Andrea's last chemo party!

Monday, October the 12th our family loaded up and headed to St Louis for Andrea's last chemo celebration! We hadn't been up there as a family for over a year so everyone was pretty excited.
We arrived and Andrea got checked in. Then the party began! Confetti, singing, dancing, a no more chemo t-shirt, no more chemo sugar cookie and lots of smiles!!! We saw tons of people who have been through this whole thing with us from the very beginning. The pictures say more than words so I'll let them tell the rest!

Andrea and Dr. Gauvain. Dr. Guavain is Andrea's primary oncology Dr. and our "Angel"! Dr.Gauvain has had cancer herself so she more than sympathized with us, she emphathized! When I wondered if I was crazy for being scared for Andrea to stop taking chemo she assured me that she herself was terrified when she stopped her chemo. Dr Gauvain has been a real inspiration to our family and we will never forget what she did for Andrea!!



Let the party begin! Andrea was a little taken aback when they first started singing and dancing around! :)

Here is Bobby and Marsh holding her no more chemo shirt....she wears this shirt all the time to bed!

Andrea and Dr Bhatla....another one of our "angels"! Dr Bhatla has just recently completed treatment for cancer as well. She has taken care of Andrea many times when she was hospitalized and we love her to death!

Luke, Andrea, Tyler, and Travis waiting for her check-up. 8 people in a small room can get REALLY small, REALLY quick!! :)

Andrea....all smiles!

Andrea and her best buddy, Bobby! Bobby is truly an inspiration to our family! He is always happy and always has a smile and a hug! He made clinic so easy and something to look forward to! He sees pain and sorrow every day yet always has an encouraging word to give! We love you Bobby! You are part of our family now!!

Andrea and her favorite 4th floor nurse, Miss Kristin! Miss Kristin is our 4th floor angel!! Words cannot even begin to describe what she has done for our family...from a smile, a batch of cupcakes, to offering to take our laundry home and do it while we were in for a long stay! I know it isn't just our family she has taken care of....I have acutally seen her bringing clean laundry to rooms! ( I mean laundry she has taken home and done for someone! ) Krisitn loves God and has taken time to pray for us and with us! She lost her brother to cancer when he was fairly young and she has dedicated her life to trying to help kids with cancer smile! We love you Kristin!!

Andrea finishing her chemo was a bittersweet time believe it or not. It has been our life for the past two and a half years and that is a long time! All Andrea has know (that she can really remember) is having cancer. She still thinks she has Leukemia. We have tried to tell her it is all gone but, she just hasn't been able to process it all. My biggest fear is that we aren't doing anything at all now and will it really stay away. But, life goes on and you just have to keep trusting in God who has brought us this far!

After our 4 hour visit at the Costa Center we headed to a place we haven't been able to go to for 2 1/2 years.....Chuck E Cheese!!! This is a family favorite but has been out of the question with Andrea on chemo. We had special gift bags made for each of the kids since they have all had to sacrafice "normal" life on many different occasions. They have never complained and have rolled with the bumps like champs! I can't say enough good about these 6 awesome kids! I wouldn't trade them for all of the money in the world!!

Troy and I. Troy is my rock! He has always been so strong for our family through this time. If he ever got scared, I was in FULL PANIC mode because I know its really bad when he is scared!

5 Happy kids with their suprises! Alex was to busy eating another piece of pizza! :)

Mr Alex, enjoying a cold piece of pizza! This little guy keeps us all young!!

Sorry this post was so long but, 2 1/2 years is a long time to cover! :) Now we just wait for 5 years to see if we are all clear! Andrea will go every month for blood work for this 1st year to make sure everything is still okay. We go in about 2 weeks for her first check up. They tell us most relapses happen within the first two years and then after that the chances lessen. We are going to just take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment we have! God has been so good to us and our heart overflow with greatfulness!!!!

Lauren found Alex on the kitchen floor the other day playing with his "Thomas" trains. She got some really cute pics and I wanted to share them! It is so fun to watch him play, he is very serious about what he is doing!





I bet he was really impressed with himself that he actually got more than 2 to stay together!

Of course if you have your paci it makes everything more fun!

This is my favorite! He is totally lost in his own little world!!

Shout it from the roof top!

To any of you who know my husband, Troy, this will be no shock at all! :) Troy promised our church sometime ago that the first time we had 100 people in church he would schedule a service where he would preach from the roof. This Easter we had 171 people at our morning service. ( This included around 50 people from the Penn View Bible Institute Choir, so not counting them we had around 120) So on the 30th of September we had our "roof top" service! It turned out really neat! Troy loves roofing therefore he loves being on the roof! He acted like he had fallen off the back side of the church and scared me half to death...I yelled and he laughed! :) The newspaper and the local TV station showed up for the unusual service as well. Who knows what we will be doing next....with Troy, you NEVER know!

Heading up...



He looks right at home here!

Pastor Troy up in the air~

Camping Out

This past Friday night my kids ( part of them ) decided it would be the perfect night to camp out in their tent. Troy used to join them but, has since decided if your bed is only a few feet away it is much wiser to make good use of it! I, by the way, DO NOT camp unless I have a room with a door and a lock, a bathroom, and a mattress ~ in other words a RV at the very least!! Luke, Tyler, Travis, and Andrea got their stuff together and headed out! Now I was thinking they would be right in the backyard where I could just look out the back door and check on them, but no..... they went way back in the woods much to my dismay!!! Troy and I went out around 11 pm to make sure they were okay and this is what we found....

Andrea having the time of her life with her great brothers!


Luke and Andrea and Travis. Travis is in the background with his burnt fingers in a bucket.....they had a nice little campfire with bricks around the edge and Travis saw that one of the bricks was out of place so not thinking about it being hot ( 8 year old boys don't always think first :) ) he tried to move it and burned his two middle fingers pretty bad

Travis with a very pained smile! Poor little man, he ended up coming inside and staying so I could play nursemaid

Tyler has a very shocked look in the pic...I'm not sure what the reason for this is!

Here they all are with Troy making sure everything is safe...

Since we couldn't see them from the house, I sent my cell phone out with them so I could check in or they could call if they needed us. About 1:30 am I started worrying about what could happen (worrying about what COULD happen is what any good mother does! :) ) out there so I tried calling about 5 times with no answer. I knew I would never sleep now, so I drug Troy out of bed with Lauren going along for fun and out we traipsed through the backyard and into the woods. Of course they were all very soundly sleeping so back to bed we went with me laying awake until around 3am still....worrying!!!!! :) Next camping trip is already being planned but all involved have been pre-warned that the tent with be within good view of the back deck!!!

Visit to Oklahoma

A week ago today Troy, and I, Lauren, Luke, Tyler, and my sister Penny made a flying trip to Oklahoma City. My dad had been in the hospital with a blood clot on his lung and we decided it was time for a suprise visit!! I am pretty sure it was a big suprise! :) He was shocked a we were happy to spend a couple days visiting him and his wife, better known as Nana Kim!

It was a great visit that just ended to fast!! Thankfully my dad is starting to feel some better!!

September 28th, 2009 will be a very remembered day in the Truitt house!! Andrea took her LAST dose of steroids tonight!!! I'm not sure how much she comprehended the significance of the moment but, I will say, the rest of our family sure did!! You could probally have heard the shouts of joy clear down the street!! She will take her last chemo on October the 3rd and I'm sure there will be more celebration!!!



Hugs of joy!!!


Opening up for the last dose!

The last swollow!

Help!!!

Can a person get any help around here???!!!!


This is what happen when you are a mom with an 18 month old who is left to his own devices while you are trying to teach 5 kids school! :) I guess Alex was hungry and he decided if he was going to fix that problem he would have to take matter into his own hands! He did a good job of it....at least he did a good job of making a HUGE mess! When its baby # 1 or 2 you promptly correct them, when it is #6 you quickly get the camera and then blog about it! :)