Family Stories

Fernanda

“You Are An Inspiration” as told by Fernanda

At the age of seven, I was put into hospice care after being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a progressive disease affecting the lungs and digestive system. When I was released a year later, I told everyone that this disease wasn’t going to take me. It was not my time.

Read Fernanda’s Story

Jeremy

“Being able to give somebody wiggle room so they can stay with their child a little bit more, it means the world” as told by Mom and Dad.

Dad: We have two kids. Jeremy who’s 13 and Isabel, 16. I had noticed Jeremy’s stomach was a little swollen. We went to the hospital right away and they knew something was wrong. We were scared, there were about 10 doctors with us and nurses in the corner crying. So, we knew. They told us he has a version of CML, leukemia, it’s really rare. We just held each other, and we cried with Jeremy.
Read Jeremy’s Story

Jimmy-Rey

“It’s the Love and We Can Feel It” as told by parents Valarie and Jimmy

Mom: When our son Jimmy-Rey was two, he had so much energy. Then one day I started noticing something wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t eating as much, wasn’t really playing and running around the house and his energy started to really decline.
Read Jimmy-Rey’s Story

A’Miree

“It’s a Journey” as told by Mom

Last year, my son was born with a congenital heart block. He had to have a pacemaker put in immediately. We were in the hospital for quite some time with him. After that, we enjoyed normal everyday life. He was doing well. My daughter A’miree was in school, hanging out with little cousins, and having playdates.
Read A’Miree’s Story

Nora

“She Loves Life” as told by Mom

Nora was always super energetic, healthy, happy, and a good sleeper. We felt pretty lucky, and decided that we could have another kid. When Nora was two, her brother Mac was born. When Mac was three months old, we noticed that Nora started limping. We thought it was odd, so we called the pediatrician. They had X-rays done of her leg and her hip and couldn’t find anything. That week, she woke up sick from her nap, and her left arm was limp.
Read Nora’s Story

Bella

“One Day at a Time” as told by Mom

On April 6th Bella was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We had to go to appointments, treatments; it was go, go, go all day. I could never rest because I was going all day and working at night. I literally had no sleep. I had to take a leave of absence from my job in April and have been on leave since. My two older kids had to move to live with family. I’m very thankful they could help us because there is no way I could do it on my own.
Read Bella’s Story

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