This holiday season Jacob and I are celebrating Alina's health and feel so thankful that we will not be spending this holidays in the hospital.  As some of you know, last Thanksgiving was not the case, and we spent the holiday at TCH while Alina recovered from the surgery of removing her primary tumor.  Even though we were able to all be together, it still felt lonely, and just not like a holiday.

This year, especially with COVID restrictions, we are thinking of all of these families with their children spending not only Thanksgiving but also Christmas in the hospital, and are separated from their families. 

Jacob and I felt it important to try and find ways to bring joy to those families during this very difficult time.  Please consider donating to this fundraiser, which will go directly to Texas Children's Cancer Center.  This money will be used to help support the families that we sat next to during treatment, and the families we continue to sit next to during follow up visits.   

In case you arent familiar with Alina's story, I posted it below:

When I was 38 weeks, we had an ultrasound where they found a tiny tumor on Alina.  At that time, they thought it was on her kidney.  After birth they gave her an ultrasound and determined the tumor was on her adrenal gland.

At 10 days old, Alina met with her Oncologist at Texas Children's Hospital and after a series of scans was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.

In November 2019, during a routine ultrasound, we learned that her tumor had over doubled in size, and the cancer spread to her liver.

On 11/27/2019, Alina had surgery to remove the tumor.  We found out that Alina had favorable histology and does not have genetric markers that would make her high risk, so she was labeled Stage MS.

On 1/22/2020 during routine scans, they found that cancer had spread to her right femur and skin, changing her to Stage 4.  It was determined at that point that we would treatment.

Alina received 4 rounds of chemotherapy over the course of 15 weeks, and as of May 2020, Alina is cancer free.  We continue to have scans at Texas Childrens every 3 months to monitor her progress, and pray that Alina remains cancer free.