It’s Olivia’s 15th Birthday today! To celebrate we are releasing the Liv it Up Application! Go to the “application” tab on this website to see requirements! Olivia can’t wait to start giving back to other childhood cancer patients since she was so blessed by all of you!

We made it through the holidays, together as a family and will no illnesses! It was a wonderful couple of weeks with the two younger kids home on break from school! On January 4th Olivia has her last chemo at Riley Hospital! This Friday she will go for a check up and then begin going just ONCE A MONTH for check ups!!!!! In the New Year, we look back on all Olivia has been through and can’t be more thankful for the prayers from all of you and for her amazing strength! She still has several more months of isolation, but now that we have Olivia’s health under control we are excited to announce where we are headed with Liv It Up! Olivia is so excited to start giving back after receiving so many blessings from all of you! We’ll make the big announcement later this week!

Olivia enjoyed decorating trees and gingerbread houses over the weekend with her siblings! Since she spends so much time at home and loves the holidays she was more than “encouraging” us to get the house ready for Christmas!

This week she was supposed to have her 3rd cycle of the chemotherapy Nalarabine, but because of a shortage we are scheduled for next week. The doctors are not concerned with the extra week between treatments. I can only hope the reason for the shortage is that this chemo is doing wonders to cure cancer and everyone wants it! As we’ve mentioned before, Olivia has been able to handle the nalarabine better than any other chemo....no hair loss, no nausea, nothing we can visibly see it doing damage to her body! Her appointments are scheduled for next Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we hope for great traveling weather for the three trips to Indy!

Olivia is part of F.I.S.T. (Forever Improving Steuben county Together). This is a philanthropy group for students in the 3 Steuben county school. Olivia was chosen in 7th grade to represent her class throughout her middle school and high school career!


Olivia and FIST member Isabella, made an amazing S’More Pie that will be auctioned tomorrow from 6am-1pm! You can go to www.wlki.com beginning tomorrow morning to see all of the pies in the auction! LOOK FOR PIE #55! If you’d like to bid on it call 260-668-4488 between 6am-1pm! All money raised from the pie auction will go to Shop with a Cop in Steuben County!

Day +98. Today is the start of another round of chemo. Every morning of an appointment we drop Olivia off at the front door of the ROC (Riley outpatient center) because it’s less walking for her. Although she has her phone, most days I worry if she has the strength to get there. She insists on walking and no wheelchair! We park the car and meet her in the waiting area of the infusion center where we wait until called back. After weight, height, labs, and possible dressing change then we go to a room. Today we will wait approximately 60 minutes for the pharmacy to prepare her chemo then the infusion is 2 hours. While we wait Olivia has breakfast and takes her 10+ morning pills. After chemo we drive home 2-1/2 hours so we can have family normalcy until we do this again in 2 days! All of this with a smile on her face (99% of the time)! It is quite the journey but what we have learned from this experience is immeasurable!

Olivia is still impatiently waiting for Pet scan results from yesterday’s test! As soon as we know something we will pass it on to all of you!

We’ve already been to Riley Hospital for blood work and meeting with the doctor. Now we are checked in to IU Hospital for another PET scan. We should know preliminary results by the end of the day. Olivia is down another 2.5lbs this week after being down 3lbs last week. We will be pushing the fattening foods and drinks this week even more than before! Today when filling out the questionnaire we have more info to add than before....Prior radiation therapy.

I remember the days of yearly pediatric visits when I would fill out questionnaires and would be annoyed that I even had to do that because there was nothing new from the prior year....my kids are healthy! What I wouldn’t do to go back and fill out those questionnaires ONCE a year and have NOTHING to put on them!

Prayers today for a clear PET scan and continued strength and endurance for Olivia!

Olivia has not been able to really hang out with friends for about 2 months! One of the things she’s really started enjoying is making Dreamcatchers! So today that’s what Olivia and 4 of her friends spent the afternoon doing together!

Olivia surprised all of her friends and family by going home yesterday! She decided to call and text everyone when she was about an hour from home!