Congraduations to our precious Sharmalia!  Last week marked the one year anniversary of being cancer free.  We are so proud of her!  She is growing so big and healthy.  Praise God!  She is our brave little survivor!!!!

A couple Sabbaths ago, at church, we had a kids service and afterwards the church provided cake for a celebration.  Sharmi was happy and beautiful.  Looking back at pictures of our “bald baby” it is hard to believe what we really went through.  We are so grateful for her health today and we pray that it continues from this earth up into heaven.

The girls talk about heaven all of the time.  They ask when we are going to heaven and they dream about all of the things they are going to do when we get there. One night, Chantel and I had a lengthy discussion.   It started with her asking if there were going to be toys in heaven.  Then our imaginations went wild.  I told her she could slide down the giraffes neck, and she suggested that the elephant could pick her up and put her on the giraffe because it was so tall.  On and on we went… We also talked about swimming with the fish and flying with the birds.  This must have still been on her mind the following evening, because out of nowhere she asked.  “Mommy how are we going to get our wings so we can fly to heaven?”  I told her God would give us wings.  She continued, “How will he attach them?  Will he glue them?”  I just laughed and tried to explain it the best my mortal mind could.  I am so glad they want to go to heaven.  I can hardly wait myself!!!!!

Chantel had another fantasy about heaven this week.  While they were eating dinner and I was cleaning the kitchen, she said, ”Mommy, in heaven I am going to be the boss… In heaven you are going to sit in a chair and I am going to boss you!”   I couldn’t help but laugh.  Sharmi tried to correct her, but I told her to just let  Chantel dream.   

 Last week, we took Sharmi to Children’s Hospital.  They said she is doing great and we now only have to go back every three months instead of every month.  It is slowly becoming a thing of the past.  However, when we do show up, Sharmi is quickly reminded that she doesn’t like pokes.  This visit was no exception.  At the hem/onc clinic she had two nurses dig and dig for an IV and they never got it.  Sharmi was fabulous. Thank goodness for numbing cream.  She could feel it and she was squirming, but it took the edge off.  After the second failed attempt though she lost is and refused to let them touch her again.  We finally elected to go to the main hospital lab.  She hasn’t wanted to go there because it was different, but once she understood the logic that these nurses are good at port’s but not arms she was ready to try something different.  The blood draw at the main lab was quick and perfect.  We will definitely be going there in the future.    The labs told us that her health was good, but we already had pretty good assurance of this. 

In the last several weeks Dean, Chantel and I have all gotten a cold, but Sharmi never got it.  It seems so small, but after what we have been through it is monumental. 

We pray for more monumental years of being cancer free.  Our prayers are also with those of you who’s lives and families have been attacked by this awful illness.  I hope that God will take us all HOME TO HEAVEN soon.

Cheris 

Good evening,

There is definitely a reason that God said that we needed to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven.  My almost 5 year old, big girl, believes in the power of prayer.  Tonight she came out for a second prayer at bedtime and sweetly went back to bed again and fell asleep.  As a habit we have to pray for her at least once at bed time.  We have to pray about her dreams and that she will have happy thought and not mean thoughts.   She seems to have problems with nightmares like I did when I was little.  The scariest one, I remember, for me was a family of bull dogs.  There was no back ground, just an almost still- life of bulldogs.  It was reoccurring and always scared me to death.  Silly I know. 

Back to Sharmi; not only do we pray about her dreams at night, but she also has to have my bible under her pillow.  Her non-bedtime prayer life includes: having a good attitude, her health and her sisters health, and lost items.  Praying over things is almost always her idea.   A couple of weeks ago she was looking for a little plastic dog of her sister’s.  Her papa had given both of them 4 and Chantel could only find 3.  Sharmi was so disturbed that “Chantel can not enjoy all 4 of her doggies.”  She said, “mommy, we need to pray that Jesus will help us find sisters lost doggie.”  She prayed the sweetest prayer…”Jesus you know where sister’s doggie is and you can help us find it for her….”    After amen, it was only a matter of minutes when she found it!  She was so excited.  She said, “Jesus told my mind where to look…”  So we thanked Jesus for helping us.

It seems so easy for kids to believe the spirtual and emotional facts of life.  As adults they begin to seem silly.  The other day Chantel was swinging in her swing while my dad and I were working outside.  It was freezing and I had Chantel wrappedup in blankets literally from head to toe.  She even wanted her head covered.  One time, when I was re-tucking her blankets, after she complained of being cold, she said in a muffled voice, ”mommy, love makes you warm.”  I was surprised that came from a 2 year old so I asked her what she said and she repeated, “Love makes you warm.”  I just smiled, shook my head in amazement and told her she was right.  Love does make us warm.  I still have no idea where she got that.

Health wise we are all doing pretty well.  Sharmi has had signs and symptoms of a UTI for the last three weeks, but when I got her tested she came up healthy.  The doctor said that it isn’t uncommon to have frequent urination without an infection.  It has been very annoying to stop what everyone is doing every 5 minutes but itseems to be getting better.  I am grateful it wasn’t an infection.  Sharmi thought the best part of it was peeing in a cup.    She got a kick out of that.  I can see that after her life of pokes, peeing in a cup is definitely fun.   :)

Well this weekend is going to be a busy one for our family.  My beautiful mommy is turning 60 years old and we are going to celebrate.  To start the celebration she is going to preach at our church   and than the family is going gather at our house.  I hope that the weather will be nice for us.

I hope all is well with you and your families.

Love to you all,

Cheris

It is Amazing how quickly kids grow up and start learning how to get what they want.  When I sat down at my desk tonight I smiled when I saw the picture Sharmi gave me this afternoon.  She has been begging for Mac n cheese for days.  This afternoon she tried again and said, “Mommy, I will give you this picture I colored if you give us Mac n cheese.”  In trying to get them to do what we want we have taught our children the fine art of negotiation. 

Sharmi’s swimming has made huge improvements in the last 4 weeks.  Four weeks ago she refused to put her head under water and freaked out if we weren’t securely holding onto her.  Last night, she held her head under water for12 seconds, she swam with her kickboard by herself without me even in the water, and she even swam several strokes to me all by herself on several occasions.  She keeps saying, ”I am so proud of myself.”  I ofcourse am very proud of her as well.  Chantal also thinks she has become quite the swimmer.  Last night she tried to swim to me and didn’t realize she couldn’t swim until she went under and swallowed some water.  Luckily I was close enough to catch her.   

Sharmi’s health is doing really well.  She had another visit to Children’s Hospital about 10 days ago.  She was so brave she didn’t even whimper.  She was so pleasant and cooperative you would have though I took her into an ice cream shop.  She was amazing.  Chantel was still worried though.  When we went into the lab for the draw Chantel asked, “Is it going hurt Sharmi?”  We told her it shouldn’t hurt much because she had magic cream on.  Then Chantel stood beside us with her hands half over her eyes and said, “I don’t want watch hurt Sharmi.”  The nurse was amazed at her concern and how well she expressed herself for a two year old. 

Dr. Thompson said that Sharmi’s labs were perfect.  I told her that several weeks earlier I was pretty concerned because Sharmi was overtired, her eyes were dark, and her coloring was yellow.  Dr. Thompson assured me that Sharmi looked great now and said that her platelets were better then hers or mine probably were.  It was nice to have the assurance.

Chantel has been fighting a little bit of a cold for a couple of weeks.  She hasn’t gotten it too badly yet, but it keeps hanging on.  Tonight she was so tired that I tricked her into falling asleep in my arms.  She was waiting to play “Duck Duck Goose” with Sharmi and I, but Sharmi was picking up hundreds of pieces of confetti that Chantel had spread all over her floor.  I am amazed at how patient and diligent Sharmi is at detailed tasks.  She had already picked up the confetti yesterday after the party off of the table, but then to pick it up out of the carpet for at-least 25 minutes was amazing.  She was very through and patient.  If only that patience flowed into other areas of life. 

Chantel’s learning is amazing me.  She is just as smart as Sharmi.  I am already able to see their different strengths.  Today Chantel built a whole house with foam blocks and brought two arm loads of little people and animals before Sharmi had talked me into helping her build her house for her.  Chantel is more of a “just do it” kind of girl and Sharmi wants to “do it the right way.” 

Chantlel has also learned her phonics.  Most children ask for you to draw a cat or dog or something, but Chantel asks me to draw by the phonics.  “Mom draw an “e” (I don’t know how to spell the phonics) once I have drawn the letter “E” she will then ask for drawings of elephants and eggs.   

Last week we enjoyed a warm day and went to the Zoo and Spaghetti Factory with Melissa and baby Amriel.  It was a lovely day.  We are looking forward to summer when we get more nice days so we can enjoy getting the beautiful outdoors more.

Happy Easter,

Cheris

Good Afternoon to all of you,

I have the kids down for naps and we are going to rush off to swim lessons as soon as they wake up.  Sharmi is trying to learn to swim so that she can swim with the dolphins for her Make-A-Wish.  She has been having a hard time with it because, it hasn’t come easy and she doesn’t want to put her head under water.  The girls had a couple private lessons in January which didn’t go well.  However, we have been able to get her in the pool three times in the last few weeks with friends and family, and she has come a long ways.  One of my challenges in raising her is that she has been smart enough that most things come easy and she isn’t used to things being hard to learn. Secondly, she has experienced the hardness of life that she knows bad things do happen and she doesn’t have that blanket trust that many kids have.  So I am going to try her in a small group lesson today and I hope things go well.

Speaking of Make-A-Wish’s, Sharmi was talking to Chantel about them the other day.  Chantel was stating that she was going to swim with the dolphins and Sharmi clarified, ”No honey, you aren’t going to swim with the dolphins.  You didn’t have cancer.  When you grow up you might get cancer, and then you can have your own wish.”  Then she continued, “Hopefully, you won’t get cancer but if you did it would NOT be your fault. Sometimes bad things happen because the devil likes to make us sick.  But it wouldn’t be your fault because mommy is a good mommy and she feeds us healthy food, and she tells us when we can’t have anymore macaroni or chocolate so that we don’t get sick or get cancer anymore.”   I just stood in the kitchen and listened; with tears in my eyes, pride in my heart, and fear in my stomach with a prayer that cancer will never be a part of our home again, especially in my girls. 

Sharmi is becoming quite the health conscious little girl.  I hope it serves her well in keeping her healthy for the rest of her life.  The other day she said to Chantel, “Chantel you need to drink more water and not so much juice, because water is Jesus’ medicine to keep us healthy.” 

Health-wise Sharmi does seem to be doing well.  Last months lab reports were good with no indication of concern.  We are of course grateful for that.

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of going “home” to the Poulsbo church for their talent show.  Sharmi, after some coaxing, sang her six little ducks again and Chantel even ”performed.”  She mostly just breathed really heavy into the microphone, but she did eventually sing “jingle bells jingle bells”, and quickly got shy again.  The people we very gracious at applauding her and it was really nice to see all of my old church family again. 

Our love and prayers are with all of you, and we appreciate the continued prayers that you pray for our family.  God Bless.

Cheris

Our past week has been filled with new experiences.   Saturday night Sharmi sang, “Six Little Ducks” at our church talent show.  She did a wonderful job.  We were all so proud of her.  It was cute, with every verse she dropped the pitch one note.  It actually was really “clever”.  I wouldn’t be able to do that.    When we came to sit down Chantel was begging, “me sing by my-self, pease.”  She asked me over and over during the night.  She wanted to sing “Jingle Bells”, which is “my favrite.” 

Last week Sharmi started spelling all on her own.  She asked me to give her a word  (mom, dad, dog, mat, bat, cat, fat, ….) and she sounded them out and spelt them.  She is stubborn and tries to do them in her head.  I think she believes saying them out loud is cheating.  Her eyes roll up in her head as she tries to figure them out.  I can tell when she gives up and isn’t sounding them out, and then she just guesses “n”.  It is cute.  This weekend she also started to read with Grandma.   She read three stories and did a bunch of exercises before she wore out. 

Chantel and mommy are having mixed emotions about Chantel growing up.   We had a “big girl party” for Chantel on Sunday with my parents, which included cake and presents.  This marked the end of nursing and we also put a big girl bed in her room.  She said, “papa broke my crib.”  She thought it was a good idea before it was gone.  The two changes have brought some happiness and many tears from Chantel and mommy.  Mommy is sad that her baby is grown up and Chantel is very upset that she doesn’t get to nurse-to-sleep anymore.  Chantel does like her new bed though when it isn’t bed time.  She climbs in and covers herself with the bedspread, she tucks her stuffed animals in, and Sharmi and her enjoy reading stories and eating crackers in her bed.   

My back and doing fine.  I am doing the maintenance program that will keep me moving, and in a few months I will try to do the “fix me” program.  All in all we are doing good.

God bless you all,

Cheris

>евтини мебелиy New Year,

Life at the Curry’s is going fairly well.  I am finally feeling less pressured with things to do.  I am trying to run on less adrenaline.  The down side to this is now I feel much like a sleep deprived slug.    I threw my back out a couple times over the holidays.  The worst day I couldn’t even lift my head off of the pillow.  I yelled for help for awhile and finally gave up until I heard Sharmi running down the hall.  After the second time, I finally decided to go to a chiropractor.  He says I need several months of therapy.  However, I am choosing to postpone me again, because this year is going to be about spending quality fun and educational time with my children.  Our life has been a prefect example of quantity not being the same as quality.  Pushing drugs on sick kids certainly consumes many hours of the day, but it is no fun and the only thing we learned was how much we hated cancer.  So once again I am putting my heath on the back burner, but I believe that the time spent with my kids will far surpass the value to my heart. 

The girls have had colds and sinus infections for almost two months straight.  Just when I think they are getting better they both relapse.  They are both hacking a lot and they clearly have an infection, not just a basic cold.  Today I decided to try something new.  I have given them bentonite clay to drink.  It is supposed to work as a detox.  I am hoping it will absorb the infection.  Only time will tell. 

Sharmi had another doctors appointment last week.  The poor girl.  Going back keeps getting harder and harder.  I didn’t tell her until one hour before her appointment and she just lost it!  She cried and absolutely refused to go.  She said she wouldn’t go, wouldn’t get in the car, was never going to have her blood checked again……  I just kept apologizing over and over again that I had to take her and I kept telling her it was unfair and awful but we still had to do it.  Once she pulled herself together she was very compliant and sweet and there were no other issues in getting ready to go or with the doctors appointment itself.  I haven’t got the  lab results back yet, but as far as I know everything if fine.  She is mostly very brave and grown up, but she is sometimes a scared little four year old.   Imagine that….

Sometimes I think she is more educated and grown up than some adults.  Actually I know she is!  (A few names come to mind.)  She doesn’t talk about is much but she is proud of herself for being a survivor.  For Christmas, Dean bought me a cosmetic gift that has galvanic current which helps heal skin and reduce scars.  I asked Sharmi if she wanted me to use it on her chest, where the scars are from her port surgeries.  She said, “no thank you mommy.”  I asked her why not and she said, “I want to be able to show people, that don’t know, that I had leukemia.  I can show them my scar and tell them I had cancer.”  I was shocked.  Who am I to take away her battle scars.  She doesn’t deserve for them to be minimized in any way. 

The girls are coming to an age where they really enjoy playing together. Tonight when I was trying to get them into bed, I finally gave up and just sat down and watched them.  They were wearing matching monkey pj’s and Sharmi was crawling on the floor on all fours with Chantel clinging for dear life onto her back.  Sharmi said, “mommy, she is the baby monkey and I am the mommy monkey.”  When Chantel couldn’t hold one any longer and would fall off, they would both laugh and do it again.  It was good for everyone. 

I hope the new year is filling your lives with love, jobs and all the things you need.

Cheris

Merry Christmas

Cancer wise Sharmi is doing good.  She had another doctors appointment a couple weeks ago.  We left Chantel with Nana Hall.  It was a very good thing.  Chantel had a blast having alone time.  Nana Hall said she played happily by herself most of the day.  It had been three months since we had gone to Children’s hospital, and Sharmi was nervous and upset.  She cried and cried, and demanded to leave.  We finally had to just hold her down to get her blood draw.  Once the needle was in she held still.  We were very grateful that the tech got the vein on the first try.  I don’t know if I could have forced her to do it two and three times like we have had to in the past.  After the blood draw and we were waiting for the doctor, Sharmi found out that she was immediately going to the dentists after her doctors exam.  She was not pleased!  She hates the fluoride paste that they paint on her teeth.  Once at the dentist I had to literally drag her out of the car.  The appointment was uneventful.  She has curved teeth from the binki addiction, but no cavities in site.  They gave her a little rainbow colored snake as a reward. That helped lighten her spirits.

Ten days ago, on Sabbath, Chantel had a fever and was very lethargic.  She was very mellow during church.  In the evening, we went to a “Bethlehem Walk,” and she was only able to come up with enough energy to pet the animals.  The rest of the time she laid on us and didn’t talk much.  The next day, however, she talked about petting the camels neck and she kept saying, “Sharmi scared of king… Sharmi scared of king.”  It didn’t take long before Sharmi asked her to stop saying that.    Even though Chantel didn’t seem to be aware of much the night before, Sharmi’s fear for the king and the soldiers made a big impression on her.  They are very sympathetic to eachother, especially when one is in trouble with mom or dad.  They call for eachother and give eachother hugs.  It is priceless.

Originally, I thought Chantels fever was from the teeth she was cutting, but Chantel and Sharmi have both been sick ever since.  The coughing has been the worst. They haven’t slept well and Sharmi has been coughing so much that she has thrown up several times.  I think they are both on the mend. 

I am enjoying the cleverness of my children.  It is such a blessing to be a parent and to watch your children’s intelligence and humor. 

A smart moment for Sharmi was over Thanks-Giving weekend we were at the Olive Garden eating and Sharmi said “There are two kids on one side and one kid on the other, and we are sitting at a rectangle.”  We gave her the usual acknowledgements and praise and then I asked her, “what shape do the kids make?”  Her cousin Roegan was sitting at one end, her aunt Julie was between Roegan and her.  And sister was across the table.  She asked me what I meant.  I asked her what shape she would get if she drew a line between all of the kids.  She cocked her head and thought about it for awhile, and responded with a big smile, “A triangle!”  We were all impressed, especially her great -grandma.  It is nice to have proud grandparents.

A funny moment for Chantel was last week when we were getting the girls ready for bed.  We usually try to speed up the PJ process but racing and seeing which kid will “win.”  The other night Sharmi was so quick at getting her PJ’s and hurried to put them on even before Chantel got to the bed room.  When Chantel came in Dean said, “Sharmi beat.”  Then Sharmi looked at Chantel a little deflated and said, “Chantel already had her jammies on.”  (She had never changed out of her pajama’s that day.)  Chantel  looked down at her pj’s with a surprised look, and then she looked up with a clever grin. In a loud cheer she said, “I W-I-N!”   We all laughed so hard!!!! 

What a blessing our children are.  My biggest problem is getting life out-of-the-way enough to enjoy them.  Have a Merry Christmas with your families this year and laugh.  It is good for you. 

Love to you all.

Cheris