Update for January 11, 2009

Happy New Year!

We would like to wish all of you a happy, healthy and peaceful new year. Avery is doing very well these days and couldn't be happier. She turned 4 on January 5th then spent the next day at Disneyland. What a great day. We got annual passes for Christmas so we thought we would break them in. She finally got to ride the Dumbo ride and absolutely loved it.

She went to the clinic on December 23rd for a dr. visit, labwork and IV chemo. Her labs were good, her counts are all up and her ANC is so close to being in the normal range. Thankfully, she kicked the little virus she had without incident. No fever, no green stuff and no trip to the hospital (hallelujah!). Everyone else has managed to stay healthy, too - which is quite impressive during cold and flu season.

Avery goes back to the clinic on January 20th for a dr. visit, labwork and IV chemo as well as a lumbar puncture with chemo (no eating day). Fortunately, she only has to have the LP quarterly now so it will be a while for the next one. She is growing like a weed, and so is her hair! It's coming in so thick and dark. It's actually long enough now that she gets a little bit of bed head sometimes. I love love love it!

I have managed to update our "official" website - you can visit at either http://www.averybravery.com/, or at http://www.averybravery.org/ - they both take you to the same page.

I also have been working on forming a non-profit organization with a couple of great ladies, Shari and Mika. It's called HB Heroes and can be found at http://www.hbheroes.org/ . Our goal is to be able to provide financial assistance to local families dealing with medical crises. Stop by the website and check it out, Avery is one of the "heroes."

As always, your love and support and friendship are greatly appreciated and truly valued.

Much love,

Pam @ Avery Bravery

I'm ADDICTED!

Ok, so I happened across a website today called http://www.scrapblog.com/ - it's awesome! And incredibly addicting! It's an on-line, electronic scrapbook site that lets you upload your photos from your computer, facebook, snapfish, and tons of other sites. Then, you can create these beautiful pages and save/publish them. Then, (and this is good) it lets you save them as a jpeg file on your computer so you can order them as photos! So, I made these cute pages (keep in mind that it's my very first time using this site so they're not too detailed.) then saved them a jpg files and ordered them from Walgreens online. I will pick them up tomorrow down the street from my house!! I'm giddy (can you tell???)!! I'm having so much fun with this. You can make invitations, birth announcements, thank you's, holiday cards, calendars, and so much more!! Wooooo hooooooo! Ok, enough for now, check it out and get addicted yourself. Have a great weekend. xo, Pam

Avery Bravery

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

What's with this music??

In case you're wondering...

I posted a music playlist on here that comes on automatically (You can pause it, though) - these are songs that Avery LOVES! She chose them because they are all songs she really likes (please excuse any seemingly inappropriate lyrics, she doesn't know what they are saying, she mostly just loves to dance to them.)

So, I hope you enjoy the songs, because Avery surely does.

As for that cold - she still has it. It's still hanging in there, but (thankfully) not getting worse. Still no fever or anything that would send her to the hospital. She goes back to the clinic at CHOC on Tuesday for labwork and her 2nd flu shot, so the Dr. will be see her then and evaluate her ick. She's sniffly a little more today, but coughing less so hopefully this will pass soon. Her poor little nose can't take much more of this.

Both her spirits and energy have been high lately. Avery has been going on bike rides around the whole block almost every day lately - Dad is great for making sure she gets outside a lot lately. And she's getting so strong that I can barely keep up with her when she's on her bike!! Her hair is really coming in now - and it's dark!!! We can't tell yet if it will be curly again, but it looks like it will be a darker brown, rather than her sandy brownish/blonde she had before. Her eyebrows are back now, too (she didn't realize they were gone - can you imagine??)




This was taken almost 2 weeks ago, on her last visit to CHOC 11/25/08









And don't forget to stop by our official website for the latest information on Avery and any fundraisers. www.averybravery.com

And, as always, thank you for your support and love - we couldn't get through this without all of you - especially Avery's prayer warriors (and my chocolate delivery fairy). Much love to ya!

Avery's First Cold Since Being Diagnosed

Well, it's December 2 and it has been almost 8 months since Avery was diagnosed with leukemia - and she has her first cold. On the one hand we're fortunate that it seems to be a viral thing - no runny nose, no colorful nose items and no fever (thank God for that). It's just a sniffle and a weird cough. And as thankful as I am that it's not worse, I can't help but be really bummed out that she's sick.

I sort of feel like I've failed her by letting her get sick, but in reality I know that it was inevitable. We can get our flu shots, we can skip family functions, we can miss out on movies and dinners and get togethers, we can skip pre-school and playing at the park - but when it comes down to it, we can't control how many people go out in public sick. As careful as I am about washing hands, sanitizing (constantly), covering grocery carts, and everything else - it's impossible to protect her 100% - and that's the part I hate!

So, we spent the day in warm, snuggy clothes, got in a little extra couch time, drank some orange juice, bought a new humidifier, had a warm bath, a couple of books and some snuggles and we're saying lots of prayers that Avery feels better really soon.

I uploaded a new video on You Tube today from the CHOC Disneyland fundraiser walk we did on October 18th. You can check it out by scrolling down to the bottom of this blog page - it's on the You Tube video bar at the bottom. I hope you enjoy watching it - it was an incredible day for us. We are already planning ahead for next year's walk - if you would like to join Team Avery Bravery you can visit www.averybravery.com for more information. Big Hugs!

Has it really been 7 months???

Here we are in November 2008 and it's hard to believe that it has already been 7 months since our precious youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and our world came crashing down. On the one hand the time has gone by so fast. But on the other hand, some of the days have been a lifetime.

Avery is doing incredibly well at this point and we are so incredibly thankful for her progress. She is in the Maintenance phase of her treatment. This phase is the last phase of her treatment, but she has 22 months to go on this one. Even though she doesn't have to go to the cancer clinic weekly any more, she does still receive multiple chemos on a regular basis. She gets an i.v. chemo once a month, chemo through spinal tap once every three months, oral chemo daily, another oral chemo once a week, and an anti-biotic three days a week. So, while it's a lot easier than Delayed Intensification, it's certainly isn't a walk in the park.

She takes it all so well - better than I could ever expect to handle something like this. She smiles a lot and is so brave and strong. I don't quite know what to make of her sometimes, she is amazing. Avery grew an inch in less than 2 months, and now she's grown another centimeter in the last 2 weeks! I guess it's all that organic milk she sucks down!?

A lot has been going on lately. We participated in the CHOC Disneyland fundraiser walk on October 18th to help raise money for Children's Hospital of Orange County, where Avery is being treated. It was an awesome experience (a little rushed, but awesome). We had about 51 team members, and our own little stroller brigade out that day. We raised about $4,100 for CHOC and can't wait to do it again next year. A couple of weeks after that we participated in the Buddy Walk for the Orange County Down Syndrome Association in support of our friends, John & Kristin Clark. That was a fun and well organized event. It was a completely different vibe than the CHOC walk and it was really cool getting to sit in the Angels dugout!

The kids have all been busy, with school, surfing, Girl Scouts, church, friends, and just being kids. And what great kids they are, seriously. They are so sweet and thoughtful (yes, they have their moments and their rooms are often quite messy, but they are genuinely good kids). I'm so proud of them and can't believe that I will not have any kids in elementary school next year. Wow!

We had a raffle fundraiser in October, that ended with us awarding a beautiful .5 carat diamond heart necklace to Dennis Nelson of Huntington Beach. Huge thanks to Trans & Lisa Baca of Princess Bride Diamonds at Bella Terra in Huntington Beach. We also had a big fundraiser yard sale - and a big thanks to everyone who donated stuff to sell, came by and shopped, brought us food, and helped pack stuff up - we couldn't have done it without you! We don't currently have any other fundraisers in the works - not that we couldn't use them. I'm just too busy to do it right now. Maybe after the first of the year we will start on the next big thing? We have been so incredibly blessed by the many gifts and donations people have made during this difficult time. Even though we haven't always had the time to send out a note, please know that every single gift and donation has been truly and greatly appreciated. You guys rock!

I hope you all have a happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving, surrounded by lots and lots of people you love and plenty of good food. We miss you. Much love from Pam.

Avery Bravery T-shirts are now available! We are taking orders for the ridiculously cute "Avery Bravery" T-shirts. The shirts are plain white 100% cotton t's, available in Youth sizes Small, Medium and Large and Adult sizes Small, Medium, Large, X-Large and 2XLarge. The shirts are $10 each - all sizes. They are printed with the Avery Bravery logo on the front and plain on the back. For an additional $4.00 (each shirt) you can have your name or a 1 line message printed on the back (such as: Avery's Mom).

To place an order or for more information you can send an e-mail to us at averybravery@socal.rr.com. Thank you all so much for your continued support. Much love!