Ashton is 5 YEARS OT!!!

This photo from our recent "Celebrate Life" Disney trip to enjoy her 5 years OT!!! Okay nevermind i cannot get it to resize!! waaahhh!!



New photos on picture page! They are probably huge!







We LOVE Walt Disney World!!!

Check this podcast out...
Listen To The Mouse | Tunes Podcast








Thanks for visiting Ashton's website. Ashton is now off chemo as of March 7,2003. Ashton was diagnosed with ALL(acute lymphocytic leukemia) on September 15, 2000 and WAS on chemo for 130 weeks(2 and 1/2 years). We thank God EVERY day for her life and for her little sister, Haley. She is an active, beautiful blondie with a zest for life! She was/is considered low risk due to her age,white count, and the fact that she had trisomy 4 and 10(?some kind of extra chromosome of the leukemia cell?)

You can read about some of our journey in journal history (above).

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FOR TODAY--------(AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

To My Child...
Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying.
Just for this morning, I will let you wake up softly, all rumpled in your sheets and I will hold you until you are ready for the day.
Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear and smile at how perfect it is.Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry and pick you up and take you to the park and play. Just for this morning,I will leave the dishes in the sink and let you teach me how to put that puzzel of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off and sit with you in the back yard and blow bubbles.
Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the Ice-cream Truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by.
Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.
Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.
Just for this afternoon, I will take you to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.
Just for this evening, I will snuggle besides you for hours, and miss my favorite T.V. show.
Just for this evening, when I run my fingers through your hair as you pray. I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given. I will think about mothers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms and mothers who are in the hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and scream inside that they can't handel it anymore, and when I kiss you goodnight, I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then I will thank God for you and ask him for nothing,

EXCEPT ONE MORE DAY!!





PLEASE KEEP HER AND ALL OTHER CANCER KIDS IN YOUR PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS. PRAY FOR HEALING AND SUPPORT RESEARCH AND FAMILIES GOING THROUGH THIS ORDEAL IN THIER LIVES.




Jesus truly lives in our hearts and in the air we breathe-so take him on in!!!




"Let your heart keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times" Romans 12:12





Check out Childhood Cancer Awareness stamp and support it!:
www.kidscancerstamp.org/poster.htm







Remember Gold ribbons
are for childood cancer
awareness and
September is Childhood Cancer
Awareness month

Journal

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 10:33 PM CDT

Okay, so I am 25 days behind, so sorry, but here is the OFFICIAL announcement...

Ashton Elizabeth is now 5 YEARS OFF CHEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some thoughts about our 'spot' in life right now:

I feel our prayers have come true and that Ashton can be a true light to others who are going through this incredibly emotional roller coaster of the journey through childhood leukemia. Here we are, ready to be of service(like we always have) but with more ammo for the war. God put us in THIS place for a reason and my only hope and prayer is that I can fulfill my use to Him. My purpose. Ashton's purpose.
I have no words or reasons for being allowed this wonderful gift. I am NOT worthy. I know the journey is still on. I know I will still have worries when she gets ill. I know we may never be out of the woods totally. I know that she has a higher incidence of getting a different cancer later in life. YET, the God my family and I serve is MUCH bigger than cancer. Much bigger than worry(even though I am PRO at worry), much bigger than anything our future brings. I have to remind myself of this every so often. Becasue I was wired by my Maker to be imperfect and have freedoms that I cannot always handle very well. I find seemingly "perfect" people rather dull anyway! Life either hasn't smacked them over yet, or they are just THAT oblivious.

I will not be posting on this website anymore(unless nostalgia beckons me back sometime). I have threatened this before but since it took me this long between posts, the timing seems "right". I can tell you that I simply cannot delete it. I have thought about it but SO much of our lives is documented here. PLUS WHAT IF someone runs by it who needs some light shed on thier desperate hunt for hope. here we are, come by and read. Email me, my email address is the same. If you need some hope I will call you and listen and cry with you.

That is how I found Caringbridge.
Looking for information about childhood leukemia.

Our family is enormously different than before Ashton had leukemia. I will probably never be thankful for it like some say, but I can tell you that LOVE and so many other things come out of the circumstances. Beleive it or not, going through chemo became so "normal" for us that for a few years after we found it hard to find our "spot' in life, with friends and family. Some just didn't "get" it. Sometimes it is still uncomfortable for others when it comes up. Sometimes I wonder if they are thinking, "gosh it was so long ago, get over it" or if they are just freaked out that this happened to someone they know. It is reality.
And it sucked. We thought we were to lose her a few times duriong treatment. Or at least relapse, which to us was just as bad. I am sure for those who HAVE relapsed, that they do NOT feel that way. (I have known many to relapse and have LONG term event free survival.) So I do apologize for my statement to you who have endured that burden.

Anyway, I am going to boast a bit now, so log off now if you can't handle it...

Ashton is the sweetest, most giving, persistent, stubborn , procrastinator, beautiful, gorgeous, warm hearted kid who has the biggest love for Jesus than anyone I know. She is very empathetic and would give you the shirt off her back if she had a cover for herself. She is concerned greatly with the well being of those she loves. She prays before putting ANYTHING to her lips in thankfulness. She is VERY hurt is the words, "shut up " come out of someones mouth. And she spends more time hugging her pups goodnight than she does Paul and I. She doesn't enjoy math, but LOVES to read. She has read the Harry Potter SERIES 2 times over(the books are in pieces and I threaten to ship them to JK Rowling's publisher), as well as the Chronicles of Narnia series. She has read ALL of the American Girl books (historical plus some), and most of the Magic Treehouse books. She reads me out of house and home. She is health conscious(thanks to me in her chemo days) and refuses any fast food. She sings/hums the same song over and over and over and over-until her daddy cries, "PLEASE pick another song!" (I say, 'well at least she hums and is happy and it IS a Christian song most of the time!' The other times it is Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, or Rascall Flatts). She loves choir and AWANA which we split halfway through the school year. She barely remembers anything from treatment to our delight. She does remember the last year or so, but things were a bit calmer then. She CLEARLY remembers having a port and ripping the tubing/huber needles out when getting out of bed once(this happened a handful of times, once by ME-cringe here). She LOVED having BMA's and LP's-kinda scary- she liked the "happy medicine" she got before and the pizza after.

And I could boast just as much about Haley, b/c I never like to leave one out. Haley is a much different child, but oh so sweet. She challenges me to be try to find new ways of parenting AND teaching. Too often the sibs go unnoticed. THAT is the nature of childhood cancer. Just a fact. I think God knows who can handle and deal with it. Haley holds her own. She is very independent in a lot of ways and the MOST decisive kid I know. She shops like a man, which I love!!! She goes in(wherever), sees what she likes and sticks with it no matter what else we look at. I make her wait, BUT she STILL goes back to that same thing!!

I have felt guilt about the time taken away from her at such a young age(11 months-her whole second year of life was a blur), but as a friend told me recently about a totally different subject, "Guilt is not from God"-at least THAT sort of guilt. Looking back, we know we did our best to include her, to spend time with her, to spoil her and be thankful for her. But from birth, she was independent in those ways she still is. She hated being rocked to sleep as a baby, just put her in bed and she was off to neverland. I realized that she is just a differnt kid and the guilt may have been there anyway-being she is our second child. The first one had all that one on one time with you anyway and with subsequent kids, it is just few and far between.
Yeah, it may sound excuse-ish, but it is a fact. She has come out to be pretty empathetic herself and she is my "normal" kid, oblivious to worries about health. I LOVE watching her play-she STILL loves dress up and I swear God did that for me(shame on me for swearing!!)He knew I needed a kid who just LIVES and plays and had the most wonderul imagination. She loves Jesus as well and we are hoping He is as engraved into her heart as Ashton has Him. She is TRULY a KID.
Haley is scared my storms since Katrina, any storm.
She is GREAT at math and her reading is good but reading for enjoyment is coming along. She LOVES horses and dress up. She rode English style for about a year. She recently told me she wants to be Belle for Halloween(yeah, in 6 momths) and this warmed my heart-I still have my princess. She has beautiful big brown eyes that just break your heart when she is upset. The bear she carries around has been with her since birth that I gave her(awwww!). She adores Ashton, as well as LSU football, and NASCAR, which her daddy is quite taken with! She takes care of her pups like no other.
Haley dances to her own tune and I love that about her SOOOO much.

Thank you for allowing me, for once, to boast about my children. Even though you were the one who chose to read it and I wrote it because it is MY FAMILY's(ASHTON's ) site!!! And I could.heehee...

Thank you to all those who have prayed and shared these past years with our family. It has been a LONG journey and I am glad this much is behind us. Breathing has been much easier. Of course, I will NOT tell you to move on with prayers, never would it happen that I ask for someone NOT to pray for my children. BUT PLEASE pray for kids RIGHT NOW in the hospital fighting for thier lives and thier caregivers-for strength through the One who can give it. While we watcvh tv and our kids are sleeping soundly, some kid is running up and down the hallways of a Childrens cancer wing living thier last days on this earth. The fight having been rough and long and debilitating, wearying and sad. But those kids know something we don't and they are ready to be HAPPIER than any of us are here, right now.

This is my , hopeful last plea to donate blood, platelets, bone marrow(get on that registry!!), and time and/or money to places that care for these kids and sustain research for cures. Just DO it.

I am going to give blood myself(shame on me for not in the past months, maybe a year)this weekend or next Monday. Paul and i are on the bone marrow transplant list-it was nothing but a blood test- and activated.

Love to all of you, you have menat everything to me and i leaned on your love and prayers for so long-thank you!!! I can never repay the peace you have provided.

Lori and family

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

Patient Room: HOME HOME HOME!!!

Children's Hospital in New Orleans, La

New Orleans, La.
504-899-9511

Links:

E-mail Author: laph93@msn.com

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Note: The foregoing information was authored by the patient, parent or guardian, or other parties who are solely responsible for the content. Such announcements or their content are not necessarily endorsed by CaringBridge, Inc. or any sponsoring agent.  This information does not confirm that anyone is or was actually a patient at any facility.