Day 291

       Conner and I are sick with the flu.  So far Katie hasn't caught it and hopefully she won't!....Never mind... I just heard her coughing, so I think she has it.  Bummer!  Katie still has bruising on her chest (and sterrie strips and dissoluble stitches) from getting her port removed.  The sterrie strips should start to come off this week.  Overall Katie has been doing well.  Although she has had a rash on her back and neck for the past month or more - from her medication.  She also gets a rash around her mouth that comes and goes.  She is still doing a super job at taking her medication daily.  We are so glad, that has been such a blessing and relief!  However, it has been challenging to not let her eat for an hour before or for two hours after her medicine (every evening).  We are getting it done though.
     Katie goes in for her next treatment on September 5th.  We go to the clinic monthly now instead of weekly.  It has been really nice not having to go to the clinic as often.   Katie's hair is growing in - it isn't long enough yet for a bow or barrette - but it is growing.  Last week Scott said, "We need to cut the hair over her ears, it is starting to stick out."  I laughed and reminded him that she is a girl and that her hair needs to grow over her ears or she would always have a boy haircut!  So, no, we didn't cut her hair.  =)  When Katie was completely bald, I guess people assumed she had cancer, and they just wouldn't say anything.  However, now that she has a little hair, we keep getting strange comments from people - "Does her hair just grow slow?"  "Why is her hair so short?"  "Is her hair just not growing in?"  - she has also been called a boy a time or two.  We get a lot of strange looks - stares.  So, it will be nice when her hair grows in a little more.
     Katie will be starting "joy school" soon with some children in our ward and neighborhood.  She is very excited.  After the mom's and kids met to plan the school year, Katie has been putting on her backpack and playing school.  I am excited for her to live a "normal life" and I hope her treatments won't hold her back from being able to participate.  We are happy she is doing so well!  It is so fun to watch her and Conner play together.  Life has gotten better/easier since we entered the maintenance phase.  Things are good
    Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin has said: "Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come.

"I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable. We have the personal testimonies of those who saw Him. Thousands in the Old and New Worlds witnessed the risen Savior. They felt the wounds in His hands, feet, and side. They shed tears of unrestrained joy as they embraced Him."  (Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Sunday Will Come," Ensign, Nov. 2006, 30).