Amidst the sobering and very serious situation unfolding across the U.S. and around the world, we’d like to share a little good news with our community.
As most already know, we welcomed our daughter, Esmé Gwyndolyn, into the world 2 weeks ago today. Between her dad’s cancer diagnosis, treatment, surgery, and this virus, she was born into unusual and unprecedented circumstances for such a tiny new human. Fortunately, she was born strong and healthy under the care of an excellent team at Ballard Swedish Hospital in Seattle, WA on March 5, 2020 at 2:45am weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 21.25 inches. Kevin and I are over the moon in love and enjoying every minute as new parents. No, seriously—every minute. Even those sleepless hours we spend together. ☺️
Our journey these past 9 months has been markedly unusual, but her birth has been in stark contrast to the rollercoaster of complicated cancer process and my own constant pregnancy sickness that dominated our lives. I couldn’t have asked for a better birth story. Ask us the next time we see/chat with you and we’d be happy to share the birth play by play. It really is quite a story!
We are also ecstatic to share Kevin’s most recent scan results show he is officially cancer free AND he has completed all of his cancer treatment. Starting today, he entered the cancer survivor program at Swedish Cancer Institute. He will be screened and monitored for the rest of his life due to his Lynch Syndrome—key words here: the rest of his life. Pending there’s no recurrence in the next 5 years, Kevin can expect to see his new daughter into adulthood and beyond. If that’s not something to celebrate, I don’t know what is!
Words can’t fully convey how we feel entering this next chapter, but what I can muster into words is simply “gratitude”. We are so thankful for the support we’ve received from family, friends, employers and co-workers, and so, so thankful for the top notch care provided by the receptionists, medical assistants, doctors, nurses, lab techs and other medical professionals we encountered along the way at Swedish. They are angels for what they do everyday, and even more so now with this virus. We have and will continue to take every opportunity to voice our appreciation for them and what they do to keep people healthy and alive.
With a little newborn at home and Kevin still recovering from the effects of chemotherapy, we’re taking extra precautions and self isolating our little family until things settle down—it’s been such a bummer! But hopefully we all get to emerge from this isolation sooner than later.
If there’s anything we’ve taken away from this whole experience it is the importance of other people, especially in times like these. Take care of yourselves and each other. We look forward to seeing you all on the other side of isolation!
We hope our news is a little bright spot in your day as it has been in ours. ❤️
