I hardly said a word to each other the whole way to Wichita. We just cried.

We checked Cora into Wesley. She was so tired and hungry, but such a trooper. By this point she started crying every time she saw a nurse. She knew they were going to poke her and she didn't like it! She had a CT scan late that evening. By 11:30 that night we knew that she had a "mass" by her kidney and spots on her liver. They told us that they would go ahead and give her an IV at 6:00 the next morning in case of surgeory. We had to go to bed not knowing much else until we could talk to the specialists the next morning. We didn't sleep much!



Cora got to eat at 5:30am Friday morning and then got her IV at 6:00am. We tried to keep her busy the rest of the morning. The surgeon and oncologist came to talk to us around 9:30am. From the CT scan they could see a tumor next to her kidney and spots on her liver. Cora would need surgery to remove the tumor, take a bone marrow sample, and put a cath in for chemo treatments.

Cora was SO tired. Right before the surgery we pulled her around the hospital in a wagon. Joel and I took Cora back to the "holding room" before surgery around 12:30 that afternoon. That was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Everything had happened so fast and now we were waiting to hand our sweet little girl off to be cut open. We were so scared.

Waiting for Cora to get out of surgery was the LONGEST four hours of our lives, but she came out great. It was hard to hear the surgeon say that it did look like Neuroblastoma (a form of cancer). They had removed the tumor and some lymphnodes. The cancer was a stage 4 (it had spread all over) and she had over 100 spots on her liver. You can see her incesion across her abdomen in the picture above.

They took Cora back to Pediatric ICU. It is horrible seeing your baby hooked up to so many tubes and in pain. She has been so brave! We keep telling her she has to keep fighting hard.

Sunday morning Cora had another small surgery to put tubes in her ears. Our pediatrician recommended that we do that while we were here at the hospital. Cora's immune system will be compromised whe she starts chemo and he didn't want her dealing with more ear infections on top of the cancer. The surgeons are very happy with how she is recovering from surgery.

Today Cora got all her tubes taken off. Yeah! And she was doing so well they moved her back to the Pediactrics Unit. Her face is still pretty swollen from surgeory, but she peeks out her one little eye to look at us. She is starting to be more responsive which is so nice.

This is our room in Pediatrics and Cora is in her "jail crib" as we call it. Our families have been incredible through all of this. They met us at the hospital on Thursday when we checked in and someone has been with us every minute since. Our moms stayed with Cora during the night while she was still in PICU so that Joel and I could get some sleep. We are so thankful for them!

This afternoon Cora got to start eating again. She was hungry and seems to be keeping the milk down fine.

So now we wait. We know Cora has neroblastoma and will start chemo early this week. We don't know all the results as far as how treatable her cancer is. We don't know what chemo is going to look like for her. We will meet with the pediatric oncologist Monday morning and hopefully have some more answers.

This is SO hard. Joel and I would do anything to make this go away, but we can't. It is out of our control and that is hard when you are used to being able to make things better for your little girl. Even with all the unknowns of this journey we do know that we serve a mighty God and he has little Cora right in his hands. Joel and I can't make it through this on our own, but we know we can with the Lord walking with us each step of the way.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

God's presence has been so evident to us. We have been SO overwhelmed by the love of our friends and family. We have had so many visitors, calls, gifts and prayers. We will never be able to express our gratitude to you all. We keep saying over and over how blessed we are with such a great support system. Thank you!

Praise God For:

-Joel being at the doctor's appointment with me on Thursday when we found out

-The ear infections that brought us to the doctor in the first place

-Our pediatrician who knew the seriousness of an enlarged liver and got us to the hospital so fast

-Incredible doctor's and nurses who have been so helpful and supportive

-How well Cora is recovering from surgeory

-The outpouring of love we have felt from our friends and family

-Our precious Cora who we love so much

Prayer Requests:

-The nurses would be able to stay on top of Cora's pain so that she won't be uncomfortable

-Understanding and wisdom for Joel and I as we are so overwhelmed with all of this new information

-Patience as we have to wait 10-14 days for the full test results to come back

-That Cora's cancer would be very treatable with chemo

-That we would know how to comfort Cora and meet her needs

-That God would give us strength to get through this journey how ever long it might be

We will try to keep you updated as we learn more. We know our baby is covered in your prayers. Thanks for being on this journey with us!