Finley’s Story

Site created on August 31, 2022

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of our beautiful daughter, Finley, being diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin Lymphoma. After a series of tests it was confirmed that the cancer had spread to her bones (spine, pelvis, legs) and we were given the “Stage 4B” classification and notified that we would be starting an aggressive chemotherapy treatment within 72 hours.

We had approximately two days to secure a rental in Seattle, furnish it, and pack up everything we thought we may need/want from our Port Angeles home. With the help of our amazing family and friends we (they) were able to do it all. The stars aligned and we signed a year lease on a comfortable home less than 5 minutes from Seattle Children's Hospital. 

Our new address is: 6030 53rd Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98115. 

Finley loves receiving mail, so drawings or words of encouragement are greatly appreciated!

Finley received her surgically implanted port on Monday morning (August 29th), and she had her first round of chemotherapy later that night. It has been a complete whirlwind – from diagnosis to chemotherapy in just 9 days flat. As of now, our care team has stated that we can expect to complete 6 months of 21-day cycle Chemotherapy, and we would reevaluate at 3 months and 6 months to see how her body was responding to treatment. We are expecting to live in Seattle for at least one full year.

We plan to keep everyone updated via this CaringBridge platform with a weekly “Finley’s Friday Update”, plus a few other posts here and there. We have also started a “GoFundMe” to help with medical and living expenses that we have, and will, incur in the future. Hardships such as this really remind us of how thankful we are for our incredible support system. I know I am personally guilty of getting swept up in the day-to-day rhythm of normal life. This is not exactly the “slow down” that I was hoping for, but a silver lining to everything is that I have been able to focus on my family and forget the rest.

https://gofund.me/8c64a427

Thank you very much for keeping us in your hearts and minds. It is deeply appreciated. ❤

Newest Update

Journal entry by Kaci Jewett

Finley’s ✨Make-A-Wish✨ was granted and that sweet little girl sent all of us to Hawaii during the deep winter freeze (she truly is the gift that keeps on giving)! We had a wonderful time at Aulani, the Disney Resort on Oahu. We were there for a week in mid-January and packed in as much fun as we possibly could. I’m not saying it was perfect…we did have one night of puke, a poolside bee sting, a 3+ hour delay for our flight home, and a dead car battery when we got back to Seattle at 2am (don’t ask). If we have learned anything from having kids, or life in general, it’s to just roll with it.

The highlights from the trip far outweighed any negative: both kids did amazing on the plane to, and from, Hawaii. Finley found a deep love for the water slides (especially the “vertical drop” which is pitch black and even scared ME) and her love for the ocean continues as she wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up. Tavish thinks “Mickey Waffles & syrup” are their own food group and found that when you eat them every morning you have enough energy to take on the shore pound for hours! We couldn’t get this kid off the beach and back to the pool area!

We came home thoroughly exhausted and full of admiration for one another. It was a trip we won’t soon forget. A HUGE shout out to our Wish Coordinators, Denise & Amy, who truly went the extra mile to make sure we felt like VIPs all week long! ❤️

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