History

Friday, September 22, 2017 5:40 AM CDT

I cannot believe that it has almost been 13 years since our journey began! My baby is no longer a baby. Soon she will be 16 yrs old! Time crawled as she went thru treatment and then follow up check ups. Now our journey is a distant memory.

Laurel has had very few memories of her ordeal. Even at the age of 7 she didn't remember much.

She has had 'minor' health issues (allergies, migraines brought on by depression/anxiety), and we recently discovered her right arm & hand are shorter than her left. Mild case of Beckwith-Wiedemann? no clue.

Laurel is a Beautiful, confident 10th grader. She is self assured and stands up for herself! If you are annoying, she will tell you!

Did I mention that she is quite the Cellist?! Her 9th grade year She made 4th Chair in the Long Bay Youth Orchestra (but due to grades, and meeting time, she had to drop out). She also made 3rd Chair All County.

This year she has joined the Horry County Strings Advanced group which meets Sunday afternoon - so no late nights.

I am so very proud of the young lady she has become! She is still my hero!

Tuesday, July 5, 2016 7:50 PM CDT

I can't even remember how to add pictures, etc. so only an update.

Laurel finished Middle School 6 weeks ago. Her grades were not stellar. Mostly because she just doesn't 'try' or 'care.' She was dx a few years ago (by Peds who didn't know her) with Chemo Brain - which explains a lot of her problems, but what to do with that information. Well, We went to FACT Clinic in January only to be told that she does not have chemo brain because she didn't have the 'right' kind of chemo. So back for another Neuro Psych eval in early June. I find out next week what we need to do to help her in life.

Laurel continues to excel in playing a cello. Sadly, again, she could be so much better if she would practice. I started her with private lessons with her soon to be HS teacher - but she just won't practice - and doesn't care if she needs to be better. Told me there is no reason to 'compete' to be the best.

She decided she does not want to attend the HS that most of her classmates will be attending. I did not allow her to apply for a STEM program (again due to laziness of work and STEM requires a lot of diligence in work). She decided to attend Carolina Forest HS (same school as her brothers, and our attendance HS). She wants to meet new friends plus they do have a better Orchestral program.

My baby girl has grown up so much. When she was 3 I dare not dream of her entering high school. Was too afraid I would jinx her. Laurel at almost 15 has a 'wicked' sense of humor. When not in typical teen hormonal angst, she is a blast to be around. She makes me laugh.

She has not played soccer in 2 years, and am (was?) hoping she would try out this year as she begins school this fall. We will see. Sounds like her orchestra teacher plans on keeping her busy - he wants her in his 'better' class which meets both A Days & B Days. She will need to take P.E. on line.

Much love to any who still think of her. (this is mostly for her to read years from now).

Love,
Kathy, mom to a Wonderful Wilms Warrior who is 11.5 yrs cancer free!

Saturday, August 8, 2015 10:31 AM CDT

Just for Posterity. Baby girl getting ready to turn 14. It has been almost 11 years since the fateful day - a date that I 'think' I will always remember. I say 'think' because as we get further and further away, many details are slipping my mind (due to my age?) Half the time I can't even remember which kidney was removed.

Laurel is a healthy young lady but does have a bunch of small 'medical' issues. I don't worry about them too much, then when I talk to or hear others talk about their kids, I realize their kids don't suffer from all of these ailments. Ugh.

She was finally diagnosed with Migraines March 2015. I had been taking her to Peds for over 6 months about her headaches. Nothing we can really do, and she doesn't have a whole lot of them - although she is suffering this weekend from one.

Doctor (new one in practice that I do not know) said she does have "chemo brain." Mind you, she only had to endure two chemotherapy drugs. Is it due to the chemo or genetics? (ditzy mom) She finished her last year in YMCA Soccer last spring. One of the last games the temp & humidity - real feel was @ 100F. She dropped to the ground with her first asthma attack in YEARS.

She has had a 504 Plan at school these past few years - mostly for her anxiety and fluid intake. I cannot believe she will be in 8th Grade!

She has been in Honors Math and Accelerated ELA. This year will include Honors Science and Honors Social Studies. I worry that it may be too much for her anxiety. We will see. Sometimes the kids in the Honors classes misbehave as much as those in the lower levels.

So proud of my Beautiful Warrior. God has been Good to us.

Sunday, September 28, 2014 9:26 PM CDT

This is for records only since no one (including me) ever visits this page!

Laurel will soon be turning 13 yrs old. A teenager! And 3 days after her 13th birthday will be the anniversary of her diagnosis date. It was 10 yrs ago that she fought AND won her battle against the beast.

I did take her to FACT Clinic (Follow-up After Cancer Treatment) in mid-August. I told them for the past 6 mos. she has complained of tightness in her chest/difficulty breathing/catching her breath. Along with headaches. Dr. Kravekia (yea, she's still there!) ordered a Chest X-ray for us. 2 Days later they called to say they saw a lesion on her CXR (that was never there before). I don't think they are real worried, but worried enough that they scheduled us to come back 6-8 weeks later (I chose 8 weeks so she would not miss any school). So we go down to MUSC again on Oct. 13 (almost a week before her 13th birthday). Then I am to call the next day for results.

IF anyone is reading this, please pray this is nothing (as I'm sure it is). I'm too old to fight that fight again!

My Survivor, Laurel, is a healthy strong young lady. She enjoys playing soccer and will be trying out for the HS JV Team in a few months. She now plays Cello (very well, I might add) and is doing pretty well in her 7th grade classes. Since she got Straight A's last year, we asked if we could move her up from Honors Language Arts to Accelerated Language Arts. We decided to keep her in Honor's Math.

I continue to pray for all children fighting this awful beast. I hope you, my sweet reader, pray for them as well.

God Bless,
Kathy, mom to an almost teenager.

Saturday, December 8, 2012 4:57 AM CST

Wow, only a hundred years have passed! You'd think I was "over" childhood cancer. Not gonna happen.

Laurel is now in the 5th Grade. When she applies herself, she gets A's across the board. She finally made it into GT (not that I wanted her in it as it truly does not put the right people into this program).

She started back at soccer this past fall. Since her daddy's stroke, and my lack of employment, money is NOT flowing freely. But we make do. No big (or little for that matter) trip. We stay home. But that's ok. Laurel is healthy! WE had several UTI scares last year - but finally discovered it was the acid in oranges and orange juice that was giving her these problems.

She has not had an asthma attack in forever. She rarely gets truly sick. Although it is nearly impossible to get her up and moving on school mornings. She has become a typical, beautiful pre-teen. Still on meds for anti-anxiety - as that was a HUGE problem last year. So much so, that she was hitting depression in a major way.

Some noises still bother her. Some days her self esteem is real low (but who doesn't have those days?).

I Love my baby girl so very much and tell her so each and every day.

Still praying for all those children fighting the beast. Still remembering all those who have become Angels.

Love to all,

Kathy, mom to a wonderful, beautiful little girl.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:53 PM CDT

4/17/09: Prayers Requested. I just lost my job do to major cutbacks. Pray I can find something and QUICK! The company Bob & I work for has been cutting back for over a year now. We were told more cutbacks this month and in June. They have cut almost all us 'indians' and left only chiefs.

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I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter!!! Laurel looked so pretty in her purple dress made with love by Ms. Juanita!!!!

Laurel had a couple of Firsts on Easter Sunday!!!! Can yo see me beaming with pride?

Laurel actively participated in her first ever public Easter Egg Hunt!!! It was the one at church w/only about 12 kids in her age group. In the past she would literally freeze up (like a deer in headlights) and wouldn't move! Even at home she wouldn't/couldn't? participate until last year!

Also, we went to the Cole Brothers Big Top circus. When I bought tickets for the event, I made sure we did NOT get front row seats - as I worried she would be too scared! We got to our seats and Laurel demanded to know why we didn't have front row seats!!!! Wow! And she didn't get scared until the very end when they brought out the HUGE canon for the human canonball.

She cannot wait to go again next year!

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Ugh - Laurel just got back from the dentist. He has told us that she will need braces by the time she is 9 yrs old - GULP! That's only 18 mos. away! How does ANYONE pay for braces in this day & age?! Wish us luck! Just maybe her hospital bills will be nonexistent by then? LMAO

Add another Beautiful Angel: Cassidy lost her 4 yr battle on 3/17/09.

(3rd time trying to update???) OK, that ticks me off – I typed my update here yesterday morning and it’s not here?????

So here it goes again!

First off, Only good news w/an added bonus. Laurel remains Healthy & Cancer Free! And clinic upgraded her to Long Term Survivor!!! OMG! I was in shock! I was expecting another set of scans next year (5 yrs o/t). But they feel confident that she is a success case!

Now for the boring stuff. As usual, I got very little sleep the night before as I was worried @ oversleeping! Up at 4:30am, Laurel and I hit the road at 6:00am into Dense FOG! UGH! We stopped at Walmart 20 mins. From hospital to buy her a disposable camera, when I realized that I had left my debit card at home!!!! EEEKS! I was able to write a check for $20 over the amount – Thank God!

We got to the parking deck at 8:20am. 1st 3 levels were packed already! Found a space ½ up the 4th level. Whew! Laurel & I walked to Rutledge Tower (10 min. walk), got on elevator – and accidentally got off on the 3rd floor! OOPSY! LOL (didn’t realize it until I tried to check in). So we got back on the elevator to the 4th floor to check in. WRONG FLOOR! Hema/Onc clinic moved to the 6th floor, (& opposite wing). So up we go, now it’s 8:40am – so chances of blood draw prior to were slim. Since it was all new area, I felt so out of place – Laurel just ran to the playroom. 10 min. wait to get her CXR orders and we were off and running to the Hospital. First stop of course is Radiology check-in – another 10 min. wait! Then to Peds Radiology waiting room. Char came over 5 mins later and took us back. As always we love chatting with her & spending that 20 mins. In the room.

Char then lead us straight to X-ray. Huh? Last time she did that, she saw something on the scans!!! I did NOT panic! The x-ray tech set Laurel up (Laurel didn’t need help, she’s an old pro at this now!) I think he was almost impressed? We got the all clear for both, and ran back to clinic on the 6th floor of Rutledge by 9:45am. With this new set up, u can walk in and no one realizes it – do NOT like it. And the ‘assistant’ at the front desk I don’t think knows a thing about anything?! I finally found Cindy and she said she would get the orders for Laurel’s blood draw.

30 mins. Later she came out with them. UGH! IMO they should’ve been waiting at the front desk for us! So off we run down to the 3rd floor and were called in almost immediately. Laurel did not go in easily. She was crying and putting up a fight. I tried to drag her in (physically). The nurse was NOT happy to see either one of us acting like that! She informed Laurel that she needed to stop crying NOW and to make a decision: either sit in mom’s lap or lay down on the table while 2 other nurses hold her down. The nurse had to ask Laurel several times what her choice was. She screamed the whole time (she hates the tourniquet with a passion).

So off we run back up to the 6th floor. Cindy saw we were back @ 10:45 – we just had to wait for the doctors. (Oh, we got the u/a sample as soon as we got there! Gone are the days that Laurel holds her urine for several hours!). 11:15 we get called back to see the Onc. Another one we’ve never met. Very pregnant! LOL Laurel instantly fell in love with her as she just kept talking to Laurel! Asking her all the questions – and only looking to me if Laurel hesitated. This was when we were told we were definitely in the Long Term Survivor status and would start Long Term clinic next year. Cool! I did ask @ kidney guard since she plays soccer. This onc said it really was unnecessary as it would take a really hard blow straight to the kidney to harm it. She said it’s pretty well protected by muscle, etc.

Onc told us to wait for Cindy to bring us our discharge paperwork. She said Laurel can go back to the playroom vs waiting in the exam room. 11:45 I go to look for either the Onc or Nurse Cindy. The Onc saw me and was surprised “You’re still here? Let me go find Cindy!” Cindy comes out and apologizes – miscommunication abounds! LOL Seems we didn’t need to wait for paperwork. We will get it in the mail!

Ugh, I had an appointment at 2:30pm in Murrells Inlet (but was to get there 15 mins. Prior to). As we get to the gate of the garage, the attendant asks for $3. Huh???? She’s a patient, they don’t pay. Well, seems THAT too changed! LOL Out patients pay .75/hour not to exceed $3.00. Great. So my $20 is now $17. That’s enuff for fast food! We swung by Wendys drive-thru. As I get back onto Hwy. 17 I realize I have only a quarter tank of gas left! Eeeks, not enough to get us to Myrtle Beach!! Thank God there was a branch of our bank up the road (Mind you, Mount Pleasant is so confusing & crowded, and most businesses sit back away from the road out of eyesight.). Whew! Wrote a check for cash and stopped for gas, and off we went to get home.

Laurel was so excited about ‘graduating’ into Long Term Survivor status that she wanted to call Daddy and then her Teacher to give them the good news!

We got to Inlet Square Mall by 1:45pm – where I check Laurel into a “Kids” place so I could go ‘work out” to lose my extra 45 lbs. I’ve gained these past 2 years. We got home right at 4:00pm. I was exhausted. Laurel was NOT! LOL

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Continue to pray for the many many many familes who have lost a child to this Beast:3/17 Angel Cassidy ; 2/27/09 Sweet Sigrid earned her wings.
2/28/09: Princess Haley Hart (CP) earned her wings as well. Dear Chelsea 2/20/09,Brave Matthew (his CB page has been discontinued); 4 y/o Gabriel ; Beautiful & Sweet Sammi , Gorgeous Amelia ; Wonderful Bryce (2/14/08); Sweet Mackenzie (www.carepage.org "Mackenzie") Feb. 2008; Precious Sadie Feb. 2008; Angelic Sam ; Beautiful Abigail Rose , Adam Jeremiah, Mark , Jessica, Jon , Diego, Brock , Mamie, Josh, Tyler, Zach, Haley, Kyle, Patrick, Mason, Brooke B., Brooke C. , Hanna , Kersey, Talia and many more. Pray that they forever feel their child's loving arms around them thru God's Eternal Love.

I pray that our new families have had a chance to find us at Association of Cancer On-line Research (acor.org)for support, information, etc. Click on: Register LISTSERV Password . It took me (& others a couple of tries to get registered - but it is soooo worth it!

Also, another place for Wilms families is Wyatt's Friends , an MSN Group that was started by Kris Rech in honor of her son Wyatt who was born w/BECKWITH-WIEDEMANN SYNDROME and fought & beat Wilms. Kris also is very involved w/CureSearch and the Gold Ribbon Days in Washington DC (this past June 19-21).

Research / Disease Areas
Dollars In Millions

Disease..............2003......2004......2005......2006
Breast Cancer.........693......708......716......716
Colo-Rectal Cancer....296.......297......298......298
Lung Cancer..........297......297......300.....300
Prostate Cancer......279......378......381......381
Children's Oncol. Grp..29.......29.......29.....29

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

SCANS are UPCOMING! Please keep us in your prayers! March 16th. Laurel is NOT looking forward to the blood draw - so her anxiety is already rising.

2/27/09: Sweet Sigrid earned her wings.
2/28/09: Princess Haley Hart (CP)earned her wings as well. These 2 precious girls on top of Chelsea 10 days ago - Wilms Community has been hit hard.

Hello Friends!
Wow, am I lame or what?! I really no longer update. Such is the life of families who are way off treatment!

We rang in the new year early as both Laurel & I r usually asleep early in the evening. No big plans on New Years Day – just hung out. January came and went quietly – although the last week we had a little snow flurry activity which is very unusual for Myrtle Beach. Laurel’s class got to go outside & experience it! (not enough to stick to the ground).

February 6th, Laurel & I hopped in a rental car and drove up to Ohio to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday – unbeknownst to her! Heheheh I called her when we were just a few blocks away to wish her a Happy Birthday and to see what plans she had. We pulled into the driveway (she still didn’t see us), and Dad pulled Laurel inside & said “Look what I found!” We almost brought tears to her eyes!!! We pulled it off! We stayed for a week – not really doing anything. It was kind of a vacation for me as well as mom & dad spoiled us rotten! But we did miss Myrtle Beach.

We drove straight thru to come home. Roads & Weather cooperated greatly for the drive. Unfortunately for Laurel (fortunately for me) there was no snow in Ohio. It would’ve been nice for her to go sledding for the first time – but that will have to wait.

Valentine’s day was very quiet. Bob worked, the boys slept, I napped, and Laurel played w/neighbors all day. 3 days later was my birthday. I had decided that we will finally join the 21st century and get away from Dial-up internet. Roadrunner light will be installed Thursday! Yea!

Laurel has scans coming up in 4 weeks. I have not really told her. She so hates getting poked for the blood draw. But after this visit, it will be ANNUAL!!! And maybe only one more scan/u/s done – which she doesn’t have problems with. I cannot believe we have made it this far and no problems! Laurel is one strong willed lovely young lady! We all love her so very much. I Thank God everyday for her health.

I do ask that you pray for my father. He had quintuple by-pass in 2002. One of those arteries is completely clogged again (& inoperable). Another artery in his heart is too risky to operate on. He does have all his ‘affairs’ in order – but we still try to deny his mortality.

On a lighter note, I have finally joined Facebook! Woooo Hoooo!!!! So look for me and remind me who you are as I just turned 49 a few days ago and my brain cells die quickly!

Love & Peace to all! God Bless You!

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Continue to pray for the many many many familes who have lost a child to this Beast: Sweet Chelsea 2/20/09,Brave Matthew (his CB page has been discontinued); 4 y/o Gabriel ; Beautiful & Sweet Sammi , Gorgeous Amelia ; Wonderful Bryce (2/14/08); Sweet Mackenzie (www.carepage.org "Mackenzie") Feb. 2008; Precious Sadie Feb. 2008; Angelic Sam ; Beautiful Abigail Rose , Adam Jeremiah, Mark , Jessica, Jon , Diego, Brock , Mamie, Josh, Tyler, Zach, Haley, Kyle, Patrick, Mason, Brooke B., Brooke C. , Hanna , Kersey, Talia and many more. Pray that they forever feel their child's loving arms around them thru God's Eternal Love.

I pray that our new families have had a chance to find us at Association of Cancer On-line Research (acor.org)for support, information, etc. Click on: Register LISTSERV Password . It took me (& others a couple of tries to get registered - but it is soooo worth it!

Also, another place for Wilms families is Wyatt's Friends , an MSN Group that was started by Kris Rech in honor of her son Wyatt who was born w/BECKWITH-WIEDEMANN SYNDROME and fought & beat Wilms. Kris also is very involved w/CureSearch and the Gold Ribbon Days in Washington DC (this past June 19-21).

Research / Disease Areas
Dollars In Millions

Disease..............2003......2004......2005......2006
Breast Cancer.........693......708......716......716
Colo-Rectal Cancer....296.......297......298......298
Lung Cancer..........297......297......300.....300
Prostate Cancer......279......378......381......381
Children's Oncol. Grp..29.......29.......29.....29

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

SCANS are UPCOMING! Please keep us in your prayers! March 16th. Laurel is NOT looking forward to the blood draw - so her anxiety is already rising.

These 2 precious girls on top of Chelsea 10 days ago - Wilms Community has been hit hard.

Hello Friends!
Wow, am I lame or what?! I really no longer update. Such is the life of families who are way off treatment!

We rang in the new year early as both Laurel & I r usually asleep early in the evening. No big plans on New Years Day – just hung out. January came and went quietly – although the last week we had a little snow flurry activity which is very unusual for Myrtle Beach. Laurel’s class got to go outside & experience it! (not enough to stick to the ground).

February 6th, Laurel & I hopped in a rental car and drove up to Ohio to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday – unbeknownst to her! Heheheh I called her when we were just a few blocks away to wish her a Happy Birthday and to see what plans she had. We pulled into the driveway (she still didn’t see us), and Dad pulled Laurel inside & said “Look what I found!” We almost brought tears to her eyes!!! We pulled it off! We stayed for a week – not really doing anything. It was kind of a vacation for me as well as mom & dad spoiled us rotten! But we did miss Myrtle Beach.

We drove straight thru to come home. Roads & Weather cooperated greatly for the drive. Unfortunately for Laurel (fortunately for me) there was no snow in Ohio. It would’ve been nice for her to go sledding for the first time – but that will have to wait.

Valentine’s day was very quiet. Bob worked, the boys slept, I napped, and Laurel played w/neighbors all day. 3 days later was my birthday. I had decided that we will finally join the 21st century and get away from Dial-up internet. Roadrunner light will be installed Thursday! Yea!

Laurel has scans coming up in 4 weeks. I have not really told her. She so hates getting poked for the blood draw. But after this visit, it will be ANNUAL!!! And maybe only one more scan/u/s done – which she doesn’t have problems with. I cannot believe we have made it this far and no problems! Laurel is one strong willed lovely young lady! We all love her so very much. I Thank God everyday for her health.

I do ask that you pray for my father. He had quintuple by-pass in 2002. One of those arteries is completely clogged again (& inoperable). Another artery in his heart is too risky to operate on. He does have all his ‘affairs’ in order – but we still try to deny his mortality.

On a lighter note, I have finally joined Facebook! Woooo Hoooo!!!! So look for me and remind me who you are as I just turned 49 a few days ago and my brain cells die quickly!

Love & Peace to all! God Bless You!

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hello Friends!
1/5/09 - My heart is broken. Matthew fought such a hard valiant fight. I know he is no longer in pain - but oh my what a fight he lead! My your light shine brightly forever Matthew! We love you! Matthew Forever A Hero.

12/29
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and Jesus has filled your hearts with Hope, Love & Joy once again!

Christmas was a quiet affair at our home. I awoke first, then Laurel - who ran into the kitchen to see if Santa had come (well, she knew he had come as she already went thru the stocking! LOL). She came back unable to contain her excitement! Santa brought her a 2-wheel bike!!!!!! How did he know she just learned to ride a 2-wheeler???? (Santa still has the training wheels in his bedroom). We allowed her to open a few gifts - then we ate breakfast. The boys were still fast asleep. Laurel went running outside to ride her brand new 2-wheeler with the 2 neighbor girls whom also just learned to ride 2-wheelers and whom also received bikes from Santa! How funny!!! They rode for close to 2 hours!!! I then fell asleep (after putting the turkey in the oven) and Bob went running to the beach to take some pix (it was afterall in the 70's). I awoke to find that Tim and Laurel had opened the rest of their presents! LOL I felt somewhat bad for Laurel - she was expecting more toys - she received a LOT of clothes! Mind you, she was happy with what she received - but I'm sure she was a bit disappointed, KWIM? Matt finally woke up and opened his gifts. I proceeded to open my gifts, then Bob came back and opened his gifts! LOL What a disjointed Christmas morning/day! LOL LOL

After eating our Turkey dinner, we headed to the bowling alley. Yep, we went bowling on Christmas Day! What a fun time! We only bowled 2 games. The ciggy smoke was getting to us all. And boy are we lousy bowlers! LOL I did best (but only because I shared Laurel's 'bumpered' lane! LOL).

The 26th was another relaxing day. Laurel & I went to see Marley & Me at the theaters. It was NOT what I expected - but we both sure enjoyed it! Later that night Laurel lost her 2nd tooth!!!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!! (she asked me to pull it out on Christmas Eve - but I told her we didn't need Santa and the Tooth Fairy in our house at the same time! LOL)

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I know, we dropped off the face of the earth again. Just seems like Normal Life keeps one soooooo busy.

Laurel had an exciting day yesterday (Dec. 14th). She LOST her first tooth!!!!!! Wow, I almost thought she’d be 8 be4 she lost her first tooth! Most kids lose a first tooth @ 5.5 yrs of age. She just wanted to hold onto hers! Ironically, I think it is exactly 6 years to the day when she first walked! I thought the first tooth was usually a bottom one (like when they come in). This was a top one – one that she has ground down to nothing (nerves). Sunday morning it was just hanging by a couple of ‘threads’ – so I asked her if she wanted me to pull it out. Surprisingly she said Yes! (This from a child w/a small boo-boo won’t let me anywhere near it, or will not let me near a bandage that is ¾ of the way off.). One big tug (and tearing sound from those 2 strands hanging on) and it was out – no blood, no fuss, no tears! Just ONE HAPPY CAMPER!

Ugh, Is Christmas just 10 days away? I had tried so hard to save $$ for Christmas this year as we weren’t going to get a bonus – but it didn’t work out. Our savings (which thankfully we had) was depleted for regular bills – along with IRA & 401(k) withdrawals. How does everyone survive? I know we have more $$ than many people in this world, but we can barely keep our head above water. We recently had to buy a new washing machine (had to get a credit card for that – ugh). It hasn’t worked right in almost a year – but when Laurel was diagnosed with Nits (Lice) again – UGH – I figured it was time. No clue where she got it this time. Supposedly no one else at day care had it (& no one at school). I pray we beat it good this time. (I do NOT use the poison on her hair – but use the Olive Oil treatment).

We were suppose to go to Charleston for some fun bowling and arts & crafts – but had to decline because of the lice. YUCK!

My parents had hoped we would make it to Ohio for Christmas this year. How do u decline w/o letting them know it’s all because of financial situation. They hate how broke we are – so I try not to let on. Although I will be heading up there in February as mom turns 75!!!! (I had to tease them earlier this month as their oldest child turned 50 this year).

Laurel has a two week Christmas Break coming up. Bob has a bunch of vacation time so will be taking that time off with her. Neither Matt nor Tim have found jobs. I asked them to apply for Food Stamps as I just can’t afford to buy food for everyone. We’re still waiting on that.

I hope this doesn’t sound too whiney. God has provided us with so much! He has been so wonderful to us. I am very thankful for everything HE has provided for us and rarely does an hour go by that I don’t thank Him for His wonderful gifts. Thankfully, Laurel too knows of his undying Love for us. (Now to just get her to be more appreciative of what I do for her! LOL).

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Thursday, October 23, 2008 8:27 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Hmmm, I know I did an update a few weeks back, but I don’t see it. Well, shoot.

Laurel has been busy with school and soccer. She makes a great defensive player (just like her big brothers did when they played soccer). We had a great, but exhausting weekend for her birthday. My baby girl is 7 yrs old! Wow! Where did my baby go?? I see a young lady now!

We had a great visit with Courageous Kidz at the Corn Maze farm in Moncks Corner. Laurel was excited to see her name on the board inside the hotel wishing her a Happy Birthday! We played for 3 hours be4 heading back to the hotel. The next morning we were in the car at 8am headed back to Myrtle Beach. And we hit the ground running.

Her birthday party was GREAT! 10 little girls showed up and they all enjoyed themselves. It was rather strange eating cake & opening presents before ‘playing’ – but wet bathing suits were not allowed in the meeting room. The kids swam for about 90 mins. The pool is enclosed except for the south side facing the ocean. The breeze was from the north – so we did not have any cold air rushing into the pool area. The pools were all heated at a nice temperature and the kids had a blast! Bob blew up the 48 small beach balls I had purchased – so we just threw those into the pool for the girls (& hotel guests! LOL) to play. The cake was a hit – turned out ok!

Yesterday was a ‘special’ anniversary that quietly went by. It was 4 yrs ago that she was diagnosed with this Beast! Ironically, I called to schedule her flu shot, and guess what day they gave us? The 22nd. She also never got her Chicken Pox booster shot (recommended by Oncs, and now by all Peds) so I asked the nurse for this as well. Laurel who did FANTASTIC with her last blood draw was screaming & fighting like a banshee when it came time for the shots. Wow – Just like 4 yrs ago when we were forcing contrast down her throat for the CT (that never happened since the machine broke be4 she drank ½ the contrast).

After her shots, she was MAD, MAD, MAD! Trying to kick me – and hard! Thankfully I was able to avoid the kicks! By the time we got in the car she wasn’t quite as mad at me, but still not speaking to me. By the time we got to her school she had settled down nicely. I spent the next few hours helping out in her classroom. After lunch I headed into work. It was nice spending the morning at her school. Laurel forgave me the shots since I stopped by the store for ice cream after work. Rule of Thumb in our house is If you get a shot, you get ice cream.

Well, poor Matt has had yet more bad luck. Just LOVE this economy. He had this last job for 6 weeks and was laid off. B&C has not done their 2nd big layoffs yet. So Bob & I are both still employed – Thank God!

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Thursday, October 9, 2008 10:16 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Wow, almost another month has passed so quickly. We sit back and watch our nation go downhill quickly. Although technically not allowed, there have been a lot of political discussions at work. I’m torn. I don’t like either candidates (or their veeps). There are mostly Republicans here in the office and all they can do is BLAME the democrats for the ills of the economy and put down Obama. The few strong democrats I know, do nothing but blame the economy on the republicans and put McCain down as another Bush. Neither will tell me the STRONG points of their favored party. I’m sick to death. Neither one of my boys can get a decent job, I may be losing my job next week – yet everyone does nothing but point fingers. Baah!

Laurel continues to do well. Continues to complain of tummy problems. I just don’t know what to do for her. I hate that she doesn’t feel well. I pray maybe it’s just her medicine causing the tummy aches. Bad enough it causes tiredness. I yawn all day (on same meds, stronger dose). Unfortunately, she’s had some anxiety attacks and separation anxiety issues recently. One was in the middle of Walmart (AFTER passing some scary Halloween displays). Poor baby just got so scared/anxious. All I could do was hug her.

School is still going well for her. She is one smart cookie. It’s amazing how 1st graders are spelling and reading like crazy! Laurel’s spelling words this week were: Monday, Tuesday, title, author, science.

Her birthday is quickly approaching! I again have spent too much $$ ($$ I don’t have) on preparing her party. It’s so hard not to, when her birthday and day of dx are just 3 days apart. I believe the day of dx as a Rebirth – a 2nd chance at life. This year we will be having a pool party at one of the hotels (heated pool!). We’ll celebrate first, then swim – as they don’t want wet swimsuits in their small meeting room! LOL LOL

The day before her party, we have been invited to a Halloween Party in Moncks Corner hosted by Flash Stephenson, founder of Courageous Kidz! We are hoping to maybe meet some more Cancer Survivors her age. We will have the privilege of spending the night in a hotel before heading back – which will make a wonderful b-day present to her as she so wanted to spend the night in the hotel for her party. But they didn’t have the meeting room open on Saturday (booked).

Both boys continue to not have a good ‘life.’ They both have brought bad Karma onto themselves. I pray daily for them – but they need to open their hearts up to the Truth and to the Light. I just pray that we can hold onto our house as the economy continues to deteriorate. Too many people have lost jobs & homes – as we enter another Depression.

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Thursday, October 9, 2008 10:16 AM CDT

Friday, September 19, 2008 7:41 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

And yet another Angel - Sweet 7 y/o Emma ;

Woooo Hoooo! We are officially 3.5 years Cancer Free!!!!! I was a tad nervous as she’s had tummy issues for several months now – nothing consistent and has not ‘forced’ her to miss anything (school, etc.) and she continues to grow – so we will just ‘log’ these ickies in our memory bank and move forward.

For the boring part – I like to chronicle our visits. Laurel & I left early at 7am as I promised her Burger’Thing’s’ French Toast sticks. We got to the drive-thru at 7:07 and sat there for 5 mins. A man came knocking at my window and informed me that they had overslept and weren’t open!!!! (Laurel was to be NPO from 7:30am ). We stopped at Walmart to pick up disposable camera so she can take pictures of her visit and share at Show & Tell today. We finally hit the road only to not pass a McD’s or Burger’Thing’ until 8am!!! Eeeks!

Easy drive down. (background- when I called the hospital last week to find out what time her scans were, they said she only had labs & exam scheduled. I did eventually get a call back saying her u/s was for 11:30am – hmmmm, that’s MUCH later than usual – I wondered if they goofed up and forgot to schedule so just had her as a ‘work-in’).

We got to registration at 9:50am. We sat out there for 12 mins (no one in front of us). They never called. I got frustrated and just went into clinic. I sat there for 10 mins wondering if I goofed as they won’t have her file if she’s not registered, so went back out front – where they snappily informed me that they called her name 2x, but went ahead and sent her file back. Whatever. So we sat there in clinic for almost an HOUR!!!! Usually she is weighed, etc. within 5 mins of arriving. I did not recognize any nurses!!!! Finally one we did know came out & said she’ll be with us shortly. She pulled us back and did the triage then informed us that they have changed again, that blood draws are now done on the 3rd floor in Phlebotomy Lab. OMG, another place to wait! LOL LOL I asked her for her CXR orders and she’s like “Oh, do u need that right now?” ummm, yes, it’s a 10 min. walk to the hospital and I don’t think I want to be running anymore than I need to. Down one floor and danged if there was a waiting room full of people! I even asked “Is everyone here waiting for a blood draw?” Several heads nodded – so I looked at Laurel and said “u lucked out, jelly belly first!” So off we ran to Radiology at Childrens. We ran into Char (the ONLY medical person who’s been with us since Day ONE) and she said Laurel would be next. Well, I forgot that you have to Register in a different room first! UGH! Thankfully at 11:25 there was no one there! After a 5 min. wait, Laurel was pulled into Xray – and she did EXCELLENT! No wiggling at all this time! I stayed in the room, but only to take pix of her for her Show & Tell. You could tell she was a Nervous Nellie, but she did FANTASTIC! Then a 5 min. wait for Char and time for Jelly Belly (u/s). I told Char @ the belly aches/pains. She told me if it’s bowel related, she really can’t see anything w/the u/s. Then she asked me if this was a special request. “Huh?” She said “u guys aren’t scheduled until tomorrow morning at 9am.” OMG! LOL LOL ooopsy, the hospital goofed – scheduled us for labs & exam on the 18th and scans on the 19th!!!! With the price of gas, there is NO WAY we would be traveling to Charleston 2 DAYS in a ROW!!!! LOL That was nice to find out that she was def. suppose to have scans, and I wasn’t going crazy.

Scans finished – she did a thorough job because of Laurel’s belly problems. Char disappeared to take results to Dr. to check out. She was gone a LONG TIME – but only because she being who she is, she made sure the Dr. checked these scans out thoroughly! Gotta Love her! In fact, I had forgotten that we had given her a pix of Laurel last year, and Laurel looked at Char’s small bulletin board and there’s her pix! (And the ONLY pix on the board!). I told Char we had another pix for her. She said everyone asks her if it’s her little girl – and she says “no, just a very special patient.” Awwwwwwww. Char is one special lady to us! We don’t have that report w/any of the nurses or doctors.

So off we went running back to Rutledge. Laurel started freaking out as she knew she couldn’t avoid the blood draw any more. (at least this time she didn’t try to veer off towards the parking garage like she did last year! LOL). Surprisingly only a 2 min. wait as it was noon. Only one nurse – eeeks! Very nice lady. She was going to explain to Laurel & me what she was going to do, until I told her she’s been going thru this for almost 4 yrs now. Ohhhhhh. Surprisingly (well, not so, as they now have a person designated ONLY for blood draws) she did it so quick that Laurel hardly had time to cry!!!! Even Laurel was impressed! I explained to this nurse that the nurses upstairs usually have to try 2x to get a vein. The little crying Laurel did helped the blood to flow quickly into the vials!

Back up to the 4th floor and a LONG wait to see a doctor. I got to chat with a couple of parents (whom I didn’t know). One was g’ma of 7 y/o twins (she was only 44! Grrrrr) – the boy was dx w/AML at 2 and had a BMT from his twin sister at 3. They are at annual appointments! I told her we were almost there! After this next 6 mos. visit, Laurel will only have annual appointments! We are almost there!!!!!

We did not get out of the hospital until 1:44pm! And we were STARVED! We stopped at our favorite place “Sticky Fingers” and we both INHALED our food and DESSERT! (shhhhhh). Then on the road. We decided to take the cameras straight to Walmart for One-Hour development since Show & Tell was the next day. But that was ONE long HOUR! I was so tired. We didn’t get home until almost 6pm. We were gone for 11 hours and I was EXHAUSTED! As was Laurel. (Although she wouldn’t admit it). As I always get her a ‘gift’ after each Onc app’t, she bought Ariel’s Beginnings and sat in front of the portable DVD player for the next 80 mins. zoned out. She was too tired to even answer the door when friends came to play.

Did I mention we are now 3.5 years Cancer Free???!!!!! Wow! This is almost all completely behind us! Yet more & more kids are dx. I was told clinic has gotten so busy all week. What a horrible shame. I even saw a little baby in clinic yesterday. She looked to be only 5 mos old and had an NG tube AND accessed. I tried not to cry.

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, September 8, 2008 3:32 PM CDT

Hello Friends!

I do so try to stop by and update – but our battle against Cancer (Thank The Lord) is far behind us - so I don't post often. Laurel does have scans coming in 10 days (Sept. 18th) and my nerves are starting to stress as she continues to complain of tummy aches. Although I did catch her ‘using’ a tummy ache to try to get out of something (maybe it was school? But it was a Saturday morning and she didn’t realize it!).

The Wilms Family is mourning the loss of yet another beautiful soul. Sammi was just 19 yrs old. Just finished high school. Ugh. We hate cancer so very much. Then I just learned that Angel Kyle’s wonderful mother, Paula, has just recently been dx with Breast Cancer. I so wish this beast would just disappear. It has wrecked to many families.

As you can see we made it thru “Tropical Storm” Hanna – although it wasn’t much of a tropical storm either! LOL This one was more like just a 12 hour wind & rain storm w/thunder & lightning thrown in for good measure. We will all be praying for those in the path of Ike – although he too seems to be settling down a little!

So My baby Girl is in 1st grade!!! She was rather anxious that day but is doing much better. I go in early every morning to help the teacher and Laurel is in the room with me.

My older son Matt continues to have problems and is still in need of many prayers. I just don’t know what to say or do. I did tell him that he truly needs to “Own up” to his mistakes and realize he is partly to blame for his problems (hung out with the wrong person). I think he has finally realized that – but now he is flat broke and car-less. He has his one very p/t job and has just begun another part time job. I feel so bad for him as he will be turning 23 in just a few short weeks. Bob & I were married by then, my dad was fighting in Korea at the age of 23. I either mothered Matt too much or not enough. I haven’t figured that out yet. He has matured a lot this past week. (He already was pretty mature for his age as at the age of 6 he was able to stop an overflowing toilet all by himself).

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:50 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Join me in praying for the Jeffcoat family. Rhonda fought a long hard battle against cancer (appendix). She never gave up hope or faith. I was so very proud of her. She leaves behind a grieving husband and 14 y/o daughter. WE Love you Rhonda!

Life continues at the Urban House. Summer is in full swing. Laurel spends her day at summer camp (day care) and weekends usually finds us at the waterpark just chilling out with our friends.

This past Saturday we were invited to an event sponsored by a wonderful organization! Courageous Kidz had an outdoor Family Funatastic Reunion down in Charleston – complete with food, boat rides, water slides, arts & crafts and face paining. (I was duly reprimanded by the Founder for not coming up to her & introducing ourselves! LOL). Flash put on a wonderful event. Although Tropical Storm Cristobol threatened us with some icky weather – the rain held off in Charleston (poured in Myrtle Beach all day tho!). Laurel cannot wait to attend another one of their events – which I have been told is a Halloween party the day before her birthday!

Well, the good news is we still have jobs. We thank God for that. There have been many layoffs with our company. Bob’s section will soon be sold off – and I hear that this new company has wonderful Health benefits!!!!

Tim is still holding his breath hoping to get a call from the City of Myrtle Beach for the Police Cadet program he had applied. Please pray he gets this position!

Matt’s troubles have not been ‘fixed’ yet (nor is his car that was hit by a Hit & Run (drunk) driver 6 weeks ago! The good news is nothing else bad has happened to him recently – other than not being able to obtain a decent job.

My car broke down ‘good’ a few weeks back. We were able to drive it to the repair shop (barely). $600 (new catalytic converter & wiring) later, it was fixed – enough for us to drive down to Charleston and back. Then it broke down AGAIN! UGH. You’d think a new alternator and new catalytic converter would be enough repairs to a car in 3 months time. Our savings is now depleted – and I had hoped to drive up to Ohio to visit my parents who are not doing too well. Dad just turned 78 this past Sunday. Thank God for phones & internet! But I’d really like to see them. Praying daily that things even out for us (and for the economy). As bad as things seems some days, I know we have it so much better than many others. We are blessed with our health, a roof over our head, and food on the table (for now, haha). God is Good.

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, June 30, 2008 11:09 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Wow, another month has passed and I just don’t update! But no news is always good news. We’ve had some pretty nice weekends and have started getting some rain to boot! So now my yard is green (but my water bill from the spring was HIGH!).

Laurel is doing great for the most part. She still complains about pains in her tummy. This has been going on for 3 mos. now. Really bothers me – this is when I wished we were much closer to the Oncs (or that Matt had stayed in his original major of Radiology! LOL). Bob did have to take her to the doctor’s today. She has a growth on her foot. She showed it to me a month ago and to be honest, I kinda forgot about it – she was always getting blisters, etc. Well, it has become somewhat painful. Ugh, Plantars Wart. Poor Baby. I will look it up on line to see what we can do. Peds only suggested Duct Tape 24/7 on it and when it’s gone he’ll give her a $5 bill! LOL LOL I think I’ll give it a month, and then call Podiatrist.

She also keeps breaking out in this little rash right in the middle of her scar line on her abdomen. She has never had problems w/her scar before and it’s been almost 4 yrs since the surgery. Go figure.

My boys and my dad could still use some prayers. I so wish prices of gas and airlines weren’t so high – I really need to get up to Ohio to see my dad. I don’t want it to be ‘too late’ (KWIM?). Matt’s life just can’t seem to come together. I’ve asked that he turn his life back over to Jesus – but I don’t think he’s done that yet. I don’t care whether he goes to church, just turn his life back over. Today he is home with food poisoning! LOL If it isn’t one thing with him, it’s another. Plus the fact that a drunk driver ran into his truck 3 weeks ago while parked at work – and Geico refuses to do anything for another 2 mos!!!! (Unless he wants to just pay his $1,000 deductible, and then get reimbursed for Hit & Run in 2 mos.). He doesn’t HAVE $1,000 – nor do we.

He has his 3rd (of many) court date coming up Thursday afternoon. An attorney friend finally called me this morning to discuss his one problem – and he will talk to Matt further. He can’t afford to take up Comp – and we can’t afford an attorney – but he’ll give us some advice on how to proceed. So far, I think Matt’s already done what he is suggesting.

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, June 2, 2008 8:24 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

What a beautiful weekend! Hope everyone enjoyed theirs!

This is the last week of school. Makes me kinda sad. Laurel is growing up too quickly. Her teacher has fun activities planned this week. We sure hit pay dirt by getting this particular teacher! Today the kids were to dress up like pirates. I took in extra clothes & tattoos as I just ‘knew’ some of the kids would come in w/o. Well, Thankfully the teacher found a bunch of pirate hats for real cheap at Target!

Tomorrow the entire school celebrates Reading Rally Day. Each class is to dress up like their favorite book. Laurel’s class chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar! 1/3 will dress like Caterpillars, 1/3 like cocoons, and 1/3 like butterflies. I so wish I could go and see them! The teacher went all out (where does she get the $$????)

Wednesday the kids are to wear their tied-dyed shirts – the entire school. I’ve already forgotten why! LOL

Thursday Laurel’s teacher has put together a little “Graduation” Ceremony for the kids and families! Thursday & Friday are just ½ days as well. Then Summer Vacation begins. I’d almost say “I wish I could be home with her this summer” – but the way everyone is losing jobs at our company, I’ll stay here. Every employee is nervous!

Laurel & I did make it to the Waterpark on Saturday. I couldn’t move fast so we didn’t get there until after 11am! We stayed until 3:30pm. Sadly, I allowed Laurel to get sunburn. (Shame on me). I just have such a stubborn little girl – she refused to put sunscreen on. She was able to play with a couple of friends for a little bit – but she wanted to go to the ‘bigger’ areas whereas her friends stayed in the ‘younger’ areas.

Sunday, we just went shopping for ‘stuff.’ Everyone probably thought I was crazy putting a shawl on Laurel as we walked from and to the car – but the sun was brutal – and I know what it’s like to have that sun hitting sunburn. 94 deg. and wearing a shawl! LOL

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

Thursday, May 29, 2008 1:25 PM CDT

Hello Friends!
Edit: 5/30: So I guess my dad's news is a little worse than we had expected/hoped for. Seems his 2 blocked arteries, there is nothing they can do. 1 is where he already had a bypass done. (Quintuple by-pass 6 yrs ago) and the other, the Cardiologist told him if he has the stent put in, he'll have a heart attack. (and if he doesn't???? probably a heart attack). Ugh. Please please please pray for my dad. He will be 78 in July.

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Hope everyone had a Great Memorial Day Weekend! Ours was “interesting” (then again, why would we have an ordinary weekend?). I kept debating on whether to take Laurel to Columbia to visit the zoo and State museum. We didn’t leave until 11am for our 3 hour road trip. Eeeks! We wanted to do the museum on Sat. then zoo on Sun. but the museum wasn’t where I remembered! (my brain cells are dying quickly!). so we ended up at the zoo. Since it was cloudy, it wasn’t hot and the animals were out & playing. We didn’t plan our trip real well – and missed out on a few fun things. But we still enjoyed the zoo. Laurel’s favorite part was seeing the Bengal Tigers playing! (usually they are asleep). When we were at the ‘barnyard’ exhibit, we ran into some friends from here! What a coincidence!

Laurel and I found a (cheap) motel just a few blocks from the capitol building! The next morning we got up and walked to the grounds and explored all the statues and memorials there. And the beautiful Hydrangeas! WE got to the museum and I discovered that in the past 8 yrs they have built a children’s museum in the same area – but neither opened until noon! We tried to go back to the zoo – but the line at 10:30 was a mile long and 30 mins. later we only moved 10 feet! So we drove back to the museum and waited for it to open.

By the time it opened, we were both getting a bit tired! LOL So we kinda rushed thru the exhibits enjoying ourselves thoroughly again. At 2:30 I said Let’s hit the road. Well, 45 mins. later my (ahem) radar detector informed me my vehicle was in Critical Error – there was NO VOLTAGE. Eeeks! Luckily I don’t take the freeway, I was on a state hwy. and there was a gas station right there. (I had lost my power steering a few minutes earlier). The very kind cashier let me borrow her cell phone were I proceeded to make a few phone calls. Thank GOD I have AAA Gold! They tow up to 100 miles! The one service station I’ve used in the past near our home was 91 miles away! WOOO HOOO! So Laurel & I rode in a tow truck on the way back home! Hey, gotta save on cost of gas somehow, right? Seems my alternator has been on it’s last leg since we purchased the vehicle (and here I thought I needed new spark plugs!) and the alternator tore up my Serpentine Belt!!!! We were so lucky to be near civilization!

Unfortunately, Monday wasn’t much better. We lazed about Memorial Day morning – trying to decide what we were going to do. Laurel wanted to hit the water park. Well, she started to complain that it hurt to urinate and then sat on the toilet for a good 45 mins! I tried calling the Peds but they informed me they were closing in 15 mins and not taking any more patients! UGH! I hate living in a transient area! If Dr. P had known we had called, he would’ve had us in in 2 seconds! Nurse called me back an hour later and told me I better take her to E.R. Again, we were very LUCKY (or Blessed). We were taken right back and put into the only ‘private’ room (all others were curtained partitions). It took Laurel 45 mins. to be able to give a sample and another 20 mins. to get the results. Urinary Tract Infection again. Ugh. I must say, that was the BEST care/service I’ve received at that particular E.R.! We were in and our within 90 mins.! When we left, the waiting room was super crowded! Whew!!! The doctor didn’t treat me like an overly concerned parent – but rather an informed parent. I even told him which antibiotic to use and gently reminded him that she shouldn’t have Motrin for pain. LOL.

So no waterpark. Hopefully this weekend!

Matt continues to need your prayers. I think he is starting to open his eyes to the real world. I feel so bad for his Anxiety Attack he had. (Mine were never that bad). So he’s had 3 E.R. visits this year – with no insurance or money to pay for any of them. I pray he and his girlfriend have split for good. Outwardly, I really liked her – but she has a lot of growing up to do (even tho she is 7 yrs older than Matt and mom to 2 children). Both need to start making better, more mature choices in their lives.

Please pray for my dad who will be getting two stents placed in his arteries due to blocked arteries. Hopefully this will be a breeze compared to his hip replacement surgery from last August and his quintuple by-pass surgery in the summer of 2002.

I know some think our family only has bad luck (ok, truth be known, sometimes I feel like that lol), but I feel that we are truly blessed. God has helped us thru so much. He’s not going to abandon us anytime soon. He truly is Good.

Please continue to pray for all children fighting these awful adult illnesses and diseases. Pray for Comfort to those families who have had a child earn Angel Wings. Pray that our Nation makes a right choice for our next President.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 1:56 PM CDT

Hello Friends!

Things have still be very stressed filled at the house. My older son needs to begin to make better choices. I hate to say it, but he may soon not have a home. I cannot have him stressing the whole family out because of his bad decisions. When his decisions begin to affect a 6 y/o, you know that’s it. He can sure use lots of prayers right now to help him back onto the right path.

Laurel is Laurel. She is bored to death with school. Her teacher cannot find what Level DRA (Reading & Comprehension) she is at. They only need a 3 to pass Kindergarten. Her teacher has been so busy with regular work. So far she has Laurel at a 20 – but knows she can go much higher.

Laurel has been missing out a lot of school. First her tummy – which Peds said was just acid reflux – I’m not too sure of that. Then she complained of ears & throat Sunday morning – Strep. Ugh. Monday morning I took her to school and did not notice until we got there that she had yet another bad reaction to a mosquito bite – this one was 3-4” across! I ran home & got her ointment – and the nurse went ahead & gave her Benadryl (which she hasn’t had since she was 2 yrs old!). It use to wire her. Well, 90 mins. later I received a call that she had fallen asleep in the class!!!! EEEKS! LOL So Dad went to pick her up – and she slept until 2:00pm.

It had been a rough weekend. I went with her class this past Friday on a field trip to Huntington Beach State Park. After walking on the boardwalks looking for alligators, we did a scavenger hunt – but could not find a crab claw anywhere! (or a feather?! – too windy for that). After lunch we toured Atalaya Castle (which we all convince our kids is haunted). This was just a winter home built for a sculptress in 1930 – but it is beautiful.

We got back to the school where Laurel again announced to her classmates that the Relay for Life was that evening and it really is a lot of fun!

Well, either no one believed her – or the weather scared everyone away. While at the park, it was 85 deg. & sunny. Then the winds picked up even more, bringing in rain clouds. Very few people showed up this year. 4 of her friends did brave the icky weather and walked with her and played with her. Laurel & I left at 10;30am. Tired & wet. But she had fun – which is all that mattered!

I have had to add yet another Wilms Angel – across the Big Pond in Great Britain.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, May 12, 2008 7:57 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Well, Don’t think there was a loose tooth – nothing going on that end.

I am again asking for prayers especially for my older son. He has been accused of a few things. I got involved with the wrong person – she has been nothing but trouble. He has had to bail her out of jail 2x in the first 6 mos. of their relationship. And she has 2 young children?!

Also, prayers for Ms. Laurel. I’m sure it’s nothing – but my baby who never has tummy aches or nausea has been complaining of tummy pains for 3 weeks now. I thought maybe constipation – but nope. I thought maybe allergies – nope. Maybe reaction to meds? Possibly??? Not nerves as we almost thought it might be. She’ll be having fun and stop and complain. I am trying NOT to voice my fears. I refuse to let Satan in on this. God will be Good. He will take care of my sweet angel.

Mother’s Day was nice and quiet – Thank the Lord. Bob & Laurel took me out to my favorite Breakfast Buffet – Shoney’s! Although they didn’t have my favorite food: French toast sticks. (nothing but sugar, but yummmmmmmmmmy!). Laurel made me a pinch pot that she wrote “I ♥ Mommy” awwwwwww. Bob got me a book – Stephen King’s newest. The rest of the day went quietly. I did some cleaning, then when the rain stopped & sun came out, I went outside to read my new book. After dinner Tim, Laurel & I went to visit Bob at work (& to ride some rides). Nice ending to an awful, nerve wracking hectic weekend.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting “adult” illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, April 21, 2008 8:39 AM CDT

Hello Friends!

Edit: May is officially here! And maybe this crazy weather will stay above 70 now! Laurel is very excited! She believes she has her first loose tooth! She's tried so hard to NOT be jealous when all her classmates are losing their 3rd, 4th, teeth. She has been beaming! I pray it's loose - I still can't tell.

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Spring has DEFINITELY sprung! Laurel is LOVING the outdoors! This is the best time of year for it. although the mosquitos have already started. In fact I did have to take her to Peds a few weeks ago due to a bad reaction to a mosquito bite. They just love her for some reason. I bought some Mosquito Plants yesterday and planted them in the back yard to see if that will help (but I highly doubt that).

We got to babysit my ‘pseudo grand kids’ again Friday night. They did better going to bed, but this time I had to fight with Laurel. She is still too attached to me. Bob never knows who is sleeping where when he comes home Friday nights! LOL Saturday was another soccer game. Laurel has really come out of her shell when it comes to soccer! She says she got 5 goals (but I think at least 2 if not 3 were assists). Yet she doesn’t want to play soccer any more. Everything ‘bores’ her. She dropped dance because it bored her. She’s bored in school.

Speaking of which. I had a conference w/her K teacher (Robin), the ass’t principal (Janet) and her pre-selected 1st Grade Teacher (Mrs. Spencer). Although Robin sees little to no anxiety problems w/Laurel, Janet knows they can still exist (esp. since Laurel is still on meds). Our hope is to get her weaned from them. But she is still anxious about starting 1st grade (I know, that’s not for another 4.5 mos). I think this teacher will be PERFECT for her. Very caring, loving woman (& 10 yrs older than me?!?!). We ran into her in the hallway this morning. She gave Laurel a great big hug. Laurel of course didn’t say a word to her – but we explained to Mrs. Spencer to just treat Laurel as if she were answering you. She wants to, just can’t. They will also put a couple of her friends/classmates in her class next year to help w/the transition. I explained all of this to Laurel, but also told her this is not going to happen every year – that she will need to learn to control her anxieties – and see that people are not always judging her or wanting to hurt her.

Sunday afternoon was a birthday party at a stable!!!! The kids had a blast! They got to ride (they were lead) horses. One was a paint – so I knew right away which one Laurel would go to! LOL They kids had the best time on the tire swing! I spent all my time either swinging 1 or 2 of the 14 kids or holding a 7 mos. old baby girl. 23 yrs ago I couldn’t abide kids! LMAO Now I can’t get enough of them. Laurel had a fantastic time! I am ‘thinking’ about getting her riding lessons. But fear she will be ‘bored’ with that as well. UGH. What to do.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting “adult” illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, March 31, 2008 10:47 AM CDT

Edit: April 8th
Report cards are in! Wow!!!!! What a great report. She has received P's (Progressed Beyond This Skill) on all of Literacy and in Oral Communication, P's for most of Written Expression, and 4/11 P's for Numeracy. Overall Progress in Literacy she continues to Exceed Expectation for Kindergarten! Numeracy is still showing Meets Expectations. The ONLY Check marks (developing) is under Personal & Social Development - which goes along with Social Anxiety. Happily NO "NI's" anywhere!

Still need prayers for Son #1 - Matt. Just when he gets a foot firmly back on the ground, he is knocked back down. He lost his one job due to running a high grade fever for a week. (Blech!), got another job within a week - but then discovered that since he never put his '09 tag on his truck, the police ran his plates and discovered that he was w/o insurance for 26 days in JANUARY!!!! So they removed his tags and Suspended his license!!!!! He can get both back after paying a $650 fine ($$ he does NOT have!). Plus the bills from his visits to the hospital have started to pour in. Right now they are at $7,500. He's not feeling too loved right now. He can't get a loan - and because of our past financial problems, we can't co-sign a loan for him. Please continue to Pray for him - that all this will work out. I know God will take care of him, but not necesarily in the fashion we hope.

One bit of good news. Laurel had her 2nd Soccer Game. Since I had running around to do, Bob had the privilege of taking her. I came late to hear lots of praises on how well of a defensive player she is - and that she also scored one of their 6 goals!!!! WTG Laurel Rose!!!!

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Hello Friends,

Well, Spring break is over. Not much of a spring break as it was kinda chilly this week! LOL

Laurel continues to be a healthy happy little girl. Although she is just now learning that not everyone gets cancer as a child. She keeps questioning when ‘dad & I’ had cancer. When did “Matt & Tim” have cancer. I try to tell her how special she is because she overcame it (she still doesn’t understand why some kids, esp. Diego don’t always beat the Beast). I want her know she is special – but that all kids are special in their own ways. She now doesn’t understand why everyone has more than one kidney! LOL

Poor baby had an awful anxiety attack Saturday morning. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not play at her soccer game. The minute she walked onto the field, she would hang her head, suck on a hand and cry. Easter weekend I could’ve sworn she had beat her SAD. Not so. As long as she was NOT expected to perform, she would ease up. Pray that she is able to beat this so she can play next Saturday.

Not good news on Matt’s end. He is feeling much better and was to return to work on Saturday. His boss told him to wait until Sun. or Mon. (I suggested he go in on Sun.). Well, he was there 2 hours when his boss called him over and ‘relieved’ him of the work cell phone and told him to go home. He swore he wasn’t letting him go because of his illness. Then he ‘offered’ Matt a job at almost ½ the pay, and an hourly position. Matt went home & thought about it. I told him he needs to ‘accept’ this position to prove to his boss he is not a layabout who doesn’t show up to work. Matt called & accepted the position and said it shocked his boss. I guess his boss was hoping Matt would NOT accept the position – and quit – making it so Matt could NOT collect unemployment. This way, if his boss really decided to be mean and fire him, he will be able to collect unemployment.

Please pray that God opens that other door for Matt quickly before all his bills become due & payable again. Not only did Matt ‘lose’ a lot of his pay, but we have as well. Bob was working a p/t job to supplement our f/t jobs. All 3 jobs are thru the same corporation – but each is separate division. B&C has decided that if you work f/t for them, that you cannot work p/t for them as well. Something about the Labor Board got involved. Ugh. They weren’t doing anything illegal! Pay down here is LOUSY and you have to work 2 jobs to pay the rent! So please pray that another door opens for Bob or myself as well.

Tim needs prayers. He was involved in a little altercation Friday night. Granted the other boy started the punching – Tim expects this other boy to apologize. I doubt that will happen. I pray that Tim opens his heart and Forgives this other boy. It is NOT for us to judge others. We can have our opinions, but we need to keep them to ourselves. Please Lord, Open His Heart to Your Way.

Thankfully I can report that the entire family is healthy. I’m worried that Matt won’t make it to his follow up appointment. His boss after being surprised that he’ll take the low paying position told him he can have Mon. & Tues. off (huh?). Matt’s follow-up doctor’s appointment is Wednesday. Ugh. He can’t afford to miss the appointment, but he can’t afford to miss work.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting “adult” illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Friday, March 21, 2008 9:14 AM CDT

Edit March 26th: Well, Matt spent another day in ER. He cannot shake the fever, has not eaten anything since Saturday, pain next to his belly button, and now dark urine. They did an u/s this time - and still nothing. Same doctor as Sun. - and he still wants to say gall stones - but it keeps coming up negative - as does the Mono, strep & flu. He is to follow up next week w/a GP - and is still to go to the Oncologist on the 8th. We fear for his job right now as this child has never missed a day of work and is never sick - and SC being a Right to Work state means they can let him go in a NY minute.

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March 23rd: Happy Easter!

Ours wasn't all that great. I spent 5.5 hours in ER w/my older son. Blood work, urinalysis, CT and nothing was discovered as to the reason for his extremely high temperature and vomiting. They ran tests for mono, flu, strep - all came up negative. The CT showed no probs w/apendix, no tumors (due to Laurel's history) - but an enlarged spleen - of which the doctor is pretty concerned about. Matt was hydrated w/2 bags of IV and sent home. He is to make a follow up app't with an Oncologist (???!!!!!) in 2 weeks. So, please pray that this was just a flu strain that they couldn't catch. Kinda scary having to go see an Onc - but I'm thinking maybe they're thinking more along the lines of hematology.

Laurel tried to participate in egg hunt at church - but very unorganized. It was to be in between the 2 services - but they failed to wait for the first service to finish!!!! So all the eggs were gone by the time we got there - so some of the parents realilzing the error of their ways had the kids who were still there (NOT the ones who grabbed 30 eggs each) dump out their eggs for the kids just coming. a bunch were dumped right in front of Laurel - so all she had to do was to bend down & pick up ONLY 5 eggs.

We proceeded home to see if Easter Bunny hid eggs at our house - He did! After Laurel found her eggs (some well hidden) she said that was MUCH more fun than the one at church! LOL

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Hello friends,

Very Happy to report another NED report!!! This visit went pretty well – although Laurel did get upset right be4 the blood draw. She asked the nurse if she could have a finger prick instead – so she went off to find the answer. Yes to finger prick. But then Laurel wouldn’t go into the room to have it done – we had to physically drag her into the room screaming. Nurse picked her up & placed her in my arms – the whole time Laurel fought & cried. Poor baby still cannot stand pricks. So many Cancer kids get use to this routine – no Laurel. She gets herself so worked up. An hour wait to see an Onc we’ve never seen be4.

Discussed her leg pains. These are off & on – not consistent. As usual, we got brushed off. I have just found out this past week that many of chemo kids continue to have leg pains LONG after treatment has finished. The Oncs refuse to chalk it up to chemo – insisting that ALL kids have these pains. Now that I think about it, she said she could barely walk last week! Ugh! I forgot about that. I just wish there was an Onc who took our complaints seriously.

For our trip down, Laurel and I made up an Easter Basket to give to the clinic nurses. Laurel was very happy to play in the play room. Unfortunately, I had yet another run-in w/the Child Life Specialist. How is it all the other families across the country just LOVE their Child Life Specialist, and I despise ours???? When I mentioned Laurel’s Selective Mutism and how well she’s done, the CLP whipped around and basically said “How DARE you label her!!!!” She’s ALWAYS been like this to me. I’ll never forget when she scolded me for NOT having Laurel in day care during treatment – yet the ONC said no daycare. So who do I listen to? A Doctor or the CLP?

After a quick PE with the doctor, they sent us on over to Radiology – it was well be4 our appointed time, but clinic said they might be able to squeeze us in earlier.

So off to the hospital – and knowing the fact that we didn’t have to make the long trek BACK to clinic afterwards made the trip not seem so long! LOL Those twisting hallways are very confusing. Well, seems Peds Radiology has changed their procedures! Eeeks! Pat walked me down to Radiology Check in (I usually just check in at Peds Check in?!), then back to Pat to wait. I presented Pat with a little bucket w/Easter goodies – she & Char are the only 2 that have been consistently there these past 3.5 yrs. Quick chest x-ray (only one time – Laurel stood very still!), then Char came in. We presented her with a small gift of appreciation which brought her to tears. (Just a ‘ultrasound t-shirt’ that said “No Pain, All Gain.” Char then brought me to tears asking me what happened – why we didn’t show up 2 weeks ago! How sweet to realize that we were missing!

Then she told me some shocking news. That there are some families who consistently miss their appointments! She knows some of us NEVER miss – and that’s why she was surprised we weren’t there. I can’t even fathom MISSING a scan! I told her this is as much for MY peace of mind as anything else.

Normally at clinic the few people there do not talk to others. This group that is on Thursday is a friendly bunch! I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the families there – didn’t even have to open my book! I fell in love with one little girl – Kaylin. Sweet sweet little 2 ½ y/o. She was just a talkative little thing! She is recovering from a BMT – and they are staying at the RMH (which again, most RMH’s are fantastic, ours leaves A LOT to be desired). I was impressed that she kept her mask on the entire time! And when she thru a 2 y/o tantrum, my heart just melted. Dad of course didn’t put up with it! Very impressed that he handled her as a normal child. I wouldn’t have – I spoiled Laurel horribly. I so wanted to gather little Kaylin into my arms. Her nurse just kept glaring at me. LMAO

Trip home was just as uneventful as our trip there! (gotta love the boring days!). But it sure exhausted me! I went to lay down as Laurel went next door to play. I so wish I had her energy!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting “adult” illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 12:03 AM CDT

March 18th: Had to add a little funny here. When leaving Walmart with planting supplies, the lady at the door looked at Laurel and asked her if she was helping Grandma plant some flowers! LMAO I informed her I was the mom, not grandma! Thankfully, this doesn't bother either of us, but it sure flusters the person who opened their mouth!

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Edit: March 11th, pm: Well, after only one week at work, Tim is out of work again. The child managed to break his leg at work! ARGH! Life continues on...........

Hello friends,

Another month quietly sliding by. I had asked for prayers for my boys earlier on. My older son Matt is doing much better now. Both he and his girlfriend had lost their jobs right be4 Christmas (& lost their apartment right be4 Thanksgiving). On top of that, his boss kept their last paychecks and threatened to have them arrested (Thankfully they did nothing illegal, it was just a threat). They still have some financial problems to overcome, but they are both working now, trying to get back on their feet.

Laurel & I have been in 7th Heaven. I so want to be a grandma, and she so wants to be a big sister. Well, Matt¡¦s girlfriend has 2 young children from a previous marriage ¡V 2 y/o boy & 4y/o girl. We have had them spend the night with us 2 times and have taken them places on the weekend. So we have ¡¥killed 2 birds w/one stone¡¦ LOL.

I hate that Laurel¡¦s scans had to be moved. I was rather worried @ her vomiting & stomach pain. Too many children with past abdominal surgery have had intestinal/bowel blockage ¡V and I was a tad worried. Until she developed a fever a few hours after being sick. Whew!

So they have scheduled us to come in on the 20th ¡V although it will be a ¡¥work in¡¦ and not on Tuesday when they have the follow-up patients in. Don¡¦t think we¡¦ve ever been on a Thursday, so it will be interesting. Since our only constant in the past 3.5 yrs has been the ultrasound tech, I have bought her a little gift. She has done every one of Laurel¡¦s u/s¡¦s except 2. We never see (saw) the same nurse during clinic visits, nor the same Onc. But Char has almost always been there for us.

Sadly, the 20th is the last day of school be4 Spring Break and her class is having an Easter Egg Hunt. What hurts the most is the fact that Laurel has never done one (due to her anxiety disorder). This one I truly believe she would¡¦ve participated in. I promised her that I would do one w/her and the next door girls either that evening (if we get back early enuff) or Saturday. One of her classmates said she will collect some eggs for Laurel ¡V but honestly, what good will that do as the school will be closed for 10 days. I could have Bob stop by the school be4 he heads to work to collect her basket.

Since I had so much fun spending the day at her school last month, I will be doing it again on the 14th. As her teacher won¡¦t be at school on St. Patrick¡¦s Day, they are having a St. Pat¡¦s party on the 14th ¡V sounds like fun to me! And gives me 2 days to dress up! LOL

Bob is gearing up for busy days at work. Spring is upon us. Tim got a job as well ¡V with the same company Bob & I work for! He is working at one of the ¡§amusement¡¨ parks (Nascar SpeedPark for those who know the area). I pray he sticks with this job and saves his money so he can begin college or tech school.

Laurel has dropped out of ballet. ƒ¼ I hated letting her ¡V but she was truly bored in the class and I spoke to her teacher and got no where. Then I discovered why she was bored. They have her class participating in the ballet production and not in their own ¡¥number.¡¦ They are angels who just walk across the stage. I know walking is important, but she needs to learn more than that. Then Laurel informed me that she wasn¡¦t going on stage anyways. She still remembers how scared she was last year ¡V and that she literally froze on stage and couldn¡¦t remember any of the steps. So I¡¦ll let her take a year off to see how she feels about things.

Soccer starts Friday so that will keep her active. I¡¦m also thinking of starting horse back riding lessons for her ¡V if I can find someplace nearby! And if her Onc gives permission. I don¡¦t see a problem at this early stage. As long as she doesn¡¦t participate in rodeo type things! Although she does seem to have my grace and falls a lot ¡V and we can¡¦t have her falling and damaging her good kidney.

The other option is to check into swim lessons ¡V which really should be the 1st option ¡V especially since we live on the coast! LOL And live at the water park in the summer.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ¡¥adult¡¦ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Friday, February 22, 2008

March 5th Update:

Well, scans did NOT happen yesterday. Poor Laurel woke up at 2am complaining of belly pains. After 45 mins. (and a sip of coke) she began to vomit. Poor dear. This went off & on until 9am. She still wasn't able to rest until after 11am. I was exhausted - and I didn't do any of the vomiting! I was worried @ bowel obstruction as she didn't have any other signs of a flu. Until 3pm - she began to run a low-grade fever. Whew! I'll take the flu over bowel obstruction any time!

Her scans have been rescheduled for March 20th. I was elated to hear they were able to get us back in so quickly. Although scans are not until 1pm - ugh. (& I believe she'll be a work-in?).
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2/28/08 - OMG!!! Congrats Baby Girl!!! It has been 3 yrs since your last Chemo treatment!!! We are so very proud of you!!! Thank You God for allowing us to spend more time with our sweet Angel!

Hello friends,

Wow, can you handle another update and it’s not even been a month?! Valentines Day was another quiet event. I have taken upon myself to make cupcakes for the Pediatrician’s office and my office on some holidays – so I made 3 batches (one for home for my family, of course!).

As usual, (and on my birthday!), Laurel complained of a tummy ache. ALWAYS 2 weeks prior to her next scans she complains (hence the word always). She never complains about tummy pains any other time of the year! My 48th birthday came and went very quietly. Even my office did not notice it!

Laurel had gone off her Prozac for a while, and her anxieties began to creep back slowly. So slowly that I almost didn’t notice. Well, she’s been back on for almost a month and WOW! She’s back to being a wonderful young lady again!!!

Now is brag time. Laurel is such a bright, intelligent young lady. When she decided to start reading, she took off running. I found out 2 weeks ago that the Accelerated Reader program ends Feb. 26th and she hadn’t even been introduced to the program. So we jumped in with both feet. Started by reading one book at night & testing on it the next morning (5 simple questions). She needed 10 pts to make it to the AR Party. The books she reads are worth UP to .5 pts (depending on how well you do on the test). She took her last test this morning! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! I think it took her 22 or 23 books to do it – I never did get a final count.

I started typing this update on Thursday noon – now it’s Friday morning, and I have some WONDERFUL news!!!! Both Matt & Tim got hired yesterday afternoon! 2 different jobs – both got the word w/in an hour of each other!!! I have been doing the happy dance ever since finding out! Matt is already at his job. Tim doesn’t start for another week. We have a few more ‘bumps’ to get past – so still need a few prayers for the boys.

And another “Proud Mommy” moment. I mentioned to Laurel that we have a doctor’s appointment in Charleston. She told me she isn’t going to be nervous or scared and won’t be crying. She acted as if this will just be a walk in the park for her! I am so dern proud of her!!!

The Wilms Community is still reeling from our 3 losses these past 2 weeks. I pray for the Livers, Norwood & Smith families daily. I worry about our kids who have relapses – praying that they can beat this beast once & for all.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Friday, February 8, 2008

And yet another angel. Sweet Mackenzie earned her Angel Wings last night (Feb. 12th). Please pray for peace for her family.

Hello friends,

I suppose an update is long overdue. Thankfully not too many followers – since she is so healthy – and as they say: no news is good news.

Christmas was a quiet affair. Our little family ‘crisis’ kept me from going too far out. Thankfully Laurel understands our financial situation and so she is very happy with the presents she received from us, Santa and Ms. Juanita (our angel from OK!). And she is more than okay!!!

My older son (& his girlfriend who is mother to a 2y/o & 4 y/o) had become homeless, jobless and penniless (w/the former boss threatening to send the police after them. Thankfully they did not do anything against the law, but still, sitting there thru the holidays waiting for the police did not help my anxieties!). Sadly, we are so broke, that we really can’t help them. She is staying at her mom’s house, and Matt crashes on our couch at night. They both became pretty sick right after Christmas as well. Ugh. Then they’ve had their Tax Returns garnished!!! Let’s hit them while they are down. They have also been turned down for unemployment. (Greg is a lying sack – but he has convinced everyone that my son did some bad things – which he didn’t. OK, some was ‘unethical’, but not BAD).

Laurel got to spend New Years Eve at a party at the day care. Boy was she a GRUMP on New Year’s Day! LOL She slept until 2pm and still went to bed at a decent hour. As she had stopped her Prozac, her anxiety levels kept increasing – but she wouldn’t admit to it. Liquid Prozac has the WORST taste!!! NOTHING can cover it – NOTHING.

Mid-January while talking to her teacher, I hear she hasn’t had time to figure out what reading level Laurel is at. She is above Level 10 is all she knows. (They only need to pass Level 3 to go to 1st grade). Then one day a mom comes in – her son has head lice – and she wants to know who gave him this parasite! She was livid. 2 hours later I got the call from the nurse! Eeeeks! In 22 yrs of parenthood, I’ve never had to deal w/these critters! All I know is that they are very difficult to get rid of!!! After using (useless) RID, dousing her hair in Olive Oil for 3 days (3x!!!), using white vinegar to loosen the nits, buying Lavender shampoo (& adding more lavender oil drops), and using conditioner in her hair, I feel confident that she will not have an outbreak. Even the nurse was impressed at how clean her hair was after just 1 week of ‘attending’ to these buggies. Oh, forgot to add, I also use hair product in her hair every morning now! (as we all know, lice do NOT like dirty hair). I keep her hair up in a pony tail. I’m sure she got these bugs from after school/ day care – but I ‘don’t’ point fingers. I just let them know. They had had an outbreak a few months earlier, and the nurse seemed to think Laurel had had them for a while as most of her nits were further down the shaft.

Laurel’s anxiety levels as I mentioned are creeping up. This was seen especially trying to go to church and last weekends outings. She & I went to the library and she insisted on going upstairs to the kids section by herself while I browsed in the adult section. I finished and came to the stairwell to find her sitting in a chair w/eyes super red and tears rolling down her cheeks. (Her SM kicks in so that she can’t even speak). Then we went to a birthday party (at the day care!) and all was fine while on the gymnastics floor. But the minute they came upstairs to partake in cake & ice cream, she had another attack. In full view, a mom completely ‘ignored’ her (not on purpose, as Laurel wasn’t being verbal, she just raised her hand) and Laurel did not receive a cup of ice cream. She hopped down from the crowded table and ran into my arms, again, eyes red & tears streaming down her face.

As Matt got over his illness, it hit myself a little bit and Laurel a tiny bit – but enough that the sore throat bothered her for a few days. I finally took her to the Peds to check for Strep (as a little boy in class next to hers was sent to ER lethargic from undiagnosed strep and started going into kidney failure!). She had a HUGE Anxiety Attack while there. I had to admit to him that she stopped her meds several months ago. So we spoke and decided to try again, only using capsules – breaking them open & mixing into pudding. 5 days later and it is working!!! And you can tell her anxiety is already going down ever so slightly! I’m so proud of my little girl. Like anyone, she HATES ‘having’ to take meds – she doesn’t want to ‘be’ different – but on the other hand she doesn’t like feeling the way she does.

I’m kinda glad this happened when it did – as we have clinic visit in 4 weeks! The meds will be in full force by then and I know she’ll do as beautifully as last time.

I know I’ve hardly visited any of my friends CB’s pages, and when I do, I seldom leave messages. Work’s IT department is cracking down on where we can log onto and my home computer is from the Dinosaur age – SLOW – takes 10 mins. to load a page.

The Wilms community has been a ‘mess’ recently. As many know, we unexpectedly lost little Sadie Livers. Little Bryce is on his last breath and now Mackenzie has been given her ‘sentence.’ Matthew is still ‘hanging’ in there (he truly is amazing!) as is Tess – a hero in all of our eyes. Tess is one of the most amazing young ladies and I feel confident that she will beat this beast!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, December 3, 2007 9:16 AM CST

12/26 - Sorry for the lack of updates. We are in the middle of a family crisis. My nerves are completely shot. Everyone is healthy. My older son needs tons & tons & tons of prayers - please. I don't think I can handle another week of this stress - but right now there's no end in sight.

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Hello friends,
(12-12 - new pix below!)

Wow, December already! Where does the time go?!

Our trip to Ohio was great! Had a few ‘bumps’ along the way (Lost big bro Matt be4 we even left town!). Saturday I was shopping all day for food, decorations, etc. for my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary party. Sunday we hit the ground running getting the place decorated. The ‘drop in’ began at 2pm. I think my parents were a tad worried as they came at 2pm and no one was there (other than us kids). Within 10 mins. people began to arrive. What a wonderful event. We figure at least 100 people showed up. We have a small family. My parents have one sibling and 6 nieces & nephews. The Sibling & one niece (& her son) came from TN; one nephew came from FL (his daughters & granddaughters live in OH & came); my brother & family came from CO and we came from SC. 2 close friends came from out of state – one from FL and another from TX.

A 1957 Chevy came to pick up my parents & drive them down to the church in which they were wed then back up to the restaurant for a wonderful dinner. My sister in law sang a beautiful, loving song to my parents. Just beautiful. We all were in tears.

We decided to have Thanksgiving dinner on Wed. night as part of my family had to leave early Thanksgiving morning to head back home. I was up early cooking for 21 people. We had a nice little dinner & visit. Thanksgiving day Laurel & I drove to Columbus to visit my old college buddies and partake in their Thanksgiving meal! Thank you Amy & Kaye for allowing us to ‘crash’ your party!

Saturday morning, Laurel, Tim & I left at 6am to head back to SC. Long and pretty uneventful trip. Laurel did manage to get sick ½ thru the trip. Tim did an excellent job driving most of the way. I only drove the first 2.5 hours so that they could sleep a little more. This trip put us in the poor house. Completely depleted what little savings I had. Between gas for 2 cars to travel 1400 miles, hotel cost, purchasing food & decorations for the party and purchasing food for Thanksgiving, I’ve not been able to make the last 2 car payments and a tad worried @ the mortgage payment this month (& Santa won’t be bringing much this year) – but you know what? It was worth it! To see the whole family together and to see my parents happier than they’ve been in years! I don’t foresee my dad having a bout of depression this holiday season. They’re probably still recuperating from having so many people around for over a week!!!!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Thursday, November 1, 2007 9:50 AM CDT

Hello friends, (birthday pictures at the bottom!!!)

OK, I’m so lax – I’m surprised anyone wants to stop by – considering I never ever update any more. Just so dern busy. Busy with work, was busy with planning Laurel’s FABULOUS 6th Birthday party, getting ready for Halloween, trying to keep girl scouts going, and getting ready to head to Ohio for parents 50th Wedding Anniversary! Wow, married for 50 yrs and still in love! Here’s a pix of them 2 yrs ago celebrating dad’s 75th Birthday by him climbing a rock wall:

OK, so her birthday party: What a BLAST! Perfect day – low 80’s with a breeze. All the girls we invited came (except for 2 that were in Canada and 2 – no clue why they didn’t show). 3 showed up late. They had a blast riding the rides. One little girl wanted to go on the Caterpillar, so I took her. Well, that’s all she wrote – all the little girls wanted to go on it – pooh to the kiddie rides – let’s go on the caterpillar (over & over & over again!). Everyone had a blast! We had the cake & ice cream, opened gifts. Then I realized we hadn’t done the piñata yet (that Laurel insisted on buying). Well, I screwed up, I bought a piñata stick – it didn’t even DENT the pinata! So I tore into it (we did not have it hanging up or blindfold the girls) and had the girls finish tearing into it. They rode a few more rides after the party, and I think everyone went home exhausted! What a great party! Tim who wasn’t suppose to be able to make it, came just when the party was just getting under way – so he was a big help! Matt who WAS suppose to be there, had been called out of town by work. I don’t think all 5 of us have ever been together for Laurel’s birthday yet!!

Monday, the 22nd was the 3 yr anniversary of her Wilms diagnosis. I made another batch of cupcakes & took to the Pediatricians office. I do this to thank them for saving her life & giving her a 2nd chance at life. God Bless that round worm that caused the blood clot that caused me to take her into doctors.

I tried to have a little Halloween party for my Daisy Girls scouts on Saturday afternoon. No one showed up!!! Laurel still wanted to have the party (w/just the 2 of us???). I was ready to hang it up. But I’ve got another 3 girls interested. One of the other little girls was busy w/out of town guests (but they did not tell me). Laurel & I went to a Halloween Party Sat. night that was suppose to be ‘all about the kids.’ I was NOT impressed. It started at 6pm – and they didn’t serve food until 7:45pm??? Adults standing around drinking alcohol. I just was not happy. We only stayed until 8pm.

Wednesday we went to our good friends’ house to go Trick or Treating. She always goes all out and makes us feel most welcome. They live near lots of family, and they come & go and also make us feel most welcome. Laurel did have a little melt-down (she was getting tired) and we almost left before even starting. She had a great time. We didn’t get home until 9:15 and Laurel sat on the floor looking at something & fell asleep. She is totally whipped today (as am I). Her teacher told her if she is too tired, she will call me to come get her. Hopefully she will be able to make it to ½ day.

Today is All Saints Day, tomorrow All Souls Day. Days to celebrate and remember all the Saints who have joined Jesus in Heaven. Please say a little pray for all our little saints.

Halloween Party at school – was during Red Ribbon week – and Red Day. I asked Laurel did she want to wear Red or her Halloween outfit. She chose Halloween outfit. Well, as you can see from the picture 20 of the kids chose Red! And they had a special visitor that day – Spiderman came for a visit!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:27 AM CDT

Hello friends,

Look at the pix at the bottom - my little soccer player!

Wow, I sure don’t update much! Life is busy. Life is wonderful. School is going well for Laurel. She recently did her reading evaluation and passed Level 3 w/o a problem. I don’t think she was tested for Level 4 yet – as she sat down and read me a book and I looked at the back and it said Level 4. They only need to pass Level 3 to pass Kindergarten. How do you like her school pix? Wow! Isn’t she beautiful!!

Soccer has been going great. If she’s not tired (meds cause some tiredness), she really enjoys it! She gets at least one goal per game – which is pretty good for a defensive player. She’s definitely not going to be an offensive player – she likes to hang back and wait for the ball to come to her.

Both Bob and Matt celebrated their birthdays last month. My little boy is 22 yrs old now. Wow. Tim is still in need of prayers and direction on where he wants to head in life.

Wow, her 6th birthday is coming too fast! Funds have been extremely tight around here so her birthday won’t be a fantastically big one. It will still be nice – as we are having it in a children’s area of a small amusement park – where we will use our company’s “atta-boy” bucks to pay for it.

I have decided to have the kids wear their Halloween costumes for her birthday party. So be prepared for a lot of princesses again. LOL We did not invite very many to her party – again due to lack of funds – but I feel sure the ones she invited will definitely show up.

Her class at school is having a little Halloween party – which I may just have to take off for. Then a classmate of hers is having a HUGE Halloween party the Saturday before. “Mom” has already spent $1,500 !!!!!! Holy geez, maybe she’ll pay Laurel’s medical bills for me?! LOL

Halloween we will again go to a friend’s neighborhood. We had so much fun last year.

I am having my first Daisy Scout meeting this Saturday. I am still very frustrated with the organization. It was so much easier to become a cub scout leader – everything was set in place. Just had to be trained, and then put together your meetings.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:00 PM CDT

Hello friends,
9/17 Update: Laurel had her first real soccer game. real that it went the full time - but they don't have refs at this age. She tried to play aggressively! Woo hooo! She had one assist (ok, so there's only 3 on a team at a time) and one goal!

She had tried to go off her anxiety meds - and had been very moody. Her anxiety levels kept creeping up each day. By Friday she realized how much they help her, so she went back on them and was PERFECT for her game!

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Wow, I sure don’t update much! Ahhh, the life of normalcy. What has happened?

We’ve had an absolutely fantastic summer. Spent almost every weekend at the waterpark. Got to meet a couple of Wilms Warriors. August 27th was Laurel’s first day in Kindergarten! I drive her to school (as she is technically out of district) and walk her to her classroom. 2 weeks later, there seem to only be about 4 of us parents that need to walk our kids to that class (there are 6 K classes in that school). Laurel is enjoying school – but doesn’t talk a whole lot about it. The first day after I dropped her off, I cried all the way into work. Boy that was a tough day for me.

A week later were scans. Laurel was getting anxious about it. She asked if she could take her medicine w/her down to Charleston and take it when we got there. Peds said No – but if she wants/needs an increase……….. Laurel decided no she did not want an increase in meds.

Our day in Charleston (I like to write this in detail so I can remember in my golden years – ok, so that’s only another dozen years away….).

Laurel and I left at 7am. This was the first time we went NPO. We had never been told before about not eating the morning of. We were half-way there when she did get a little thirsty – so I allowed her a yoohoo box drink. We made it in good time. As soon as we got to the hospital, she had to pee – so I rushed into clinic for a specimen cup (we seldom can get a sample from her). Then to check in. that went quick, but then we sat in the blue room waiting for her CXR orders. Several new nurses kept coming in and asking me if she still had her port-a-cath. There was a little girl just turned 3 w/a full head of hair. Was Laurel that small at diagnosis? I just wanted to cry for that family. We waited & waited. Finally the nursing staff came in & said their computers were down and they were trying to get her orders up ASAP. It’s about a 5 min. walk to the hospital – and I like to check in a good 5-10mins be4 the app’t. One of the nurses informed me they like to get blood sample before we go. I said “she’d rather not until we come back.” So off we run.

Laurel still has probs standing still for her CXR. When they did the side view, she wiggled. Ugh. So they had to do another picture. Then a wait for the u/s. We were finally called back. I guess they had a baby that was suppose to have been scheduled, but wasn’t, so they snuck him in be4 us. Char must know I don’t mind! So we gab & she scans. Then she disappeared – for a long time! I kept my faith – I knew God was with us regardless, but I also knew she must’ve been called for something else. She would not make us wait too long. Char breezes back in and apologized for the delay. While gabbing, I made her miss one picture, so she had to do that. Sounds like a good doctor, if s/he is going to review the scans that well!

So off we run back to clinic. Laurel was NOT looking forward to the blood draw. She had asked the night before if she could sit in my lap (like she always does). Of course! Well, when it came time, she wanted to only sit next to me!!! I held her one arm, another nurse came to the other side and held her other hand. The nurse that did it explained each step before she did it! KUDOS to her! Laurel didn’t cry one tear until AFTER the needle went in! I was sooooo dern proud of her!!!! And she did NOT scream her head off! She was done crying within a minute after the needle came out.

All reports came back good – well, ‘cept her iron count. That’s partly my fault. We seldom eat a ‘regular’ meal. So she’s back on a daily vitamin. Next app’t is in March 2008!

Our son Tim has not had a good summer. Ended up he lost his job of 20 months, then a week later the car breaks down. We are still making payments on this car (3 more to go). Grrrf. So he has no $$ to fix it, nor do we, and he has no transportation. Well, he does if he gets up in the morning. Please pray that he figures his life out quickly. I realize he’s only 18, but he is an adult now.

I have signed up to be a Girl Scout leader. So far a very unorganized Organization. I ‘assumed’ I would be ‘adopted’ into an existing troop. Nope, not only do I have to organize my own troop, but I have to find a place to hold meetings, girls to be in the troop and other parents to be leaders. Boy Scouts was never this disorganized. One scout night, sign up leaders & boys and ‘adopt’ them into existing Packs. I have been in contact with a church that is halfway between our house & the school, and am awaiting the Board to meet & to accept us as our Sponsor.

After debating on whether to continue in Jazz or Ballet, Laurel at the last minute switched to ballet. And I am so thankful! Ballet shoes cost @ $18. Jazz shoes @ $50!!! Her teachers love her and are so happy she is continuing in dance.

Laurel also has begun soccer!!! The mom of her good friend from day care is coaching a team. This is U6 (under 6). It is not ‘organized’ – but just 3 on 3. I think her team has either 6 or 8 girls. They had one practice – where Laurel was so anxious, I had to go out and be with her. Ugh. 2nd practice as at the beach (high tide too boot! LOL). Again, Laurel’s anxiety levels went up, and she wanted me next to her. The next day was their first game. Again, not ‘official’ as there are no refs for this age level. Not even sure who keeps time! But they play for a while, switch the girls out, and play, switch, play, …. The first time Laurel went out, she realized I didn’t go out and was reaching out for me. She almost came back to the side lines. Thankfully Ms. Michele reached out for her and said she’s run w/her. Once she got into it, she did well. Until the 3rd time, then she decided it was too much. It was 90 degrees out, and they had the shin guards & heavy socks on.

The next day was the last day of the WaterPark until next summer. WAAAH. We got there early, but none of Laurel’s friends showed up until much later. Although it was nice out – there was no humidity, and the water was cold to me – so I really didn’t do much in the water – preferring to just sit & watch. I love watching her!

I spoke to Laurel’s teacher yesterday morning. She mentioned that Laurel and 2 other kids seem to really be smart little cookies. I told her all 3 went to day care together. She was really impressed w/the day care. She realizes that kids intelligence comes partly from genetics, but you have to give credit to home & day care life as well. Needless to say, I told the Director as soon as I got there that night.

We have several things to look forward to. Bob’s birthday on the 16th, Matt’s 22nd birthday a week later on the 23rd, the start of Girl Scouts, the soccer games, Laurel’s upcoming 6th birthday, and my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary in Nov. It will be a very busy fall. Ahhh, the life of normalcy.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:16 AM CDT

Hello friends,
EDIT 09/05: Laurel remains NED.

School has gone well. Although her anxiety levels are a little high at the moment.

08/29 Edit: Bonnie is Cancer Free!!!! Pathology of biopsy shows NO CANCER! infection only?! Wow! We will certainly take it!!! Praise God Above All! The power of Prayer (& boy did she have thousands of people praying for her) pulled thru! She will have scans again in Sept.

Edit: Prayers needed. Bonnie has just been dx w/2nd relapse. Bonnie's mom was one of the first Wilms families to find us. She was always there for me w/love & support. Bonnie was originally dx 12/2003 w/St. II/FH (just like Laurel). She relapsed Oct. 2004 (when Laurel was dx). Both girls are almost 2.5 yrs off treatment. I am completely devastated. I can't even imagine how they are doing. Pleaes please please pray for this wonderful God-fearing family.

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Summer is almost over – can I cry now? I know everyone has been hit with this heat wave. I do not work outside, so I can say : I love it! I love the sun. I love the heat. I love it all. I am not a cold-weathered person. We will only have a few more weekends to play at the waterpark.

Wow, School starts in just a few days! I am a nervous wreck! What can I blame it on? Several factors. 1) Laurel is my baby; 2) The boys didn’t attend public Kindergarten – I kept them at day care for Kindergarten. Laurel’s day care does not have that option; 3) Her Selective Mutism/social anxiety disorder. She still ‘clams up’ when she feel stressed; 4) Finding & Getting on the day care bus w/o being scared.

I never had these worries w/the boys. They rode the big yellow school buses to & from school from first grade on. So why am I so nervous for my baby girl? August 27th is her first day. We go to an Open House tonight.

She got a teacher assigned early June – as the teacher was suppose to meet with us a couple of times during the summer. She never did. I am so upset about this. I wanted Laurel to feel comfortable about getting to the school, and knowing the classroom, before getting thrown in w/another 27 other students. (Class sizes are usually 28-32).

We already have her first day outfit picked out. A wonderful dress made by Ms. Juanita, a beautiful angel who is also a wonderful seamstress! The dresses she has made Laurel are AMAZING! I use to think I could 'sew' a little. I made little outfits for the boys when they were little - and made almost all their costumes (including a cowboy outfit!). I never claimed to 'know' how to sew, just put together a few pieces of material. Ms. Juanita is still waiting on being a grandma - so she has 'adopted' Laurel as her own!

I have already got Laurel signed up for her first ever sport – Soccer. Don’t know if she’ll enjoy it, but figured give it a shot. I have called Girl Scouts of America to sign her up for Daisy Scouts. I am used to Boy Scouts of America –and how organized they are in getting dens set up. I have not seen that yet w/GSA. I also told them I have 12 yrs BSA leadership under my belt.

I need to get her signed up for dance class. I’ve run out of $$ again – but probably won’t let that stop me! LOL Mortgage payments can wait, right?

Her birthday is quickly approaching. Last year I had her party all planned – things bought, room booked. I’ve done NOTHING yet. I wanted to hold it at Broadway at the Beach near the rides. But they have no ‘party room’ so to speak. I could break a card table for the cake – but then we’d be subjected to the weather as well. October is not known for rain, but you never know. She wants either a Kitty party or a Unicorn party. (I nixed another princess party). I’m thinking of having it the weekend after her b-day. And in case of rain, the following weekend – which is right before Halloween.

We also have scans approaching. This will be her 30 month off treatment scans! Wow! Has it truly been that long since we had that battle?! Laurel wanted to stop taking her Prozak last week. She has been a CHAMP in taking this AWFUL tasting medicine. I told her to wait until she’s had at least a week of school under her belt and after her app’t at clinic. She has always freaked out when they draw blood – so hopefully w/her meds – she’ll find that it’s not as bad (yes still hurts a little) as she’s made it out to be. Then I told her, not only a week of school, but she needs to be talking to the teacher. I don’t care if it’s a whisper, but she needs to be at least talking to her before stopping her meds.

Jayebear and her family still need our prayers. Her doctors did not dx a collapsed lung for over 2 weeks.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 8:04 AM CDT

Hello friends,

Edit: I have been lax in keeping up w/all my CB friends. There are several in need of prayers. In one week we had 3 friend relapse: Please pray for Amelia , Hollyn and Autumn R (Autumn, I'm so sorry I didn't get your g'ma's email in time - we sure would've love to have met you!)

A new friend came into the Wilms Community w/very sad news. AJ is just 3 yrs old and has been battling his beast for almost a year - his Oncs have given him 0 percent chance of survival.

Also, Please storm the heavens for the sweetest young lady in the whole wide world. JayeBear (who has a private page) has been battling so many illnesses. It was touch & go for her last week - where every breath was a struggle. Any movement, anything. She is slowly coming around - and I mean slowly. Please pray for her family - her mom is battling her own Beast (Cancer) and dad is doing all he can do to keep his sanity trying to uphold a normal atmosphere while they continue to battle the insurance companies who refuse to help financially. I fear that soon all this family will have is their love (for each other, for their family & friends and most importantly for God). Satan will never be able to take that from them - try as he might.

Please storm the heavens for this family and of course for all children battling the beast.

Wow, did July ever fly by! We are having a blast this summer. Laurel has just burst thru the shell of fear that had covered her these past 4 years. Weekly she is doing something new that she use to be so scared of. Poor baby would convince herself that something was sooooo scary, she wouldn’t do it or go near it.

We have been enjoying the waterpark. Well, a few weekends ago, her one little friend never showed up. We ran into a friend of mine and her daughter & daughter’s friend who are older. Well, I’ll be darned if they not only convinced Laurel to go down the slides at Saturation Station (mind you, she use to go down the 2 smaller slides last year – but the girls got her to go down the bigger slide!), they convinced her to go down the bigger white slides! I made her wear a life jacket as you DO go under water at the end. It is only 2’ at the end – but you do go under. She kept going down it over & over & over again!

Then the next weekend, she decided to try a few other slides out! I haven’t gotten her down the Aruba Tuba yet – that is enclosed for @ 20’ or so. But she is loving the water park now. Thank you Lori & Sara!

Laurel is doing somersaults (front & back) in the water! She loves to swim. Still needs to learn, but each week she’s doing a little better. She also has started to take showers! She would ONLY take baths – was deathly afraid of the shower?!

AND, she is going on the kiddie rides at the little Nostalgia Park now! Again, she did these at 18 mos., but by the time she was 2 yrs old, she convinced herself that she was scared to death of them. Even went on the little Pirate Ship ride!

The highlight of our week was meeting another Wilms family. Grant is a delightful, handsome little boy – full of fun! Sweet as can be. Hard not to be w/fantastic parents! Laurel had a blast playing musical hats w/Grant and his dad – she loved to put her Barbie baseball cap on them! And just giggle away. We spent a few hours feeding the ducks/fish, playing in the water spout area and on the kiddie rides. Bob also wrangled a few tokens for us so the kids could play in the arcade for a little bit while we parents tried to cool off. It was HOT & HUMID out. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the hot weather, but sometimes u gotta cool off just a little bit.
Playing in the water

On the motorcycles

Trading tickets in for prizes

Dune Buggy ride

We were waiting to see if they would get in the right spot! LOL

Sitting on dinosaur

Fun on the carousel

Not a good pix, but another bit step for her – she would NEVER go on an animal that went up & down. This is another FIRST for her!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, July 9, 2007 7:39 AM CDT

Hello friends,

Edit: 7/29 (too lazy to update). Laurel is super excited this morning. WE get to meet another Wilms child! Grant is in town visiting from Virginia. He was dx St. III/FH just mos. after Laurel finished her tx. He of course is doing GREAT! Pray no rain! I can't find my camera, so will be using Bob's (if I can figure it out - grrrrf).

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Edit: 7/20 Laurel's first official haircut post treatment!
pre-haircut:

New Haircut:

Mom got all her hair cut off completely - ugh - a little too much.

Edit 7/17: 25 yrs ago tonight, Bob & I exchanged our wedding vows.

Edit: Some Pictures below of Sunday & Tues. at the beach.

edit: wow! Laurel & I got to meet Spencer and his family who are on vacation down here. We had such a blast!!! And that was just a 3 hour visit! They are here for a few more days, so we hope to get together again Thursday and/or Friday. Laurel just fell in love with Spencer and his brothers - esp. the oldest! My girl has always gone for the 'older' boys, eeeks! LOL

Pix will come if I can find a cable or something!
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I pray everyone is having a fantabulous summer! Laurel and I enjoy each and every weekend. And socially she continues to not only grow, but burst!

You can usually find us every Saturday morning at the waterpark in the wave pool the whole time. She became scared of all the slides & saturation station again. I’m content to sit by the pool and go in every now & again to cool off. If Laurel doesn’t have a friend from daycare there, she just goes up to another girl that appears to be her age, introduces herself, and plays! This is not the Laurel from even last year! She was never shy – just scared! She has found most little girls are just waiting to be asked to play! And if that little girl has to leave, no worries. Laurel just walks up to another little girl, introduces herself and begins to play!

She is even doing somersaults underwater now!

And I have to brag on a HUGE Selective Mutism anxiety she overcame (well, at least one time now). We were standing in line to check out at Walmart, when she wandered away from me (yet again – grrf). Knowing it does no good to yell out for her, I still did it. SHE ANSWERED ME!!! Again, she was just one aisle over (a bay w/touristy stuff) – only 4’ from me, but I couldn’t see her and she failed to tell me she was looking at them. I almost died from shock when she answered me right away. I hear her little voice answer “What mommy?” OMG! Maybe it was because there was no one over there w/her? Or no one behind us in line at the time? But she did it!!! Proud Mommy moment!

We are hoping to get up with a Wilms family this week – but poor planning on my part, I can’t seem to get a hold of them. Spencer and his family are in town this week. Weather has been beautiful. High clouds w/a little rain here & there, but the rain never stays long.

Sunday we decided to go to the beach for a little bit. And Bob came with us. Laurel thoroughly enjoyed herself. She actually boogie boarded a little bit!!! Not huge waves. Laurel does have a very healthy respect for the ocean – verging on fear. But once she figured out that if she gets pushed down she can stand right up (we’re talking ankle to knee deep water), she was fine. Since Bob had to go to work by 4pm – we didn’t stay real long. But we had a great time.

I had bought Laurel a slip-n-slide after her visit with the counselor in Charleston. Well that has gotten a LOT of use. It’s not a big fancy one. And in fact, the blow-up end got a huge hole, but the girls in the cul-de-sac love it. So much, that they are tearing up what little grass I have! LOL

Laurel continues to talk about Camp Debbie Lou. She knows we are unable to go back as there are so many other deserving families, there is only a one-time shot per camper. She prays for them every night and thanks God every night for giving her the opportunity to go. God is Good. He knew she needed this to help grow socially and overcome her many social anxieties. I am so darn proud of her.

I don’t get on line a lot – but am asking for special prayers for a very special young lady and her family. They have been thru hell and high water, and they continue to try to put on a happy face – especially for their dear sweet daughter. Jaye-Bear is the ultimate in sweet generosity and love. She has been having a rough time of it again. Her family knows her time here on earth is limited, so they spend every moment they can spare sitting with her and loving her w/their whole heart.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have >Angels< watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

At the Beach Sunday (& first time on a boogie board!):

Visiting Spencer & his family at the beach on Tuesday evening:

Ashton, Laurel, Spencer & big bro Dakota (whom Laurel LOVES)

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

Hello friends,

****EDIT**** Pictures below!!!!
Some did not resize for me. Also, my digi camera sucks - and has a white dot in hte middle. Enjoy the pix! Can't figure out why they didn't resize - tried again, and still big.

Pix r all mixed up. U can tell 1st day pix by her tight, thin smile. AFter that,she opened up beautifully!

********************
Camp Debbie Lou was Heaven On Earth. I cried and cried and cried on Sunday morning. I did NOT want to leave. OMG! It was the most beautiful, loving, caring, christian, fun place I've ever been! Tops GKTW Village IMO! OMG! I'm too busy to post pictures yet on Laurel's site but will let you know. ONly 4 families came this session - 2 changed at last min. due to chemo & not sure why the 3rd had to cxl.

We did fishing, arts & crafts (scrapbooking - and I've never done that - but it was all Laurel!) and Scavenger hunt on Thurs. afternooon & evening; Fri. was horseback riding, go-cart racing, archery, swimming, bumper boats & arts & crafts (moms received a footcial at 2pm!), cool-down/rest from 3-4:30 (& it was hot but fun), then games, dinner, parents went out to a VERY nice Bed & Breakfast while kids stayed for a pool party (& there were 24 volunteers there for 7 kids!). Devotions, then free time - til Lights Out at 10pm.

Sat. same thing - only we had time trials in go-carts - and can we say Kathy has a lead foot? LOL We had to go thru cones that were too close together! (slalom type) - and I had the all-time track record! Laurel (& her friend Riley - ALL) both got overheated at the end of horseback riding, so we went back to the freezing cold lodge. Riley napped for 3 hours, Laurel just played quietly. So Riley missed swimming & bumper boats. Then to arts & crafts again. 1st day they painted plates and decorated real horse shoes that were hung up in the lodge (was a new hunting lodge converted after 3 yrs of use to a camp for families) like they do the stars at GKTW Village - only you can see the names on the horseshoes. They took pictures like crazy & placed them in their mailboxes (reason for the scrapbooking). And little notes left!

Before supper Saturday, there was a quick fishing tournament. Laurel caught the BIGGEST fish! 9 3/4" fish! They said they didn't even realize there was a fish that big there!. After supper, they had a carnival for the kids! (& parents!) Face painting, bobbing for apples, tattoes & lots of little games! Then the kids took their tickets & got prizes.

Everyone slept hard Sat. night! Sunday was breakfast, go-cart racing (family member vs family member). Laurel didn't want anyone driving her since she knew I had a lead foot! LMAO! She wanted to win! (even tho I told her she would win, she just didn't believe me! LOL). She chose the Camp Director to be her driver. They were in the fastest car, I was in the next fastest, then we chose 2 other volunteers to drive the other 2 cars. Not that it mattered, we all made sure the Survivor won, then a siblign would come in 2nd, then mom & dad. Then a little church service were we all pretty much cried - hating to see this end.

All the kids were given cowboy (or as Laurel said, hers was a cowgirl!) hat, a horse shoe, back pack, flashlight, bandana, Devotional Book (girl/boy), t-shirts for everyone & baseball caps for everyone. Each family is assigned 2 volunteers. We had Amy & Lisa (2 of Debbie Lou's daughters).

Laurel of course didn't talk to anyone the first day - her anxiety level was pretty high. By Friday afternoon she was running up to any counselor within 10' of her and giving them hugs, etc. The Director & his one brother (cole & Jason) will remember her as the girl that made them do arm curls while she held onto their arms! LOL Their wives (Dawn & Sunday) just fell in love with her. I so wish we could go back again! Only a one-time shot per camper. Waaaaaaaaaaaah

There were water guns EVERYWHERE! Lots & Lots & LOTS of FUN for EVERYONE no matter how old or young. Our youngest camper was 18 mos. (sister of the Survivor). Oh, and the Food?! OMG! It was NOT just camp food. We had Italian, Mexican, and good old American. Breakfast was HUGE! And snacks at 3pm and 9pm. So much eating!

Cole (Director) gave me sad news Sunday morning, as I read a name on a horseshoe - I asked if it was a girl we went to clinic with. It was. Her mom called him 3 weeks ago - seems she has relapsed. She just got her port out earlier this year. I was devastated.

Sorry so long. This camp was the BEST thing for both Laurel & myself. I will email Cole and tell him that should he have a last minute cancellation, that Laurel & I can be packed and there within 2 hours! (45 mins. to pack, the rest driving).

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

Ms. Lisa (1 of Debbie Lou's daughters) showing Laurel one of the many animals in the hunting lodge. / The mailboxes where the kids received their pix & happy mail.

Swing made out of one tire.

Camp Director Mr. Cole (1 of Debbie Lou's nephews) & wife Ms. Dawn

1 of the many golf carts. Ms. Eryn driving Laurel, Will's family & Riley & mom.

Kathy & Laurel showing off her finished horseshoe (to be hung up in lodge)

Laurel catching 1 of her 10 or so fish! w/Ms.Amy 1 of Debbie Lou's daughters.

Too scared to go on go-carts at 1st, so got to do flags w/Mr. Dean (1 of Debbie Lou's brothers)

Camp cat at fishing pond. / Ms. Amy convinced her to go in go-cart w/her!

Laurel & Riley (w/Sally) / Laurel on her 1st horse, Pride (Ms. Eryn & Ms. Sunday - niece-in-law to Debbie Lou)

Almost finished plate / Catching balls on lake w/Ms. Amy (again, she was too scared to go out until Ms. Amy convinced her to go w/her)

Grahms (Debbie Lou's sis-in-law) driving the girls in their fav. golf-cart. / Laurel & Riley watching other race go-carts.

Leadfoot Kathy makes a track record. I had 33.09 first. Mr. Kevin was shocked at my record! hehehehe

Laurel needing only a lead person while riding Peanut. / Brushing Pride (w/Riley)

She learned to swim underwater while there! (w/Rebecca soon to be neice in law). At the carnival on Sat. night.

Kitty Cat Laurel at the Carnival! (Mr.Jason painted it - nephew of Debbie Lou)

Macy & Laurel up w/Dawn. Laurel slowly taking over Macy's position (she did by Sunday!) / Laurel in the laps of her fav. peeps, Mr. Jason & wife Ms. Sunday

At our favorite morning spot (pre-breakfast) / pix of the completed horseshoes ready to be hung up.

In front of track (counselor race) / Closing ceremony - she was 1st as she was already up there! LOL

Mr. Cole hanging up Laurel's horseshoe / 2nd horseshoe from left w/big green flowers. Lowest one belongs to Leigha

1 of many fish caught. / Loving the horseback riding!

W/Ms. Amy & loving it! / Kathy racing (& winning) at bigger carts

Laurel dumped her water on me already! (I knew Amy set her up so was scolding her) / Laurel on her fav. horse G-man!

On the swings again (she loved 'em) / w/Ms.Lisa shooting a huge watergun! (they were everywhere!)

Scenery Pictures. Heaven on Earth - Beulah Land - Given by God
Back of lodge / scenes start from back of lodge going clockwise to front

Walking back towards front of lodge

Inside lodge

Great room / Skin-rug in our room

side of lodge

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:33 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

I spoke to the Dr. in Charleston last week. I finally have the official diagnosis of Selective Mutism. Which of course I already knew. LOL I have received the complete evaluation in the mail and will get it to the doctors and school.

What a beautiful weekend we had! Laurel & I spent 6 hours at the waterpark on Saturday. Mind you, she doesn’t do the children’s slides. She will go down the one Snake Slide with me in a double tube – but other than that, she spends ½ her time at the kiddie pool and the other half at the wave pool. After going out for breakfast on Sunday, she and I spent another 4 hours at the water park! Then to a birthday party that evening. We were both exhausted!

What an exciting week we have ahead of us! Thursday, Laurel & I head out to Latta to Camp Debbie Lou. This is a family camp in its 3rd year that is for families of cancer survivors. Unfortunately, none of the guys can make it. The camp director said that was fine. It will be a wonderful experience for Laurel to learn a little about camps. Although this one sounds like we will be spoiled!!!

No big plans for the 4th. Although the Pavilion was shut down last year, they have transferred some of the smaller rides and arcade out to Broadway at the Beach and that will be opening up some time next week (hence the reason Bob can’t go to camp). I’m sure he’ll have to work on the 4th. I’m suppose to work as well – but will probably only work a few hours in the morning to finish up some work. It will be nice to have an extra day off from work where I’m not rushing down to Charleston.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 2:25 PM CDT

Hello Friends,

Life continues pleasantly at the Urban household. Tim’s band banquet was very nice. There were only 4 seniors – the other 3 were girls. For the Senior “superlatives”, Tim did most of the talking. Laurel and I tried to go to the water park the next day, but TS Barry brought in some much needed rain. I froze at the park.

This past weekend was Laurel’s first ever dance recital. Boy was I a nervous Nelly! I just did NOT know how Laurel would do. It seems her Prozac has kicked in very nicely! A couple of moms from day care have told me that she is now running up to them in the morning, giving them hugs and actually TALKING to them! And I am NOT talking monosyllabic answers. She is always sharing some news with them. Then she was up in the viewing area at the gym shouting down to all the coaches! OMG! Is this MY little girl?

Needless to say, she did WONDERFULLY at the recital. No pictures. They did not allow photography during the recital. Although one mom got a pix of her afterwards in the hallway. Laurel LOVED it up on the stage. They performed at a high school auditorium – just like a real production! And she loved it! Can you see me smiling???? My little girl is beginning to enjoy life like most 5 y/o’s!

Friday afternoon I will have a teleconference with the Developmental Dr. from Charleston. She wanted me to come down – but I told her I can’t afford to take yet another day off – esp. since Laurel & I will be headed to Camp Debbie Lou’s that same week. Unfortunately, none of the guys can make it. Bob’s new job will be finalizing everything to open within a week (C.O. is expected on the 20th); Matt’s job is seasonal & very demanding; Tim is training as a server this week and then he takes off for a week to go to Washington DC with the HS band.

Not sure if anything else is new. Our Wilms LISTSERV board keeps growing – which is a good & bad thing. Good that parents of children dx w/Wilms are finding us; Bad that they have the need to find us. Unfortunately, I have not been able to keep up with all the newbies, nor all the other kids who have scans. We’ve had a few relapses – so we are all living in fear again.

I have been in contact with Laurel’s kindergarten teacher. Seems she had a Selective Mute child in her class 5 yrs earlier – but this was before anyone knew about Selective Mutism. Poor little girl is still quiet, seldom talks. I begged the teacher to contact the parents & let them know @ SM. Yes, some kids learn to cope with it – but some never do! One that never did was that Psycho Murderer at Virginia Tech. Read about him – the students said they tried to talk to him and he would just look away and not say anything. He Couldn’t! But boy did he have more problems then SM!

I just purchased a book “Understanding Katie” after I’ve heard a few SM mom’s talk about it and how it got their SM kids to talk @ their inability to speak in certain situations. I also bought an Emergency ID bracelet – that will have contact info in there – in case Laurel is somehow in a situation and needs help (i.e. lost in the mall even!) and can’t speak. She will be able to point to her bracelet or take it off & show whomever.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned, but there have been MANY times she’s wandered from my sight (but she saw me) – I would freak out and call out for her – not loudly at first. By the 6th call out – I am usually yelling very loud and in a panic. She would never respond! I kept lecturing her over & over again how she MUST respond to me. I never knew before that she couldn’t respond! My poor old heart cannot take it any more. But again, she might respond now! She has just GROWN socially by leaps & bounds this past week. The last time was a month ago at a convenience store of all places! As small as it is, I ‘lost’ her momentarily – she was only 4 feet from me in another aisle. But again, she could not respond.

We just had a wonderful down pour – so maybe some of my grass will come back. Hoping for a clear, sunny weekend to enjoy the weather outdoors. Laurel & I will be at the water park and maybe a trip to the beach. Sounds silly, but most of us that live in Myrtle Beach seldom go to the beach. Something about the sand, and the ickys in the water?! LOL

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Friday, June 1, 2007 11:45 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

Summer is officially here! Although the temperature is still not as high as it was in March. Only hitting mid-80’s right now. We are so in need of rain. I don’t think we’ve had an inch in 3 mos. My lawn has all withered. I will have dirt again by fall. Ugh. 20 yrs to grow grass, and I lose it all.

Yesterday was Laurel’s test/screen down in Charleston. As soon as the Dr. came out, I told her that I had finally diagnosed her. I discussed what had been going on the past 3 weeks (Rx for Prozac, her elementary school working with us to help the transition, etc). Laurel was a CHAMP! She was a little nervous the other day. She knew there would not be any pricks, but then all of a sudden she asked me “Do I have to talk to the doctor?” Of course I said “No, of course not. If you don’t want to talk to the dr. you don’t have to.”

Unfortunately, 90f the testing required a verbal answer. We sat in a little cubicle from 10am – 11:30am as she answered questions or pointed to pictures, or drew pictures. She did everything asked of her. She had very little sleep the night be4 (no clue what happened, she woke up & couldn’t go back to sleep). She kept ‘sighing’ thru-out the whole ordeal. And her one-word answers? A whisper so quiet, that we had to lip-read most of the time. But that was OK! I hope she didn’t feel like she HAD to answer - although she did need to. She had a quick snack (30 min. break) and back in at 12:00pm – 1:15pm for more testing. I was so proud of her! We both were so dang tired.

I explained to the doctor that I know how Insurance Companies frown upon mental health codings, and that I doubt we could afford outside therapy. I told her we were already working with the school. She then jotted down the names of the staff I was working with, and once she has her findings together and figures out the best therapy program for her, she will contact the school – and hopefully stay in contact if needed?

We didn’t get home until 4:10pm. I had to hurry up and bake cupcakes for a dinner Friday evening. Laurel had her last dance class, but asked to not go. After her day, I had no qualms saying she didn’t have to go. (Although being the last one be4 the performance, she probably needed to be there). So instead, she played in the sprinkler for 45 mins laughing & giggling. A much needed respite from all those questions.

Then we headed up to Tim’s Spring Band Concert. Wonderful music as always. One arrangement brought me to tears. It was a tribute to 4 chaplains in the military who lost their lives in ’43 as the boat they were on was destroyed by a U-boat. They gave their own life vests to save other sailors’ lives. They basically went down with the ship, encouraging & helping save others.

Laurel & I rushed home after the concert so that I could make this wonderful little candy for her graduation ceremony for Friday.

Laurel is officially a pre-K graduate! She woke up this morning all excited and dressed herself! The kids wore jean pants/skirts/shorts/skorts and a cute white t-shirt they made with their hand prints on the back along w/their name and her class had 2007 Graduate printed on the front. They had their little ceremony this morning. I was a little worried when it looked like she might have a ‘solo’ in the performance. I think she was only suppose to do the hand/body motions to one song – Months of the Year – and there are 13 kids in the class – so she kneeled in front of everyone. She did really great! She didn’t sing a couple of times. But, like last year, I just ‘signed’ (American Sign Language) I Love You, and that usually makes her fright settle down to manageable stage.

Afterwards we went upstairs for hamburgers, hotdogs & other nummy foods.

She did have a separation problem – which I knew would happen. She can’t handle having me stop by her day care & then leaving her yet again. It is cruel & unusual punishment to her. But she did really well. She told me she was ready to go home. (most of the kids have SAH moms, so they leave after the ceremony). I told her she knew I couldn’t do that. And calmly asked her if maybe we should go get Mr. Nick. At first she said no. I said, let’s go find him so he can help you. I hated that he was just getting his plate to eat, but he & LaChelle took her hands and hugged her and helped her as I left. She did NOT cry! Have I mentioned how proud I am of her?! Her lil heart was breaking, but she very bravely stayed there w/o one tear.

Daddy will pick her up in a few hours. Then we go to Tim’s Band Banquet. Last year it was poorly organized. In breaking down in who brings what, one section, each family only had to bring drinks. Can u imagine going to a banquet w/5-8 relatives and only bringing two 2-liter bottles of soda???? Unfortunately, the table we sat at was the last to go up to get food. I brought in 2 HUGE containers of chicken bog for myself, Tim & Laurel. There was absolutely NO FOOD left at all! NONE! I was soooo angry! We were all tired & hungry.

I guess someone either felt sorry for the dozen of us that didn’t get any food at all, or felt guilty? But a dozen pizzas were ordered. They didn’t come until well after everyone else had eaten. I was too angry to eat by then, but took some anyways.

I will make sure we all eat be4 going tonite. What would be nice is if they allowed the seniors & their families to go first!

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:27 PM CDT

Hello Friends,

I am sitting here with tears of joy in my eyes. In the week since I have discovered Laurel’s Social Anxiety Disorder (Selective Mutism), so many things have become clear and has been opened up. Yes, she still has her testing down at MUSC on the 31st, but I can go in with my eyes open.

While waiting on her app’t, I decided to make an app’t w/her Peds to discuss what is going on and for his insight/guidance. I truly respect Dr. P. We go in and poor Laurel had to have her bp taken 3x! (nurse wouldn’t listen to me be4 she started when I told her she needs to use a larger cuff). Thank God she has NEVER minded having her bp taken!

Dr. P walked in and I told him “u know how Laurel never talks to you?” he nods his head yes. I then explained that she was screened down @ MUSC, but it was a girlfriend who told me @ Selective Mutism. Things must’ve clicked with him too! I read one of the cures/help is to have the child on anxiety meds. Ugh. I said no way would I do that. But Dr. P (who is NOT quick in prescribing meds) said that he has GREAT success in Paxil w/children w/SAD (social anxiety disorders). He wants her to be on it now and until she’s been in school at least 2 mos. We will work from there. He feels this drug is much safer than riding in a car!

Then I got a return call from the school she has been transferred to. This school at first acted like they wanted the test results before moving forward – which worried me as we probably won’t get those right away and very few personnel are in the school during the summer break.

Well, the lady that called told me that she will speak w/the principal and get her teacher in place. I kept talking about Laurel’s anxieties, etc. And she kept reassuring me and that we’ll probably get to meet w/the teacher a few times over the summer. And once we get the results back, she’ll go over them with the School Psychiatrist and they will move from there – but that there isn’t a whole lot they can do until she goes thru her Kindergarten testing. (which I think is done the first week of school – that’ll go over real well – ugh, she won’t answer the questions!)

Well, she called me back all excited! Seems in the 3 hours since we last spoke she looked up Selective Mutism on her own, spoke to the principal, school Psychiatrist and the head of the Behavioral Therapists. They have ALL been looking up SM! The Therapist practically begged to be able to help her! It was suggested that the teacher and the therapist (individually) contact me on their own and schedule meeting times (outside the school first) so that Laurel can get to know them. Maybe she’ll latch onto them right away?! Who knows! I know there has been a smattering of adults she has responded to (no rhyme or reason).

I am just so flippin’ excited about the help they are offering. I pray that this help does come thru! It won’t be until she does test for Kindergarten before they decide if she needs an IEP/Section 504. I don’t even care at this point!

I told Dr. P. that MUSC wants to screen her for Asperger’s as well – but that I really don’t see that in her. He just looked at me and said “a lot of parents say that. And none thank the Dr. who diagnoses the child with any form of autism.” Well, you would think he knew me after 22 yrs! Shoot, I kept thanking Dr. B for diagnosing her cancer! With an early diagnosis, you can get help!

Speaking of which. Dr. P tried to blame her battle with Cancer as the cause of her Anxiety Disorder. Ummm, no, she was like this be4 diagnosis. He quickly responded “I’m sure it added to her anxieties.” OK, I’ll give him that!

With that said, I continue to pray for Abby’s family. Abby who at the age of 3 yrs 3 mos received her angel wings. How I hate Wilms! Laurel had just turned 3 when she was dx, and I still remember how devastated I was and how I prayed to God, first thanking HIM for lending this precious child to me for 3 yrs and that I would understand if HE felt it was time to bring her HOME; But I did ask Him to PLEASE let me borrow her just a little longer.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, May 15, 2007 7:38 PM CDT

Hello Friends,

Edit: I happened to call the District Office - Laurel's transfer has been APPROVED! Wooo Hoo! Now she will be at a school w/several kids she knows! Now to get the help she will need & deserve!
-----------
Wow so much going on. Laurel & I went to Raleigh to visit a few friends a few weeks ago. WE met w/one on-line friend & her son and spent the afternoon at a wonderful museum in Durham, NC. The next morning we met another on-line friend and her sons at a park in Raleigh. Then the afternoon I met up with a few Mom's of kids w/Wilms. Laurel didn't say a word to any of these people. Nothing new there.

The next weekend we went to another Relay For Life (in North Myrtle Beach) where we met the family of a little 18 mos old boy who is a Neuroblastoma Survivor!

The next day a KidsFest at the Dixie Stampede. Boy was it crowded - thousands were there - Myrtle Beach has no 'sense' of community -as they invite EVERYONE to everything. Laurel was rather shy - and had a time with the crowds. She would not speak to anyone in line. She thoroughly enjoyed the big blow-up slide!

Somewhere in all of this, I took Laurel down to MUSC for an evaluation for her lack of social skills. She refuses to talk to anyone - unless they are family or kids at her day care. It took her months to get use to day care. The Dr. said there is an issue and she is to be tested May 31st.

Then Bob & I had wellness check ups thru work. His blood pressure was found to be 220/120. Yes, I typed that correctly! He is currently on meds to try to get it down. I think it's still high - but down to his 'regular' high - which of course is unexceptable when on meds. Ugh. He felt fine w/that high bp!

Funds keep getting tighter & tighter w/prices of everything going up - but paychecks staying the same.

I have been trying to get Laurel xfered to a school closer to our home. The lines have been redrawn again - and they want her to attend a school 13 miles away vs 3 miles away. The school 3 miles away is where all ofher pre-K classmates will attend. I just don't want her being in a strange situation and not talking to anyone for months on end, and spending 30 - 40 mins. on a noisy, bumpy, scary buss where she doesn't know anyone. School won't listen. They are at 115percent capacity and therefore will not accept her. Section 504 doesn't work - she's toohealthy.

Until I had a dear friend diagnose her. OK, it's not official - as I will need it from a doctor - but OMG! When I went tothe website - I just gasped! That WAS and IS Laurel!

Laurel has an anxiety disorder called Selective Mutism. yes, you read that right. (Not selective hearing that spouses & teens have). Selective Mutism - which means they get too scared to talk in public situations (incl. school!) So NOW I will have a reason to have her transfered - but I know they will still deny it.

I was never so excited to have her dx with this! Why? because I knew there was something wrong w/her - she was PAST shy. I was going to have her evaluated last year, but everyone convinced me that she was just shy and would out-grow it. Along with the selective mutism (i.e. not talking/clamming up tighter than anything!), she has sensory issues (i.e. loud enclosed spaces - and what is a bus????? Loud and enclosed!) She also has problems with material - sock seams, tags, shoes - just about everything. It has been a pain to dress her these past 3 years - she is VERY picky @ what she wants to wear. If it even LOOKS like it might itch, I might as well throw it away.

OK, so I've contacted her base school and the district. I will still fight to have her transfered, but if it doesn't happen, I want her base school to be ready and have something in place the day she walks thru those doors. Not take several months to determine if there is a problem, then implement something.

Today is May 15th. My baby boy is 18 yrs old! Wow! Time does fly! As he had to work tonite, I blew up some balloons at work and took in a cake just be4 he got there and asked his co-workers to embarass him!

Tonight I ask that you take a minute to send prayers to a wonderful family. I found them last year when their little just turned 2 y/o was dx w/Wilms - St. V - bilateral. She's been off treatment for a while. They were just hit with the devastating news that her body is riddled w/tumors and there is nothing they can do. This sweet little 3 y/o is home in her parents arms - waiting to go to her real home. Abigail Rose may you have a pain free passing. May peace descent on your family as you earn your sweet little wings.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 7:48 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

So, we survived the Relay for Life. The temperature dropped down to a low mid-40’s which is way below normal for us this time of year. We were frantically trying to help put our company’s booth together. Very windy.

Around 6pm, the ACS rep. sought us out and brought me Laurel’s purple Survivor Shirt. In the past when I pre-ordered her size, they never would order it. So I didn’t bother this year. Plus she usually HATES wearing t-shirts. She was wearing her lavender shirt from last year. It took @ 30 mins. but I finally got her to put her new shirt on. Then I went up front to buy and place her Luminaria. I refuse to do this in advance any more as the last 2 years her Luminaria has been lost. I again went up to the ACS rep – and she knowing our past luck, personally walked the luminaria down to where they were placing them on the track. One volunteer tried to take it from her hands, but she turned her back on him! LOL

6:30pm, Bob asked that we all get in front of the booth so he could take a picture. Well, just like every other year, Laurel got real grumpy and did not want to cooperate. Laurel buried her head into me.

10 mins. later one of her best friends from day care showed up! She lit up!

And they began to run around playing. Then her teacher & director showed up, and then 2 more families from day care showed up! And they had made a couple of signs. I could only cry!

Then it was time to start the walk. Laurel still refuses to not only walk, but go alone. So I was the only ‘white’ shirt amongst all the survivors as I pulled her along in her wagon.

As her support team waited for the walk to begin cheering her on:

When the walk started, they began to yell & scream & holler. Laurel beamed from ear to ear. Then they raced to another rpart of the track and began screaming & yelling again. They did this 5x total! And each time Laurel just BEAMED.

Then we walked around with the support team. I stopped at one booth that was selling pizza for $1/slice, so bought a whole pizza for $8?! For everyone. Then Bob walked around (BTW, he took all the pictures) with Laurel and got a picture of her next to her Luminaria:

Laurel and I raced one last time around 1:00am. She was still wound up. I tried to make her lie down in our tent @ 1;30am – but it was soo cold and of course noisy. Around 3:15am I decided to drive a very tired, cold & sad child home. It took me 15 mins to get her to fall back asleep. Then I raced back up there to sit in the cold, sipping hot chocolate! LOL By this time, what food we had left, we were just giving away! The teams with younger volunteers were still out on the field playing the games all night long.

I was home and in bed by 7:30am. Laurel only slept until 9:30am.

Our team was only put together 3 weeks earlier, and I must say, they did a GREAT job! I was gonna skip the Relay this year. But at last moment, changed my mind.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Other WILMS WARRIORS:

Please visit our newer Wilms Families and add them to your prayers:

We have had more kids join.
Layne
MySpace: AydenElaine
Miles
Jackson ,
Noah
Hollyn.
Sweet Andrew
Beautiful Abigail Rose
Corey ,
Taylor , Jeremiah
Taylor (no webpage, dx Aug. 2006)
Rosie (no webpage, dx Aug. 2006)
Autumn
now w/webpage! Amelia (dx March 06 - no webpage)
Amber St. IV (May 06)
34 y/o Julie (sorry, had to give ur age girl!)
Olivia - St. III/UH (no webpage)
9 y/o Sydney – www.carepages.org “SydneyS
5 y/o Aurora (no webpage)
almost 4 y/o Maddie - www.carepages.org "care4Maddie".
6 y/o Riley. www.carepages.org "RileyPhilpot".
4 y/o www.carepages.org "JackHHood".
10 y/o Drew ,
Abby - a precocious 4 yr old,
Nicole a 2 y/o dx at 18 mos,
Reana ,
13 y/o Nicole (Yes, another Nicole),
Kathleen , a triplet dx w/bilateral Wilms,
6 y/o Sadie

Please continue to pray for all our relapse children, esp. for
Sadie , Abby , Meghan , Wyatt , Aurora, Samantha , Mark , Matthew , Jessy , Mighty Macy , Sage , Benjamin , and Tess.

Continue to pray for the many many many familes who have lost a child to this Beast – Adam Jeremiah, Mark , Jessica, Jon , Diego, Brock, Mamie, Josh, Tyler, Zach, Haley, Kyle, Patrick, Mason, Brooke B., Brooke C. , Hanna , Kersey, Talia and many more. Pray that they forever feel their child's loving arms around them thru God's Eternal Love.

I pray that our new families have had a chance to find us at Association of Cancer On-line Research (acor.org)for support, information, etc. Click on: Register LISTSERV Password . It took me (& others a couple of tries to get registered - but it is soooo worth it!

Also, another place for Wilms families is Wyatt's Friends , an MSN Group that was started by Kris Rech in honor of her son Wyatt who was born w/BECKWITH-WIEDEMANN SYNDROME and fought & beat Wilms. Kris also is very involved w/CureSearch and the Gold Ribbon Days in Washington DC (this past June 19-21).

A new Bulletin Board for Wilms Families!
Wilms Kids Bulletin Board good for those who have problems reading the acor site.

Research / Disease Areas
Dollars In Millions

Disease..............2003......2004......2005......2006
Breast Cancer.........693......708......716......716
Colo-Rectal Cancer....296.......297......298......298
Lung Cancer..........297......297......300.....300
Prostate Cancer......279......378......381......381
Children's Oncol. Grp..29.......29.......29.......29

Friday, April 20, 2007 9:33 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

No updates can only mean good news.

Tonite is Myrtle Beach’s Relay for Life. This will be the 4th Relay Laurel & I have participated in. Sadly, I have been in such a funk the past 5 months, that I’ve not done any kind of fundraising for them. Our company JUST got a team together 3 weeks ago. I am proud to say that in those 3 weeks, 4 of the members have raised over $2,000! Wow!

I am a poor ‘fund raiser’. But I truly believe that with Bob & I just now stepping in at the last minute, we are ‘saving’ our team’s booth. We are provided 2 children’s games (Duck Pond, and Kiddie High Striker [think of the strong man w/mallet trying to raise the ball up to ‘ring the bell’] and all the plush has been donated as prizes.

I still wasn’t too excited. Although I put together a little ‘flyer’ to pass out at Laurel’s Day Care & Dance Class. Her pix with the Myrtle Beach RFL details – I put on it: If you don’t come for the food; if you don’t come for the games…… come and cheer Laurel as she walks the Survivor’s Lap.

I wasn’t expecting any response. I just put these out Wed. & Thursday. Well, It seems they have been talking it up at the day care!!! Trying to encourage the children to come. The teachers are coming! And the kids are making a poster for Laurel!!! So Laurel is really dancing the happy dance! The child that hates attention is just EATING it up!! She’s worried no one knows how to get there. ‘course now my worry is what if none of her classmates come? Ugh, one worry at a time.

Conversation she had w/the director:
Laurel: Ms. L, do you know why my picture is on this paper?
Ms L: No, Laurel, why?
Laurel: Because I am 2 yrs Cancer Free!

Wow!!!! Does she finally understand the concept? Does she finally understand why I am so excited that she is a Survivor?

The past 2 days she keeps asking me if its Relay for Life yet! (suppose to get down to 48 deg. Tonite – brrrrr)

This morning she was singing her own version of “I am a Survivor!” so dern cute!

Although Laurel has been getting into ‘fights’ with her best friend at school. Seems the girl punched Laurel in her back (kidney area!) several times! UGH, I am not going to worry, I am not going to worry. I meant to talk to her teacher & director this morning – but not sure how to approach it.

Then Laurel said her friend kept saying she was Cancer Free and she’s not. So how do I explain to Laurel most of us ARE Cancer Free. What her friend is not, is a Cancer Survivor. I’ve tried to explain to her how special she is. But I want her to realize EVERYONE is special in their own way. Hope I didn’t go too far!

Anywho, I hope to get pix this year, as in the past, Laurel has not wanted to be there, and has been high maintenance to deal with.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

What a beautiful (yet dry) spring we’ve had. Seems temperatures are constantly in the upper 70’s and humidity down in the 40 percentile. Laurel is having a blast playing outside with the next door neighbors.

I have officially registered Laurel for Kindergarten. I'm upset that they have yet again redrawn the lines and have moved us to a school even further than the previous 2. I will be putting in for a transfer to the school that the next door girls attend and most of her pre-school classmates will be attending that is only 5 miles away (vs 13). Matt is just flabbergasted that she is just now attending Kindergarten. Her birthday is 5 weeks after his and the cut-off date when Matt started school was Nov. 1. He was always one of the youngest in his class. Now the cut-off date is Sept. 1, so Laurel will be one of the oldest in her class. And this day care will be purchasing a van to pick up kids for after school from this school. It's ironic that several on-line friends kids who are a little younger (4-10 weeks) are already in Kindergarten. IMO the cut-off date should be across the board nationwide.

Tim had prom Friday night. Boy was he handsome! But just like his brother, he said he didn’t really have a date. I caught a glimpse of his non-date on his myspace page and boy is she a cutie! I’ve seen her picture before. I felt I needed to talk to him about drinking. But I knew the minute I brought it up what his response would be. Sure enough, I got it: “I’m not stupid, mom.” I know he’s not stupid and told him so. But also told him as a parent I’m obligated to give this little speech. What he doesn’t know is he’ll get this speech again when he turns 18 next month and when he turns 21. (I just never let up on the ‘evils of alcohol.’)

Matt is usually off work on Monday nights, so has been a ‘good son’ and stopping by for a visit every Monday evening now. What a wonderful evening we had together last night! I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with my adult children. Poor Laurel felt a little left out every now and again. She definitely has the attitude of the ‘youngest’ begging for attention. The boys did go out and play with her while I cooked supper.

After dinner and conversation, they decided to rough house it – like they use to in the ‘old days.’ OK, tiny living room, 2 basically grown men both 6’ tall (plus), both well over 250 lbs each. What’s wrong with this picture? LOL I kept telling them to stop – as I did not want to get hurt and definitely did NOT want lil sweet pea Laurel to get run over. I stood up and got between these 2 men. Matt on his knees barely cocked his head back and said “U know, I’m almost as tall as you when I’m just on my knees.” I told him, that’s true, but I can still beat the crap outta u! (‘course this is untrue as he’s been stronger than me since he was 10 yrs old!).

We found another little Wilms child. Appears he was misdiagnosed, and after 24 weeks of intensive chemo and ?? weeks of radiation, at the age of 21 months has to go thru even more intensive chemo, radiation AND a stem cell transplant. I just wanted to cry when I read about him. Please keep Layn in your prayers.

Jaye-Bear continues to fight all her battles. Such a wonderful, beautiful young lady. I know she ‘puts herself down’ a lot – but I have never ‘met’ a more wonderful, intelligent, sweet young woman in all my days. To be like her would be heaven. There is NO doubt in my mind that God has reserved the best room in his house for her. I always laugh and say God has a special place in heaven for moms – but I need to add, and even more special place for all these young children that have battled adult illnesses.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, March 26, 2007 9:49 AM CDT

Hello Friends,

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather! Although we can do w/o the pollen. Laurel’s and my allergies have been playing hell on us. Tim had an asthmatic cough last night. Praying it doesn’t lead into anything more.

Bob got to watch the final ride at the amusement park come down. The Hurricane roller coaster.

Laurel had another ‘traumatic’ day Sat. morning. She has been ‘flagged’ at the pediatric dentist as being an ‘uncooperative’ patient (that’s putting it mildly). They bent over backwards to let me bring her in on Sat. morning (flagged patients have to come in weekday mornings). They opened 30 mins. early for us. I told Laurel she can cooperate and this will go fast & painless; or if she fights it, it will take a long time and she could get some owies.

She fought it. The ass’t & dr. both had to literally drag her back to the big exam room, kicking & screaming all the way. He has been our pediatric dentist for 15 yrs. He does NOT allow parents in the back room (one big open, airy room for all the kids). She screamed the entire time. You’d think he was murdering her back there. She kinda settled down at one point, then I heard more crying. When finished, she came out into the waiting room w/o a tear in her eye and went straight to playing. LOL LOL

I looked at the dentist and said “please don’t charge me triple for that!” LOL He managed to get her in the chair (he said he was gonna win that battle this visit), and not only did he get a look in her mouth (& she opens her mouth for NO ONE), he brushed, flossed & cleaned her teeth! No xrays this visit – he had enough of her I guess! LOL

Again, to ask her if it was as bad as she thought, she will say “yes, he hurt me.” Etc. Her next app’t will be in Sept. – if she fights as much that time, I may have to switch to another dentist where I can go in back – but I truly do NOT think that will make a difference.

Dr. Shields has known our family for more than 15 years. His only comment to this visit was “Tell you hubby that you guys are too old to have a tiger like that in your family!” NO LIE! I realize her strength is what caused her to breeze thru her cancer scare, but it is wearing us DOWN fast.

I swear I will get updated photos. Our computer at home is so full of viruses, etc. Bob has been taking pictures, I need to have him take them to work & email me at work. He's taken quite a few sweet pix of her.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:21 PM CDT

Hello Friends,

edit: I was gonna add a very small vent, but life has yet again been put in perspective. I mentioned a few weeks back about a young man my older son's age. Adam is just 21 yrs old. He was just told the beast is back last month. The beast has robbed him of his life. His mom just emailed me. Adam earned his wings on March 14th. Please stop by his site with words of comfort & peace for his family. OK, when I wipe away my tears, I will say something intelligent. I am too angry right now. So angry.

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Just a little update.

Friday was a hellish day. Both Bob & I work for the same company (B&C) – only different divisions. B&C also owns businesses in NC, TN and Canada. B&C’s payroll comes from Wachovia Bank (a/k/a Walk-all-over-ya Bank). Seems Wachovia failed to send out our payroll Direct Deposits on Thursday night/Friday morning. Now if either Bob or I had worked for another company, this might not have been so bad. But I had $19 in the bank and had stopped for gas (sucking fumes) Fri. morning. $25 worth of gas! I (among over 1,000 other employees) were frantic. B&C was frantic. I was one of many who kept emailing Payroll. Begging for atleast one of our paychecks (Bob’s p/t job is also w/B&C). I even got a call from head of HR Fri. night as well as one of the payroll people. Our paychecks finally made it in by 7pm Friday night. Some people didn’t get paid until late Monday! Wachovia is reimbursing us $50 each for their error (many of us live paycheck to paycheck). So we should be seeing $100 (maybe even $150?!)

After such a good visit down in Charleston, Laurel woke up Sat. morning tears streaming down her face. Her throat & ears hurt bad – esp. when she swallows. So a trip to Peds clinic. Hour wait. On-call Dr. looks at her throat & ears and declares her healthy. Gave her some chewable Zyrtec. We spoke @ clinic. Seems she interned w/Dr. Bergmann from Onc. Clinic that I like so well. And $20 poorer, we went grocery shopping.

Laurel hardly ate anything the rest of the day. Complained again – so I gave her some Tylenol. She was hurting pretty bad by 8pm. More Tylenol. I slept in her trundle as I worried @ her breathing. She cried ALL NIGHT LONG in her sleep! ALL NIGHT! Then she woke up at 5:15am screaming in pain – which of course made it hurt even more. I found some OLD popsickles in the fridge and that seemed to help. I got another and gave her some more Tylenol (meltaways). She had a time, but got them down. She couldn’t swallow water tho. I turned on a movie and tried to catch a nap. I woke up at 7am (8am new time) & showered & dressed. Called clinic for hours – I guess they opened at 8am. So we rushed back up there, and another 30 min. wait. I complained to the nurse that we were just here yesterday w/same complaint only worse today and no one swabbed her throat. So 3 drs visits in 6 days for a ‘fragile’ little girl. It took 3 of us to get a swab – and the squirming caused a jab, which made her poor lil throat hurt even worse.

Dr. came in – sure enough, Strep – just like I thought the day be4. I complained that this should’ve been taken care of yesterday & how I can’t afford $20 again after a mis-diagnosis. Ironically, while waiting to go in, another mom was up front complaining about a wrong Rx given for her son who is allergic to Penicillan. Bob had to stay home w/her on Monday. I was planning on taking Fri. morning off to go on a field trip w/her to see Mr. Al at the university. Then last night (Tues. night) I get a call – even tho I was one of the first parents to pay, they didn’t have enough tickets for me – as other parents can take more than 2 kids. Well, that’s one of my problems. I don’t want my baby girl riding w/just anyone especially w/a carload of kids. I told her it’s probably because SAHM’s r bringing younger siblings. They swear that’s not the case. It has to be. There are only 32 kids there, and they have 50 tickets. That means 18 adults/cars. Well, that means they are only taking 2 kids per car then.

I was told “well we’re going to Alligator Adventure next month – last Fri. in April.” Great, I can’t go that week. I’m already taking Monday off to take Laurel to Charleston for an evaluation. I am soooo angry. I called another mom up that said the same thing as me – she could take one other child. Both our daughters were in tears last night when we told them we couldn’t go to see Mr. Al with them. We’ve decided we’ll take off work at noon, go pick up the girls and take them to Ripley’s Aquarium for the afternoon. This will be cheaper for me. I was angry because 1) I had already made arrangements to take off work Fri. morning and work Sun. afternoon to make up the hours (they frown on overtime); 2) I was one of the first –if not the first – to pay; 3) they know I don’t feel comfortable having anyone drive her. They’ve promised me in the past to have a certain person drive her, but it never happens. I have to send her as if you don’t send your child then you have to find other daycare arrangements – which I don’t have. My other option is to drive her and sit in the parking lot waiting for the show to be over.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 6:51 AM CST

Hello Friends,

Laurel continues to be NED! Praise God Above All! We are back to these visits just being a little ‘inconvenience’ in our daily lives.

I need everyone who stops by today to say a little prayer for the Reed Family. Today is Kyle’s Angel Day . He has been gone from his parent’s arms for a year. This past year has gone slowly and quickly at the same time. I feel he left us ages ago, yet it feels as if we just lost him yesterday. I know Paula mentioned not keeping the site past his Angel Day. Don’t know if they are sticking to that.

Yesterday’s clinic visit went pretty well. Just so strange to live @ 110 miles from somewhere, but needing to leave 3 hours in advance. Not only is traffic horrid in Horry County, but it’s gotten real bad in Mt. Pleasant (the GROWING town just north of Charleston – one of those towns where you can’t tell where it stops and the city begins.) Laurel & I left the house @ 7:10am. She said she wanted her finger prick AFTER jelly belly (abdominal ultrasound) and X-ray. Since we were short on time, I agreed. We literally ran to the hospital after checking in at clinic. (WOOO HOOO – she’s NOT gained ANY WEIGHT in 6 mos!!!!!!). Child Life has again made me angry. I hear such wonderful stories thru out the country. Ours is the pits! I sent Laurel ahead to playroom as I checked in. She came right out. I went in w/her. A woman was coming out of the room – she looked at me & said “they’re not open until 10am. No one is allowed in until 10am” That’s such utter BS! The cabinets w/arts & crafts are kept locked up – but to lock up the whole room w/all the toys?! BS! Good thing we didn’t have a whole lot of time.

We got to Ped Radiology 5 mins. be4 her app’t. And had to wait a good 45 mins! LOL Room was FULL of babies!! So sad. When Char finally got to us, we as usual chatted away. For someone who doesn’t know a WHOLE lot @ Wilms (me), I have been teaching her a LOT. But I guess she didn’t listen. Seems within the past 6 mos, a little boy on follow-up scans came in. Mom asked Char to avoid the ‘bump’ on his back/side as it bothers him a little. Her Pediatrician said it was just a cyst and he will drain in next week. So Char avoided it. They went back to clinic only for her to be called again and rush him in for another abd u/s – of the BUMP! You got it. Wilms. Char said to me “I didn’t realize it could come back anywhere.” Ugh, I know I’ve been talking to her about this for the past 2 yrs. But I was most angry at the boy’s pediatrician. He KNEW the boy’s history! How dare he JUST ASSUME a bump is a cyst?!?! GRRRRR to him! Shame on him!!!

Prelim scans were clear, so we headed back to Oncology (Rutledge Tower). Laurel knew the prick was still to come – so the little scamp tried to go straight into the parking garage vs the maze we have to walk thru to get to Rutledge Tower. She was insistent that we head home.

She played a little in the (now open) play room. The nurses asked if she was ready. I told them to have a large contingent as she will be fighting. So they decided to have Dr. Bergman check her out first. Dr. Bergman is 4’ nothing, 80 lbs, and cute as a button. I wish we had had her from the get-go (instead of just 6 mos). Then it was time. 2 nurses came in and Laurel crawled into my lap and tensed up. Sadly, it took 2 pokes again to get any blood. UGH. She screamed bloody murder the whole time w/the first attempt (into my ear mind you). She screamed for a few mins. with the 2nd attempt – but settled down to just sobs. She never ONCE fought them like she has every other time.

She asked me the day before how much longer she has to get pricks. Do I dare tell her this will go on for the rest of her life?? Nay. She just wants to know how long before she can stop going to the ‘pumpkin’ hospital for pricks. Soon, baby, soon. This will soon be just a bad dream and we will forget most of what we went thru. We will NEVER forget all our friends we have met along the way.

Traffic leaving Charleston was much nicer. Still busy mind you – but nothing like it was at 9:15. I just couldn’t understand why it was so bad. Next visit – September 4th! Kinda sucks a little – she will have JUST started kindergarten and will have to miss a day. Also, it’s the day after Labor Day, which means it will have tons of kids on treatment there. That happened to us one holiday. They had to move her Monday treatment to a Tuesday – and it was crowded. But she didn’t want to put us at Sept. 11th. I thanked her kindly. I still remember March 2006’ appt. As we left, they handed us an app’t for June 6, ’06. I told them that wasn’t funny. They said “it’s just another day.” Well, that ‘just another day’ is a day that will live in my mind for a while – that was the day they thought she had relapsed and had to have an emergency CT.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:13 AM CST

Hello Friends,

Edit: Many Many Prayers needed for some Special Warriors. the first is for Adam who is 21. At the age of 18 he was dx @ the same time as Laurel. He is battling the beast again.

Also, a long time warrior, and always with a smile on her face Tess is @ 13 (I think) and has had a couple of relapses under her belt. They found another tumor in her (I'm thinking she's close to 1 yr NED).

And last, but NEVER least, A Warrior I've enjoyed following these past 2.5 yrs. Matthew I believe is @ 14 now and has gone much further than his doctors expected. His tumors have increased in size (& maybe numbers?). Please pray for comfort & peace for this wonderful family.

Hearing all these makes me more nervous about Laurel's scans on Tuesday. I know she come out fine since we've gotten to this point. But the fear never leaves.

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Tomorrow is February 28th! 2 Years since my angel finished her chemotherapy protocol! And my journal looks like one who’s been away from the Cancer Life for a while – updates few and far between. I have been so lax in visiting all my CB friends. And we’ve had more families join us in the Wilms LISTSERV. One was another story of misdiagnosis! UGH! Some doctors are so full of themselves and think they know everything. I was told that all pediatric oncologists share all the new info. Sure, you can share, but it can easily be forgotten. And since Wilms is one of the rare cancers, they don’t worry too much about it. But it can be the difference between life and death. The most prominent one I think of misdiagnosis is beautiful Angel Diego. My heart cries for this family. Diego was originally diagnosed as St. I/FH, when he should’ve been St. III/Anaplastic (U/H). So he was not treated aggressively enough until it was too late.

Another family caught the misdiagnosis. Their daughter was diagnosed the same week as Laurel, and same as Laurel (St. II/FH), until the dad questioned their biopsy report and staging. (She had cancer cells in one of her lymph nodes – which makes it St. III). He was an informed parent. But how many of us are truly ‘informed?’ Especially at diagnoses. Another family’s 10 mos old was dx correctly, but given the wrong dosage. She was given the dose of a toddler – and it came damn near to killing her. I was lucky to find the Wilms group and to have a few of the parents there very knowledgeable of the medical field.

I was lucky Laurel was treated by competent doctors. But then again, 6 mos. ago during her last set of scans, we were delayed as Radiology had to go back to the OR for another Wilms case. They told me on the sly that they weren’t sure how to Stage this little girl. UGH! I asked the radiologists why they didn’t contact Dr. Dome or Dr. Grundy (2 of the leading Wilms Doctors). Ugh – if you’re not sure, ASK! It still scares me thinking back on Laurel’s diagnosis – that ‘little bit of spillage’ will always remain on my mind. Although when I finally found the most up to date article, it did say ‘local spillage’ was acceptable. (this since has been updated to any spillage – automatically St. III).

Bob has started back at his p/t job (on top of his f/t job). This seems to be the only way we can barely keep our heads above water. We make too much money for financial help – a lot of our paychecks go towards Health Insurance, etc and payback of loan for cars. We had 2 cars completely die last year – a ’94 & ’91. then Matt bought his own vehicle, so Bob drove the ’91 S-10, Tim the ’98 Chrysler and we got me a ’99 Lumina with a loan. Well, the ’91 S-10 has completely died now. So another loan from 401(k) and hopefully buy a decent car for next to no money. I should not complain. (‘cept when I’m negative bank balance and MUSC is calling for their $$). I know my $700 mortgage is nothing in most cities. We can’t afford it on our 2 salaries. But our car insurance & home insurance rates are one of the highest in the country. In fact Allstate & State Farm have been pulling out of the state (or at least the coastal counties). I pay $1,300/year for my home insurance for a 1300 sq ft home. It was $350 when we first purchased 20 yrs ago.

The hurricanes have all the insurance companies running. Myrtle Beach has not been hit dead on since 1954. Myrtle Beach sits in a little cove. Our chances of being hit dead on are pretty low. Oh, and my wind & hail (part of the coverage), if our house does get destroyed by a hurricane, I will need to come up w/$20,000 first. Yea, that’ll happen! LOL LOL.

Continue to pray for all the little children fighting ‘adult’ illnesses. Pray hard. Pray for their families. Pray for those families who have “Angels” watching over them instead of beside them giving little kisses and big hugs.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Monday, February 19, 2007 7:45 AM CST

Hello Friends,

edit: Please continue to pray for our family. I laugh when I hear a county board wanting a raise since they haven't had one in 10 yrs. Try making 1/3 less than you did 10 yrs ago.

I was again passed up for a promotion. I am obviously lacking something. God Knows What. Bob's car is completely broke down. Mortgage is due. Car Insurance is due. Power is due. We have $150 in our account.

I'm tried of hearing "your time will come." Obviously it isn't and I feel at this point it won't. I'm almost 50. No one wants to hire someone that old to start a new job. Ironic thing is I was given an award at work among the 50 people that work in the office. One is given to each of our 3 offices. Our north office the award was given to their Office Manager (as she's not ever received an award, per her boss); South office was given to a newer Agent. And I got it for our office. Some people are making a big deal out of it. I was overly shocked & surprised to get it. But now I'm thinking it's not even worth the plaque that it's on. I have agents telling me every day how helpful & wonderful I am.

My paycheck does not show it. I am sooo damn tired of looking over my shoulder wondering when I will be losing my house. (following the footsteps of several Childhood Cancer families). Sadly, our mortgage payment is about what the cheapest rent is around here. bleh, can't win for losing.

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Well, it has been one of those weeks. Heaven received 2 more Wilms Warriors. Jeremiah earned his wings on Valentine's Day and Mark earned his wings on Feb. 16th (which is also the 3rd anniversary of Brock's Angel Day.
So many passings. This is one of the reasons I stopped celebrating my birthday - the few relatives I have, all seem to pass right around or on my birthday. And now all these beautiful children.

Prayers needed for sweet Jackson as his histology was changed and he had to go in for another nephrectomy - his first a week earlier was only partial of both kidneys. He will begin his new protocol shortly.

Laurel is still doing well. She complained about her "waist" hurting her the other day. The only thing I could think of was maybe a bit dehydrated and her kidney was achey. She never drinks enough. She finally understands that she only has one kidney, and to harm it would mean going to the hospital. (that because of her UTI when she refused to take medicine). What has been really scaring me is all the ecoli scares. One acquaintance mentioned a relative getting ecoli and now needs a kidney transplant.

With Love,
The Urban Family

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 10:34 AM CST

Dear Friends,

02/06: If it isn't one thing, it's another. But I thank God for giving me these little battles. Tim was out sick with the flu last week for 3 days. Well, seems Laurel caught it. Poor baby had a rough night last night (I'm still not awake).

had a pleasant surprise last night. A classmate from college called and left a message on our machine. Mind u, I graduated 25 yrs ago from college. I tried to call her, but only got msg.

I am 'fighting' with Tim's school yet again. Long story short, Tim has fallen thru the cracks of the "No Child Left Behind" motto that the nation has pushed for 5 years. I did find one educator that gave us some hope - but only to be dashed away as Tim would have to be enrolled at MBHS to accomplish this. His school, CFHS, doesn't care. They say that very few of their kids fail out of their school (this I know is a lie, as Matt noticed @ 40 names missing from the graduation program). So Tim's options are: Continue at CFHS (pass his 5 classes & take 2 summer school classes) or xfer to MBHS, get all classes finished by end of May and graduate w/a bunch of kids he doesn't know (he'll know a few from church & scouts).

Many hugs & prayers to Jaye-Bear. Hope you're feeling better sweetie! And again, TY for the card!

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I am so sorry that I have not updated in a long time. Jaye-Bear is after me now! Eeeeks! (Love ya girl!) Nothing really to say. Laurel is becoming more & more strong-willed (is that possible?) and seems to think she is head of the household (& gets away with it too much IMO). She has begun to read and enjoys getting a few books from the library every week – and trying to read thru the simple ones.

She is so ready to have all of this ‘nonsense’ behind her. Next set of scans are quickly approaching – just 6 weeks away. Wow, we have survived the 6-mos. in between with no ‘scares.’

In January Tim had his “All County Band” concert. They always do the middle school first. Here in SC, kids cannot pick up an instrument until 6th grade. I was not too impressed with the Middle School concert – but WOW to the HS concert!! Those kids are talented! Tim went to Florence to try out for “All Region Band” and we have not heard anything yet.

Matt is doing so well! He is going to school part time (3 classes) and works as a Manager at a Laser Tag business where he is now handsomely paid. He was even able to go out & buy a new vehicle (not brand new, but only 3 yrs old!). He and 2 friends are looking to rent a 3BR home (vs a 2BR apartment he's in now). I'm trying to convince him to do a few other things: join a gym, start a 401(k), and such.

Without having to go into specifics, I ask that you keep our family in your prayers.

Please continue to visit as many of our Warriors as you can – especially our newer ones, our relapse Warriors and most importantly the families of those Warriors who have gone Home to Heaven. My heart is so heavy every time I say a little prayer for these families who should not know the pain of losing a child – esp. to cancer. Enuff of the pink ribbons, I want to see GOLD RIBBONS EVERYWHERE!

Live, Love, Laugh,
The Urbans

Important Dates:
Jan. 18th - Hannah's scans!

Jan. 19th - Andrew W's last chemo

Jan 23rd- Noah's scan for tumor shrinkage
Jan. 24: Day 0 for Meghan's stem cell transplant! Lots of Prayers!

Samantha recovering from her surgery to remove tumors & lesions! Surgeon says all clear! Next stop radiation.

Jan. 26th. - Sage's last chemo (1 yr on chemo)

Jan. 29th- Christian's 6th Birthday!

Jan 30th - Sydney's last chemo www.carepages.com SydneyS

- Autumn R.'s last chemo

- Scans for Camille

- Scans for Kathleen

Other WILMS WARRIORS:

Please visit our newer Wilms Families and add them to your prayers:

We have had more kids join.
MySpace: AydenElaine
Miles
Jackson ,
Noah
Hollyn.
Sweet Andrew
Beautiful Abigail Rose
Corey ,
Taylor , Jeremiah
Taylor (no webpage, dx Aug. 2006)
Rosie (no webpage, dx Aug. 2006)
Autumn
now w/webpage! Amelia (dx March 06 - no webpage)
Amber St. IV (May 06)
34 y/o Julie (sorry, had to give ur age girl!)
Olivia - St. III/UH (no webpage)
9 y/o Sydney – www.carepages.org “SydneyS
5 y/o Aurora (no webpage)
almost 4 y/o Maddie - www.carepages.org "care4Maddie".
6 y/o Riley. www.carepages.org "RileyPhilpot".
4 y/o www.carepages.org "JackHHood".
10 y/o Drew ,
Abby - a precocious 4 yr old,
Nicole a 2 y/o dx at 18 mos,
Reana ,
13 y/o Nicole (Yes, another Nicole),
Kathleen , a triplet dx w/bilateral Wilms,
6 y/o Sadie

Please continue to pray for all our relapse children, esp. for
Sadie , Abby , Meghan , Wyatt , Aurora, Samantha , Mark , Matthew , Jessy , Mighty Macy , Sage , Benjamin , and Tess.

Continue to pray for the many many many familes who have lost a child to this Beast – Jessica, Jon , Diego, Brock, Mamie, Josh, Tyler, Zach, Haley, Kyle, Patrick, Mason, Brooke B., Brooke C. , Hanna , Kersey, Talia and many more. Pray that they forever feel their child's loving arms around them thru God's Eternal Love.

I pray that our new families have had a chance to find us at Association of Cancer On-line Research (acor.org)for support, information, etc. Click on: Register LISTSERV Password . It took me (& others a couple of tries to get registered - but it is soooo worth it!

Also, another place for Wilms families is Wyatt's Friends , an MSN Group that was started by Kris Rech in honor of her son Wyatt who was born w/BECKWITH-WIEDEMANN SYNDROME and fought & beat Wilms. Kris also is very involved w/CureSearch and the Gold Ribbon Days in Washington DC (this past June 19-21).

A new Bulletin Board for Wilms Families!
Wilms Kids Bulletin Board good for those who have problems reading the acor site.

Research / Disease Areas
Dollars In Millions

Disease..............2003......2004......2005......2006
Breast Cancer.........693......708......716......716
Colo-Rectal Cancer....296.......297......298......298
Lung Cancer..........297......297......300.....300
Prostate Cancer......279......378......381......381
Children's Oncol. Grp..29.......29.......29.......29

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