The clinic

"But let all those who take refuge in you be glad, let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you." Psalms 5:10-12NIV

I wanted to send pictures of the clinic so that you could see our day to day. I wrote this verse about joy because as you can see Kaitlyn never ceases to smile! Her joy is so contagious! She spreads God's love every day with out even realizing it. I know God has great plans for her and I'm so excited to be apart of her journey even now make such a difference!! This last week we spent 4 hours waiting to be seen at the clinic. Normally we will wait any were from 30min. to 2 hours!! It was insane! When we walked into the clinic and it was standing room only I knew we were in for a long day.... But God is so good! Even though my attitude was grumpy Kaitlyn was an angel!! She played and laughed and talked her way through the entire day with no problems at all! God really is working on my heart, I know that I need to go with the flow and have joy in any circumstance!! The prayers of so many really get us through thees day to day grinds! Thank you Thank you we feel your prayers!!


 

Sisters

A few pictures of the girls together...at home Madeline is such a big help with her sister, she is always taking her off to play. She never looks at her and thinks Leukemia instead she sees sister, playmate, partner in crime, and best friend!! I prayed that God would show me how to keep Kaitlyn active and He answered that in Madeline.... they really never stop. God has brought so many days of joy and fun into our day to day stuck at home. Eric and I are so blessed and our hearts swell with pride when we look at pictures of our two girls together!! Thank you God for bringing thees girls into our lives and for allowing them to teach us so much about your love for us!! p.s. the one of them sleeping is real.... they actually slept for hours holding hands!! So cute!!

Hottest Day Ever!!!

Daddy grew up in Wasco California, so having the weather well into the 100* is nothing knew for our "farm boy" us girls on the other hand did not know what to do!! Daddy took us for Slurpee's and a drive in the air conditioned car.... what a day! God was watching out for us even then when we prayed like crazy she wouldn't have to go in to the hospital with a fever due to the weather!! Thank you so much for all your prayers!!

Our smiles

So I know that the girls look like Eric but maybe they have my smile? No matter what I think us cotter girls just love to smile for Daddy!!!

Few pics from the backyard

Ok I had a tough day at work, so what better to do than
come home and take pictures of my beatiful family

Here ya go ;-)



 

No news is good news (i guess)

First of all I wanted to thank God for where we are in Kaitlyn’s treatment. I was sitting by her bed last night watching her sleep, praying for, and rubbing her head. God is totally in control of this situation and we thank him for each day.

I really apologize for not updating you all but the thing is that we don’t know much either. Throughout this journey, it seems that we have only received “real detailed” info when she is not doing well. On the outside that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but as parents it is almost harder to process the unknown then the “bad known”. Please pray for us in the continued weeks/months in regards to this issue. For me this has been one of the most challenging weeks….

4th o'july

First of all I am sorry I/we haven't posted in a while.. but to be honest that is a great reflection of how things have been.. Basically just a grind, i think this might be our most challenging times as a family because this battle becomes so monotonous. On the good side you can know nothing bad is happening. Kaitlyn (and Heather) have a pretty long week ahead with a few "in hospital" treatments and a few 7 hour ones.. please keep them in prayer this week.

Well here is Kaitlyn's 4th of July outfit.. Notice she still hasn't lost 100% of her hair, some kids don't until 3 months, some do at day 5.. Ya never know

It's been a while

Well (Eric here) I'm sorry it has been a while since our last post.. I wanted Heather's words to stay at the top for a while..

Any way.. I'm writing this about 50% choked up.. Nothing to do with Kaitlyn's progress, but just a little thing she said before she went to bed 2nite.. As Heather was walking in the room with her, she said.. "Daddy, I a little sick...." I said "what honey?" she said again... " I a little sick".. I went over to her (up in mommy's arms) and rubbed her back. I said "What is the matter babe, why are you sick.." Her response nearly burst my heart.. "I have ookemeia" I looked to Heather and back to Kaitlyn and said "what hon?" "I have ookemeia Daddy"

WOW.. as my eyes tear up right now (it's becoming more and more rare) I don't even know what to say. Last night we looked at pics of the girls before this whole ordeal. It was almost like watching some other family on screen.. Kind of like they were characters that we knew, and knew well.. but were much to distant from our curent lives to be us.


My little baby girl is growing up in the face of adversity. She is maturing well beyond her age of 2. Yeah of course she still acts and looks in many ways like a little 2year old, I don't know how to say it, but she is just a little older. My prayer for her is that her heart, innosense, fun, childlike faith, and spunk are spared as much as possible. Of course we would trade each and all for her health, but tonight it was a little more difficult, face to face with them.

As I rubbed her back and said "You have Leukemia?" I said, Yah that's right but you are going to be alright, because you have Jesus in your heart". "Where?" Kaitlyn said, "In your heart and up in the sky".. I looked her straight in they eye and believed those words more than most that I have spoke thus far.. God has the ability to heal her in an instant and at his discression he will work with her and move in her as he sees fit.. I can't define God's goodness by her progress nor if he heals her.. but through his orchestration of our whole journey thus far I(we) do know this.. He is a GOOD God.. He works all for good and according to his plan, and that evidence helps our faith

As I can't do anything to spare my daughter, I do know she is in the best hands of anyone in the universe..

Locks of Love

I can't believe we are home!! I have waited to write this post at a time when I had a moment and that has been few and far between.... God has been so good to our family! He has brought his body around us to support us and lift us up in a way that I have never seen before! Every day since Kaitlyn has been diagnosed God has shown His amazing love to us through other people! The phone calls, letters, e-mails, packages, gifts, food, house cleaned, laundry done, new beds for the girls, air purifier, nurses who believe in Him, fellow ALL mom's, and prayer prayer prayer ....etc.As a mom more than ever you want to take care of your family and especially your little baby who's sick. Not really fully understanding the depth of what that meant over whelmed me at times. But God is so faithful! When I couldn't see what the future held he would bring so many others to guide us all. Thank you to so many who have made the beginning of Kaitlyn's journey possible!!!When I was at the hospital these last few weeks, nights were the hardest for me. Kaitlyn was finally asleep and I couldn't chance waking her up by calling anyone and it really became a time of relying on God for strength. Allot of the hard questions came to me at night and the only place I had to go was his word for comfort. Many scriptures spoke to me but the one I would like to share today is Psalms 34:1-5,7&8,15,17-19 I know that seems choppy but when ever I'm trying to understand a scripture I write it out and these words latterly brought me to my knees! He's so faithful we may go through hard times but he will never leave us! Part of the scripture says "I sought the Lord and he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears..." We have such a long journey ahead and I know that this is just the beginning. I know I will have really hard days but I know Eric and I will choose to follow him no matter what!! "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and he hears their cry...." Yesterday I cut my hair off. Many of you have heard how long I have tried to grow healthy long hair and the one that loves it the most would be my husband. But being at the hospital around so many kids young and old I was so moved by the impact this must play on the teen girls going through the process of loosing their hair. I called my wonderful friend Grace who immediately had me come over and cut my hair right off. I have exactly 10inches which I will be donating to locks of love. If anyone is interested in doing this go to www.locksoflove.com


















Having so many amazing people support us has taught me so much about the body of Christ and what it truly means to help those in need. Thank you to so many for being such a huge example to me, Eric and our girls! These times are changing us and growing us in so many amazing ways! I love you all!! 

I had to snap a few pictures today

I couldn't resist sharing these today

Celebrating no MRD!!!!!! with spagetti

 

NEWS!!!!

100% Rapid responder!!!!!

MRD test came back negative...


THANK GOD !@!@!@!)*)WDFK@N#RT@!#F)SF)ADCKANDSA$RKH@Q#$R#@!%ADF)



^that is me jumping up and down ;-)

Day 29 update

Well Kaitlyn went to clinic yesterday for her day 29 update (actually it was day 30 but due to the holiday they delayed it 1 day)

Before we left the doctors were throwing around the idea that we could not leave the hospital until her ANC (Absolute Neutraphil Count http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20030 ) exceeded 500.. However the counts we were seeing ranged from 0 on most days to 14ish on better days.. Because it didn't look like she would hit the 500 mark very soon, the Dr(s) decided to release her when they noticed an upward trend in the counts. The Sat that we were set to go home, a nurse practitioner (more than a nurse but not quite a Dr) stopped by... after Heather mentioned that it looked like we were going home, the Practitioner (based on the old 500 release mark) said wrongly "It doesn't look like you are going home any time soon. 500 is a long way, and unless there is some sort of small "miracle" it is going to be a while..

The 500 mark was soon sorted out and the Dr(s) stood by their statement of letting her go based on an upwards swing, but what we took from that is that Kaitlyn was a decent way from hitting the 500 mark

All that to say,.... Her day 29 results are sent to Jon Hopkins Cancer institute for a test that is basically the only one of it's kind in the US..

BUT

We did recieve her ANC from the blood labs they performed yesterday, and her ANC is 504!!@!@@ we were REALLY EXCITED

Finally home again

Well our second trip to CHOC started 2hrs before mothers day (Sat May 13th @ 10pm) and lasted 15 days..


I was shooting a wedding today when Heather text messaged me "WE ARE GOING HOME RIGHT NOW!!! I was frustrated that I couldn't be there to bring all the Cotter girls home, but to be honest it had little effect on the joy my heart had.

Unfortunately we can not have any visitors for a while.. The reason we were able to come home (in addition to her blood counts coming up a little) was that at least at home we can control the amount of people that Kaitlyn is around. Her immune system is SO low that any little thing can put her into a fever fight mode.. and you all know what happens then.. So we kept telling the doctors that it doesn't make sense. "you want us to be secluded but you are making us stay in a hospital where we have to share a room???".. We were blessed with AWESOME roommates, but there is still that fear of the unknown, and also the statistical risk goes up with the more people that come in contact with her..

Thanks again you all for your prayer and support..

Kaitlyn goes into clinic on Tuesday for her day 29 procedures and tests.. Day 29 will mark the completion of induction and the tests done that day will solidify whether or not she is a rapid or slow responder to the Chemo...


WE will keep you posted

Click to play a movie ;)