Bedtime Wish

"Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow," she said. Then she squeezed my hand tight. And that's when I realized that her baby hands had become the hands of a little girl.

Ava has been battling cancer for 1/6 of her life now. When most kids wish for a sunny day to play outside or ice cream for dessert the next day, my kid's bedtime wish involves feeling better from physical ailments.

Her adrenal glands were found to be "profoundly insufficient" today after some testing. It was to be expected due to her high dose steroids but this amount of insufficiency was new even to the doctor. So now instead of an epi-pen we are supposed to carry around a shot of hydrocortisone.

I spent an extra long time staring at Ava tonight as she slept. I treasured her bushy eyebrows and fuzzy lip resulting from her anti-rejection medication. She is so sweet, so observant, so incredibly thoughtful, so beautiful inside and out. And cancer is so ugly, so broken, so horrific. How could such opposites coexist? It is a different kind of broken to see a child endure the wicked wrath of such a terrible disease.

Cancer has stolen most of her childhood but I pray and pray and pray that it would not take her chance at a future as well.

Ava is not the only one battling cancer. She has many friends who are struggling to stay afloat in this deep ocean of pain and despair that is cancer. Please remember them in your prayers and help us to raise awareness for better treatments, more funding, and, most importantly, a cure.
‪#‎restorehope‬