an update on Sydney

I know I haven't kept you all updated about our niece here on my blog.  Sometimes there is just TOO much social media, that you don't know which ones to update and it's just too hard sometimes to get to them all.  So most of my updates to the masses have been on Facebook.  But in case we're not connected on Facebook, I still want to update you on our niece, because I know there are many of you out there who have been praying.  And I thank you for that.  Thank you for your encouraging emails and your prayers. 

I guess I left off here on the blog with the search for a donor that would give Sydney the best chance as a cancer-free life, with a bone marrow transplant. 

A donor was found.  2 actually.  That is unheard of people.  God's in control.

And they were both perfect matches.

One donor was chosen and she agreed.  All we know about her is that she is a 25 year old female somewhere in Europe.  Her "YES" meant our sweet niece has a second chance at life.  It means she may actually be able to beat this cancer!  We are so grateful for this stranger, and I thank ALL of you who got on the bone marrow registry so that you could possibly be a match for someone else just like Sydney.  I hope and pray if you, if I, am ever called to be the hero for a stranger...that the answer will be "YES". 

So Sydney's last big round of chemo was in December (except for the chemo she got as part of the pre-transplant plan).  We hope and pray this is the last chemo she will ever have to have put in her body.  She's had so much.

She celebrated Christmas at home with her family.  The rest of Dave's family got to be there too.  But we were stuck at home with sickness, which was so hard!

She entered the hospital about 10 days ago to begin the prep for the transplant.  She decorated her hospital room, named it "Sydney's Oasis" and struggled through a few hard days of chemo.

The donor went through the extraction procedure in Europe this week, on Tuesday, while Sydney had a day of rest.  The stem cells were flown to the Detroit Childen's hospital in the hands of a person.  It even got it's own airplane seat right next to the courier (as told by Sydney's mom), and didn't even have to go through the x-ray part of security!  Sydney's chance at life arrived in a pink cooler on Wednesday morning.

The transplant took place yesterday, and took about an hour and a half to finish.  The process is just like a blood transfusion, Sydney was awake and the stem cells go from the bag into the tube and into her port.  She was watched very closely for allergic reactions, as hundreds, if not thousands prayed for no allergic reactions.  And there were none.  The transplant was a success, and Sydney moved out of ICU back to her "oasis" this morning.

The next days and weeks are crucial.  She's having major stomach pains and some mouth sores have started.  Please continue to pray that she'll be comfortable, that she'll stay safe from infection since she has no immune system to fight anything, and that ultimately the stem cells will do their job in her body.

It's been a long journey, and it's not over yet.  Sydney has spent nearly a third of her 9 years of life battling this ugly cancer monster. That just breaks my heart into a million different pieces. It's my plea to the Lord that she get to be a kid again doing what normal kids do...and not living a life of needles, ports, chemo and fear.

I will try to update as we hear more about how she's doing post-transplant.  But you can also follow her CaringBridge journal.  They have been posting daily for the time being.

I prayed this verse all day long yesterday during her transplant and I'm going to stick with it for awhile. 

 "The Lord your God is in your midst, he is mighty to save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

(Zephaniah 3:17) 

To me, it's the perfect picture of a Father, standing over a hospital bed, providing every last need for his little girl.  A Father who has already conquered death, so what is left for us to worry about.  A Father who created the universe with just a few words.  And a Father who cares enough about her in a very deep, intimate and personal way, that he's willing to stand over that bed and focus on her, as if she's the only person in the universe.  A Father who is perfect, with a love that is perfect, who has good and perfect plan for his precious girl.

 

the craft house & a wood sign tutorial

December started off with one of my favorite weekends of the year!

15 of us rent Megan's Craft House for the weekend and just get away (even if I was 2 minutes from my house, it's still an awesome get away).  

Dave had been sick for Thanksgiving and got better JUST in time that I could leave him with the kiddos for the weekend.  It was a much needed break after our first month of being sick. 

It's such a fun house.  But more than anything it's an escape from mama and wife duties to just get some personal things done, enjoy time with friends, sleep in, stay in our pajamas all weekend and just relax and be creative.

 

I got more projects done this year than any other.  Mostly because I stayed off my computer and away from some of the time-sucking projects I've done in the past. 

My first goal was to get a piece of barn door that we took from the original family homestead, Dave's great grandparents' farm, turned into a keepsake.  I debated and debated doing something that would be up all year long, or just Christmasy, and I went with Christmas, because that's where all my inspiration was coming from at the time.

I've had so many people asking me how I did it, and I am NO expert, I was nervous and scared to mess it up.  I kind of went in without an exact plan so it was nice to have lots of girls talk through my plan with me. 

So here goes (sorry I had no plans of posting a tutorial until so many people have asked for instructions, so I probably don't have very good pictures to go along with the directions):

1.  I printed my words at home.  I just used Microsoft Word, but for another sign I just did I used Photoshop Elements because it allowed me to stretch my words to the size how I wanted them.  In Microsoft Word I just kept changing the font and looking at the measurements until I felt like it was the size I wanted.

I printed several test copies and laid them on the board until I knew they were the right size. 

I tried to mix fonts without over-mixing.  But I'm not a font expert that's for sure.  That was actually maybe one of the hardest parts of the entire project.

2.  There may be an easier way to do all of this but I knew that I didn't want to try free-handing any part of this, so I knew I needed to come up with a stencil of some sort. I ended up taping the papers from my computer to contact paper (making sure that the words would be the right direction when the contact paper was sticky side down). Make sure you double check this so that when you peel the contact paper apart and lay the sticky side down on your wood, the words will go the right way.

3.  I taped my words to the contact paper in order to keep them from slipping as I cut them out. 

I used an exacto knife to cut out all the words.  So i was cutting through both the paper from my computer and the contact paper at the same time.  It was time consuming and my hand cramped up by the end.  And swirly letters weren't so fun, but it was worth it.  I guess if there is a way to put your contact paper through the printer that would be the easiest.  Make sure to keep all your centers of letters, like the o's, e's, etc.

4.  One word at a time, I stuck the contact paper down on my wood and pressed it down as hard as I could.  It doesn't have the best stick, but it was enough to hold my word in place so I could paint the insides.

5.  On the edges, swipe the foam brush across the edge of the letter going in towards the letter and not away from it.  This just helps the contact paper seal down instead of my brush peeling it up.  If I was worried about bleeding under the contact paper or messing the contact paper up in spots, I just used a dabbing motion instead of brushing my foam brush across.

6.  I peeled up each word while the paint was still wet, in hopes to not peel up paint once it dried.  This worked fine. 

7.  I didn't have anything I wanted to touch up, but if you do, you could wait till it's dry and then use a tiny brush to touch up edges wherever needed.

I realized when I was done that my words all looked a little too far to the right.  I wanted them towards the right, but didn't really plan for all the blank space in that left bottom corner.  But it ended up working perfectly when the star I already had planned to use beside the sign.

 If you plan to use the sign outside like these other signs I did a few weeks later as gifts, then you need to cover them with a clear top coat/protector of some sort.

I got the sign done in a few hours and then moved on to my other projects.  

I've had throw pillows for our couch for a long time just sitting in our basement because I didn't really like them anymore.  So I made new covers for them using this tutorial.

Yay for new pillows!!

I covered cardboard JOY letters from Hobby Lobby with an old sweater (it was harder than I thought because I used a super sheer sweater that kind of shed and fell apart as I cut it up, and I burned my fingers like crazy with the hot glue).  But up on our shelf they look great!

I used my scraps from the pillow covers to cover HOME letters also, so when I take the JOY letters down and pack them up with Christmas decorations, I'll have something else to put up.

And at the last minute, because those pillow covers were so easy, I made Christmas covers for the pillows too.

Man, it feels so good to get some things done that have been on my list for so long.  And before you talk about how crafty I am, please please know that none of these ideas are unique really.  In the world of Pinterest and online tutorials, I am thankful to get to COPY.  They are things that pretty much anyone can do. While I'm not great at coming up with creative ideas of my own, I can totally use others and duplicate.  And I think that's a huge purpose of the social media community we have...to share ideas.  So copy away!  It definitely makes getting to sew and create things a little more enjoyable to me, and I can get so much more done without figuring it all out on my own...especially when I pretty much do this kind of stuff one weekend a year.

Craft Weekend 2014 is already booked!!