Family Stories

Gabriella

“The Balancing Act” as told by Mom

Gabriella is six years old. Recently, I had started seeing some bruising on her and she was having a lot of pain. Her back was hurting and I was thinking something didn’t feel right inside of me. Everyone was saying, “She’s a normal kid and normal kids have bruises.” But something in my gut told me it was different…
Read Gabriella’s Story
© Beaton Photography

Kandice

“Every Moment” as told by Mom

Kandice was always a really healthy baby. But, last year in October, when she was 18 months old, she quit walking and was losing her balance frequently and falling. At the time it wasn’t enough to make me too worried. A week went by and as she was sitting, she started falling over and was having fevers and getting sick. I was concerned and called my mother-in-law. We lived in Billings, Montana and were in the emergency room for about six hours…
Read Kandice’s Story
© Beaton Photography

Sawyer

“Our Sawyer Girl” as told by Mom

Our girl is our sunshine. Sawyer’s gorgeous and funny. She’s sassy and smart. And when she was one year old, she fell off the growth chart. Her doctor was concerned, but Brian and I were not. Both of our families are fairly small and her being tiny seemed pretty likely to us. But then she started throwing up. A lot. Multiple times a day and we just couldn’t get anything to stay down…
Read Sawyer’s Story
photo: Rebecca Bonner

Jack

“This is Jack” as told by Mom

He was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I was sitting in the emergency room with my 6-week old, Jack, who was having breathing problems. After he was diagnosed, doctors told us he had approximately 3 months to live. Our world fell apart. How could this happen? How could we say goodbye to the baby we fell in love with at first sight? We have never felt so much pain. SMA causes a degeneration of the motor neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord…

Read Jack’s Story

James

“The Greeter” as told by Mom

There’s this big picture when you come in the front door at There With Care, you see this warm, friendly wave. It’s James, and it’s the first thing that hits you…his eyes, his smile. You certainly don’t see James as a 9-year old with cancer, it is much deeper than that.

James was diagnosed with A.L.L. in 2004 at age three. We went through more than three years…

Read James’ Story

Jeziah

“Beautiful Boy” as told by Mom

It started off with pain in his leg and we thought it was growing pains, until he woke up screaming and we rushed him to the hospital. They said the word “leukemia.” At that time I didn’t know what it was. As the doctors went on, they said, “It’s a form of cancer and it has an 80 percent cure rate and Jeziah is going to be fine.” It was November 16th, 2011…
Read Jeziah’s Story
© Eliza-Karlson