Reece was 3 years old and just as wild and fun as you would expect, until July, 2015. He began complaining of some pain in his foot. A few days of that and then one morning he suddenly was too weak to stand or walk. Something was definitely wrong! There was nothing we could do except hold on for the ride. 5 weeks later and more tests than we could keep track of, we finally got an answer. Leukemia! AML to be exact. "Excuse me Doctor, did you just tell us our child has cancer?" Allowing the realization of the fact that our child had cancer to set in was a process, in fact, some days I still don't think that we're done processing it.
However, we move forward.
We are in maintenance now and all things considered, life is pretty grand! Sure there are some days that are harder than others, but to see Reece handle it the way he does gives us all the strength in the world. We often talk about how blessed we are that this happened to him at only 3 years old. He's old enough to talk to us about what's going on and how he's feeling. He's old enough to understand all the things he has to go through with chemo, pokes, meds, and some restrictions on otherwise normal things, like playing in the dirt and eating deli meat. Yet, he's young enough that he is able to attack this disease with the tenacity of a thousand men! He's young enough that he won't remember most of the really hard stuff in the beginning phases of treatment. He's young enough that he still has a HUGE life left to live!!
Most often cancer is viewed as a curse. We've chosen to view it as a blessing. A chance to come together as a family, a chance to get deeper into our faith, a chance to be supported and uplifted by amazing people in our community, and a chance to share our story, a story of hope, a story of a beautiful life!