Significant Shrinkage!!!

Hey all,

It has been a busy week around the Valle house. Monday we headed to San Francisco. After getting her bloodwork and a nap in Natalia wanted a dinner of her newest fav...SUSHI! Edgar asked her if she wanted to walk or drive, she said walk. As we were staying at the Family House on 2nd & Irving, right across the street from the hospital, we were about 3 blocks from the resturant. Natalia made 3/4 of the round trip on her own steam. After a goodnights sleep, we went over to her MRI at 8:30am. At 9:30am, we were told it would be another hour before they could do the MRI. She was scheduled for chemo at 10:45am, needless to say we didn't make it. We were told to go straight in to see Dr Banerjee when we finished the MRI and then to chemo. Sophia was not impressed that we left her sister with the MRI people but at least we got some food down her while we waited otherwise she would have been impossible to control. Natalia got out of imagining at 12pm and we got up to Dr Banerjee's by 12:30pm and waited. Finally, Lizzie, the nurse practitioner, told us to go get Natalia some food because we were in for a long wait. Yes very long...Just before 4pm the doctor came into to see us. Asked how Natalia was doing and Edgar gave a run down on all she had been up to. When he ran out of steam, that is when we heard "well all this concurs with what the MRI shows. There has been significant shrinkage in the tumor. Enough that you can see even with the naked eye." Praise to God! Chemo started at 5pm and finished just before 8pm. Since we wanted to celebrate at home we left San Francisco just after 9pm and got home just before 1am.

She was too wiped out to go to school on Wednesday so our first day back was Thursday. Boy was she glowing when we picked her up at lunch time. She had accomplished a lot more then we expected her to be able to. She is excited and happy to be back. She will have another 4 treatments of the Avastin & Irinotecan (chemo). So 8 more weeks then another MRI. By the end of the 1st week os September she will be off the steriods and hopefully her body will produce its own.

Love to you all,

Roni

Weldon Elem Here I Come!!!!

Well, it's Monday afternoon on what is the first day of school, and we are at Family House in San Francisco. Natalia is taking a nap after doing her blood work at UCSF. Tomorrow morning at 9am she has her MRI and then clinic with Dr Banerjee at 1pm. The new chemo seems to be working but we won't know for sure until tomorrow.

8/12/08 Edgar and Natalia were up here for her last chemo session and clinic. Dr Banerjee asked Natalia if she would be starting school soon. Edgar replied "I don't know. Can we?" Dr Banerjee "I don't see why not." Praise to God....Mama got on the phone the next day to Clovis Unified administration, after not making much head way we all just went to Weldon to find out what she would need to do. Just walking into the office was a rejuvinating, strengthening and warming experience. We love Weldon!!!! Come to find out they had started the process for her at the end of last school year. They were just waiting to see if she was strong enough to come back. Wednesday morning she will enter 1st grade in Mrs. Hansen class. A huge thank you to Mrs. Yager for helping Natalia to finish kindergarten and for being there with awesome support. She helped to instill a love of learning in Natalia that made her want to come back for fall. Natalia will be doing half days for now and with more strength will come more time at school. I was able to sit down Friday with Mrs. Hansen and we talked about Natalia's strenghts and weakness and how to give her more of the ability to just be a 1st grader. I truely felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Not only is Natalia getting stronger but she will have the opportunity to be a kid again. What an incredible blessing!

We must name a few of our pillars of strength at Weldon: Deanna, Principal Lozano, Mrs. Yager, Gail, Sandy, Mrs Hansen, and the PTC. I know there are more but I'm already crying. Thank you for being there because you helped get us to where we are now and there is no better place in this world then in your hearts.

Love to you all,

Roni

Cancun!

Well, what can I say...it was hot, it was beautiful and it was the experience of a lifetime. First we would like to say thank you to Lori and Shelly, Natalia's wish grantors. Without them our special time would not have been possible. We would also like to thank The Law Offices of McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte and Carruth for sponsoring Natalia's wish.

We had an awesome send off from Fresno. We were picked up at 3:45am by a stretch white limo...both girls eyes almost popped from their heads. Natalia only said "oy yeah" while Sophia danced around. Friends and family met us at the airport to send us off in style. It truely made it special to have them all there. It took nearly 5 hours to get to Cancun...needless to say we were tired and ready to tear our hair out when we finally got to our room. All we wanted was food, showers and sleep. We had an excursion early the next day to get ready for.

Xcaret! We send tons of thanks to Viangy Rocha and the staff at Xcaret. She told us that anything thing can happen at Xcaret and that dreams can come true. For this family she truely made that possible. The girls swam with sea turtles, fed a manatee, lounged on the beach under an umbrela sipping mango daquaris and then the 4 of us (the 4 of us only) swam with 4 dolphins. We have so many happy memories from this place that our vacation could have ended there and we would be happy. It was the adventure of a lifetime.

The sea turtles were incredible. Xcaret is raising them from eggs to around 7 months old before releasing them to wild. they have a goal to release 7000, so far, they have released just over 2000. We went to a little beach in the turtle lagoon and their handlers started with a small turtle for the girls to pet and moved up to several larger ones. Then it was into the water were they got to swim with these beautiful creatures. Then it was quick over to the manatee lagoon for feeding time. These are big, strangely beautiful, peaceful creatures were amazing. They are so flipping big but are extremely shy. When Natalia 1st sat down she had on her Tevas, they have a bright green swoosh on the bottom. That poor manatee must have thought it was strange new lettuce because he wouldn't accept the fruits being offered just kept smelling her feet. Well, we took the shoes off and then the manatee was happy to eat all her fruit but kept tickling Natalia's toes. We were going to swim in Xcaret's underground river next but Natalia said no she was tired so Viangy took us to the beach for some relaxation time before her next surprise. The girls rested, ate and swam in the ocean while relaxing under the beach umbrela. Then off to our last surprise...a swim with the dolphins. Fifty thousand cheers to the staff for making this one of the most beautiful peaceful experiences of our lives. We were by ourselves with 2 trainors and 4 dolphins. We got to interact and just swim while they swam around us. Yes, they even gave us pics and video of the experience. We were so touched by this whole day that even now I still cry when I think about it. They went above what we could have dreamed of experiencing. Thank you from the bottom of all our hearts.

We met up with Edgar's father, his wife and sister on Friday night. Both girls needless to say were sound asleep after the day at Xcaret. Saturday morning we had a wonderful breakfast together and they got to meet the girls. Then off to Isla Muerjers to the Dolphin Discovery. The girls 1st boat ride. Spohia loved it, Natalia not so...the rocking while her balance is off...Anyway we got to experience dolphins with a larger group. It was a good day with the family and when we got back to the hotel one of Edgar's lifelong freinds (and best man at our wedding) Enrique was waiting for us. Having his family and friend there truely helped bring some peace to Edgar. It was the first time in almost 7 years that he had seen them. We all went to dinner at The Shrimp Bucket that night. It is the Senor Frogs for the family crowd. Edgar explained our trip to the manager and he and the staff helped make another incredible memory for our family. We had so much fun. Our waitor made tons of balloon animals for the girls and then had all the staff come out so we could take pictures with everyone who helped create this wonderful night. Sunday was our day at the hotel beach, just chilln and playing in the water. We made our sand castle and got our sunburns. Nagcheilli and Enrique left Sun night and it was sad goodbyes. We relaxed Monday with the grandparents and they left that night. Tuesday it was back to Xcaret for their evening Extravaganza. This show is amazing. It starts with pre-hispanic Mexico and goes through the regional music of today. The girls loved it and we had reserved seats so it was easy access for the all terrain stroller.

Wednesday we headed home...another 5 hours travel with 2 busy girls...this time though they slept most of the way. We were met by wonderful freinds at the Fresno airport that helped to revive us and remind us why we love home. Back into a limo for the trip home and straight to bed. We had to rest up because another of Edgar's freinds Gabriel and his son Pablo were coming over the weekend to visit. It was wonderful to visit with them. Natalia kept singing "Pia and Pablo sitting in a tree..." The 4 years olds were fast freinds.

Love to you all,

Roni