A month after the diagnosis

Wow! It's been one month since I got the news that my daughter has cancer. What an interesting month it has been to say the least. It has been such an emotional roller coaster ride and this is only just the beginning.

The outpouring love and support Arley has received is just phenomenal. I mean seriously I had no idea how many people and lives she has touched but with the way everyone has been rallying around her since this all began just goes to show and prove that she holds a special place in a lot of peoples hearts.

We have learned so much about Rhabdomyosarcoma in the last 30 days that my head has been in outer space for a long time. It's been quite difficult to wrap my head around all of this information and to process it at the same time that I was working on my last few weeks of school. My professors were so wonderful and accommodating and I'm glad that they didn't give up on me and helped me to see things through the end with finals.

I have also realized lately that my friends are truly wonderful. So many of them near and far have made sure that Arley knows just how many people are thinking about her. We have received so many wonderful gifts and tons upon tons of get well cards. I have read them all to Arley and they help her feel so good to know that people are thinking about her.

One month in and we have had numerous tests (Petscan, CT scan, Bone marrow, ultrasound etc) several rounds of chemo, lost all of her hair and have adapted a newer way of life. Right now we are gearing up for another hospital stay this week. I for one am not looking forward to this visit. There are several reasons which for now I will keep to myself, but we must push on and do whatever needs to be done to ensure Arley is happy, healthy and thriving so she can beat this.

Another thing we have started to tackle head on is a benefit to help raise money for her medical bills and travel expenses that will be upon us before we know it. Moving to Boston for six weeks is going to be hard and rather lonely I would imagine considering we live 2-3 hours away from there right now, but I have a feeling that some family & friends will still visit us if they can. (Least I sure hope so!)

I have been completely overwhelmed by our local communities support through all of this as well. Everyone we have spoken to has had absolutely no hesitation with being generous with their donations. We have at least 30-35 donations already big and small and are still striving for more. I can not even tell you the name of a single person who hasn't tried to help us with this in some way. When they say it takes a village it truly does because everyone even strangers have been so touched by Arley's story.

Tomorrow I hope to be back out on the hunt for some donations and big ticket items for our extra special raffle so that this benefit is a huge hit. My sister in law was wondering on making the tickets this weekend so I hope to start selling those by weeks end and into the start of June. We have less than four weeks until this benefit so I want it to be hugely successful so that our guests are left full, and happy with some fabulous prizes and that we don't have to worry about how we are going to afford everything.

Well, that's all for the updating for now. I have decided to include the latest photo of Arley because we have to teach the world that #baldisbeautiful because my daughter surely is.

#nohairdontcare