Kinsley's story... in the beginning

Kinsley is truly a miracle in every sense of the word. She is a true gift to her parents and extended family. She was born after several years of "trying" and she's just in one word AWESOME!!

Kinsley was born with a tumor on her left clavicle that was intially believed to be a hemangioma after an ultrasound was performed just a short 18 hours after her birth it was confirmed by a surgeon and radiologist that it appeared to be a hemangioma and the surgeon requested that we follow up with him in 3-4 weeks. When we went for the follow up on Auguest 27, 2012 the surgeon thought it might need to be removed as it appeared "harder than a normal hemangioma" 

On September 7, 2012 Kinsley went in for surgery to remove the mass and when the surgeon came out he shared that it was possibly a sarcoma and it was we had to wait on pathology. Later that same day, Kinsley had a CT Scan and then the next day a bone scan. All of this was a complete SHOCK to her family as they thought it was just a hemangioma. Both the CT scan and bone scan showed negative but initial pathology suggested that they needed to remove a larger margin around the mass. Kinsley was sent home to recover and heal up. All of her pathology was sent to the Children's Oncology Group for further study and was told to come back on Monday, September 17, 2012 to have a larger margin removed and for a port placed for chemotherapy. After they removed the dressing , the incision was oozing and they decided to reopen the incision to let it drain and test the fluid. The fluid came back to be an infection and she was started on 2 different IV antibiotics which necessitated a longer hospital stay.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012, the final pathology was received as Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) Stage 2 Goup 1. A bilateral bone marrow aspiration is planned for September 28, 2012. Chemo will begin October 1, 2012. Kinsley will have 24 weeks of treatment with the 1st 10 weeks being weekly then followed by every 3 weeks.

Unfortunately medical insurance does not cover all the expenses that now must be incurred - hospital co-pays, medicines, weekly travel to the hospital, time off from work and the list goes on.
The medical costs were completely unforeseeable. How could ANY of us had known what the future was going to bring when Kinsley arrived?

Kisses for Kinsley on Facebook( http://www.facebook.com/KissesForKinsley) is dedicated to Kinsley by helping her& her parents get through this, beat the RMS & allow them all to have a normal life together one day. Kinsley is a fighter... she was a fighter before she was even born. There are many, many reason why God has her here and she has a HUGE story to tell one day. 

Kinsley's chemo will last through the Summer of 2013 so there is a long road ahead. Whether its $5 or $500, every dollar will help! http://www.giveforward.com/kissesforkinsley
Thank you so much for your love & support!!    

She's HERE!

Kinsley is here!!!

Stationery card

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Countdown to baby!!!

So I haven't written here since I gave our story of how we were blessed with a baby girl. My pregnancy has gone really well and aside from being tired during 1st and 3rd trimester I haven't had any issues.
   Well.... now my blood pressure seems to have decided to be a little finicky. It's been a little elevated the last few weeks and I have been doing non-stress test once a week lately and now they would like to increase it to 2x a week. Yesterday the nurse at the specialists office seemed concerned about my blood pressure thus the 2x a week. At my weekly appt with my Ob/Gyn I told her that they took my blood pressure 4 times and seemed concerned. She decided to call the Maternal/Fetal specialist Dr to consult with him. They decided that I need to do another 24 hr. urine collection to check for preeclampsia (I've done this test before and it was all good). They have also decided to give me steroid shots "just in case" we have to deliver early.  I'll know more on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday but our little girl could be here this FRIDAY - I'll be exactly 37 weeks(which is considered full-term). Ahhhh... I'm not ready .... but God is in control. I feel confident that this second 24 hr test will be good. I hope I'm right and we'll proceed with the original plan to induce on Aug. 9.
  I have one request.... please pray that our little girl can stay put for a little longer but most importantly pray for God's will. 
  I've got the nursery all ready and finally have pictures to share. Some have been edited to hide her name as we want a "surprise" for the day she is born.
Thanks!
Melissa & Galen

Here's our Nursery!!!!  :-) 

This room was made possible with much help from my friend Brenda, Courtney & Ben Boyd and last but not least my husband, mom, sister and niece (they all helped me organize all the baby stuff). Oh... and Amber Cook for painting our walls! I wanted a room that wasn't too "babyish" and that our little girl could grow into as a little girl. I am very pleased!

The white quilt bedding is from Target. I made the quilt at the end and the red bed skirt. Ben & Courtney painted the side table

My husband and I made these white shelves. Most of the stuffed toys were gifts except the Scentsy buddy! the train at the top is from my nephew Cameron. The frame is from Hobby Lobby, painted it yellow and I printed the "I am a child of God". The block was painted by my sister.

The lamp is a Pinterest project - I painted it red and then added the ruffles  & rolled flowers to the shade. The  yellow circle mirror is from Hobby Lobby. I made the coordinating pillow. Both the teddy bear and the red elephant are vintage chenille bedding that I received as a gift from my Aunt Frankie. I love them so much and they go perfectly here!

The dresser was painted by Ben & Courtney Boyd! It turned out awesome and I love it! The hair bow/flower board is an old frame with chicken wire that I painted white and Galen helped me add the chicken wire. The red frame is from Hobby Lobby and I printed out "You are my sunshine". Love mirror -Hobby Lobby. Small white frame Hobby Lobby - I printed out "For this child I prayed". Hamper in corner is from World Market online and my sister helped me cover it... OK she did a lot of it.

This is the "library" and toys -- the shelves are from IKEA - thanks to Kevin and Miranda. We painted them white. The old window was bought from Janie Conley. I found the idea on Pinterest and painted the design and used my cricut for the lettering. 

I made the wall hanging(on the left of the closet door) with her name that I blocked out to keep as a surprise.

I made the curtains and add the shabby rose trim in red. The crib is a Jenny Lind crib  in white. The flowers above the bed were from Hobby Lobby-- however the red was originally yellow and I painted it red. I ordered the wall vinyl from decalmywall.com. My friend Brenda helped me make the crib quilt - LOVE IT! I made the crib sheet and skirt. The crochet  against the wall is a handmade gift from Elaine Bragg. 

Lastly, EVERY little girl needs a chandelier. Right?? I ordered this from Home Depot and Galen and I installed it.... with all the crystals! So pretty!

Most fabrics were from a collection by Heather Bailey Pop Garden and I purchased them from lilybellafabrics.com. Christy was super helpful and had FAST shipping! 

And another chapter begins!

I have tried to edit the font size several times but I just can't get it to be smaller.
        Luke 11:9-10  ⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Galen and I are both so thankful for family and friends who pray. As many of you may know by now... we are expecting our 1st child in mid Aug. 2012. We've been down a very long road which you can read about here.  My last post mentioned that we had some exciting options.
Our doctor gave us several options.... one was to do IVF again with my eggs, do IVF with donor eggs from a college age young lady and the other was embryo donation. I didn't want to go through the whole IVF process again and the massive expense with my eggs as we have seen 2 unsuccessful pregnancies. We talked about the donor egg thing but the high expense was a huge factor. The last option was to use embryo's from another couple who has been through IVF and have finished their family and did not want to destroy the embryos. As a christian, I believe life begins at conception and this these were potential babies just waiting for a chance. Both Galen and I feel at peace and VERY excited to accept the donor embryos.
Once we made that decision on embryo donation, the doctor's office sent us 4 profiles of couples that had put them embryos up for "adoption". Galen and I both read all the profiles separately and ended up picking the same 2 couples. When we visited with our doctor she told us couple "D" had the BEST embroys and really was the "BEST" choice that Galen and I both liked. The whole process began October 30 when I started giving myself daily shots to suppress my reproductive cycle and get it ready for a "frozen embryo transfer" (FET) cycle. On Nov 10th, we went in for a baseline ultrasound to see if everything was "quiet" and then Nov. 12 I began wearing estrogen patches along with the daily shots.
On November 30, we went to doctor's office for the transfer. As we were waiting for our doctor to return from surgery the embryologist came in to talk to us about the embryos that were to be transferred that day. He told us that they thawed 6 embryos and 3 survived the thaw and would be transferred that day. Galen asked him the success rate for FET and he said it was only 25% I was like WOW ... not too good! He then told use as he was showing us a picture of the embryos that this was "as good as it could be" for this type of cycle, that was HUGE from him since he tends to be VERY conservative and not too enthusiastic. I also remembered that Dr. Dorsett told us that these embryos were very high quality. The transfer when very well and I had to then be on bed rest for 2 long days and the wait begin as I continued getting nightly progesterone shots from Galen.
I was scheduled get a pregnancy blood test on Dec. 9 but on December 8 I was having severe back cramps and thought... this is how I felt when I found out I was pregnant in June. I thought hey I'll go get a home test and take it...... and it was POSITIVE! I was shocked.... I told Galen that night when he came home and then went for the blood test the next morning. I was so surprised and so relieved!
We have made it through the 1st trimester and now into our 2nd trimester. We were able to see our little one growing from sonograms at Dr. Dorsett's office 3 times.  Today we met our new OB that will continue our care and delivery of our little gift.  It was a great day as we got to finally hear the heartbeat of this precious baby. We love our new doctor and she was touched by our story and she said it gave her chills. I told Dr. Owen that I wanted as normal treatment as possible since everything else has be "not so" normal.
This road is had some twists and turns and lots of bumps but please continue to pray for this little miracle from God.