Hello Everyone,

The Curry’s are officially a family of 4.  Little baby Chantel Noele was born last Sabbath the 8th, at 10:09 pm.  She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz.  She is a doll and we have enjoyed the last week of being able to love her and hold her.  This is a new experience for us.  She is a typical newborn.  And as we have watched her we have realized more and more that Sharmi was never a baby.  I think she always knew that, and we suspected it, but we didn’t fully realize it until now.  Sharmi made eye contact within the first few minutes of life with her daddy and mommy.  She could hold her head up from the day she was born. She smiled a real smile in the first few hours of life.  She didn’t have the crossed eyes like a cat looking at the butterfly on her nose.  :) She preferred to jump instead of lay before she was two weeks old.  And she NEVER slept. 

I genuinely thank God that Chantel sleeps!   Yet, the more I think about it the more I realize how gracious God is.  I know He knows the beginning from the end and he knew that Sharmi was going to get cancer.  I believe that he gave her a little bit more strength both physically and strength of personality to get through and beat this evil disease.  I know I have said it many times, but she is so tough and brave.  This isn’t just coming from a supportive and proud mother.  We had a new nurse a few weeks ago when we were accessing Sharmi’s port for her labs and meds.  She was an experienced nurse who has been in oncology for years.  Sharmi cried a little at the beginning with the though of “doing it again,” but then she settled right down and took it like a champion.  The nurse was shocked.  She said she had never seen a two year old take is so well.  She said, “once she was ready she got into her little ‘zone’ and just did it”.  We were also told by our favorite oncologist at San Diego, when we were still there, that she had never seen a two year old that was so good.  We are so grateful to God for giving her the strength and understanding to handle this.  She is very determined and this helps her survive.  The last week, Dean and I would have liked to see a little less strength and a little bit more obedience,   but I think this has something to do with being two, having an addition to the family, and coming off of a cocktail of drugs. 

Another indication of her bodies strength is her blood.  (I am still irritated thinking about this, but I am grateful that Sharmi recovered as quickly as she did.)  Last Sunday Sharmi had a platelet transfusion because the providers were determined that her blood count would drop so much that it would be critical.  They were not even willing to wait until Monday and due to my resistance and lack of commitment to their schedule (because we were waiting for sister to be born) they ordered platelets to be transfused Sunday morning, verses, ordering labs, waiting for the results and then ordering the platelets.  This process would have added at-least another three hours to the day and they were”CONFIDENT” that she would need the platelets.  It was because Sharmi was scheduled for this transfusion that I called the OB clinic Saturday morning and asked for them to induce me.  The clinic typically will not induce until you are overdue but under the circumstances the doctor told me to come on in.  We were very grateful for his accommodation so that Dean, Grandma and Papa could all go with Sharmi to the hospital the next morning.  Sharmi did pretty good without me, but struggled as expected with putting in and taking out the port.  She has always had her mommy there holding her and her little hands.  However, once the transfusion was over the nurse gave Dean a copy of the days labs and her platelet count was completely normal.  It was 392,000 and they shouldn’t have done a transfusion until she was below 10,000.  Not only was she not low enough for a transfusion she wasn’t even considered low.  In oncology you have normal for healthy people, normal for cancer patient, low for cancer patients, and then low enough to require a transfusion.  She was normal for a healthy person.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to her oncologists about this yet, but she seemed to tolerate the transfusion fine, and I am trying to be grateful that she is healthy and happy enough that her blood recovered, even though the providers were confident that she wouldn’t. 

I currently hear two little girls crying for me in the background, so I better run.

Love you all.

Cheris