Ellie Grace Volk

July 24, 10am:  We are heading out to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life tonight.  We will be there from 7pm - 7am.  Please come out and visit us!  The event is at Haymarket Park and we will be at tent site #8 (on the 3rd base line).  We'd love to have join us!  Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to this cause in Ellie's name.  We are so very appreciative!

Thanks also to the prayers that went to Mexico on Mitchell's behalf.  Here is a photo of him when we picked him up.  He spent 10 days in Mexico on a mission trip and had an incredible time.  He loved it!  He learned how to speak several phrases in Spanish so he could communicate as his group passed out Bibles.  He learned, "Do you know Jesus loves you?",  "Do you have a Bible?",  "Can I give you one?"  He also gave a testimony - through a translator - of how his faith has grown because of Ellie's battle with cancer.  The entire trip really touched him.  I am prayerful that his group was able to do wonderful things for the Kingdom of God in Mexico!

I will post pictures from our event tonight.  Ellie then goes back on Monday for a full day of scans and tests.  It is her 3-month appointment.  She has been so energetic and healthy, that I cannot imagine they will find anything negative.  I will let you know how that day goes.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for Ellie.  We are very grateful.  We are excited to go back to the Relay for Life tonight with a healthy child.  Last year, she was bald and didn't have much energy.  It will be fun to celebrate tonight.  An especially poignant time of the evening is when the cancer survivors make a lap. They all wear purple shirts and walk as a group.  It is powerful!

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

July 12, 7pm:  We are gearing up for the Relay for Life again this year.  The Relay for Life is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.  At this event, our team takes turns walking all night.  The walk is illuminated with luminaries that each have the name of someone who has battled cancer on them.  It is a beautiful, poignant walk.  Here is a picture of Ellie from last year.  She is sitting on my dad's lap, who is also a cancer survivor.

We will have a tent at the event and we would love to have you come visit us.  The Relay will be held on Friday, July 24th, starting around 6pm.  We will be there all night!  It will be held at Haymarket Park and our tent will be at site #8, which is on the north side of the park.  We have also set up a website in case you would like to donate to the fundraiser.  You can visit the site at: main.acsevents.org/goto/elliegrace.  Our team goal is to raise $1000 this year.  

We thank you in advance for any prayers or donations for this cause.  And we'd love to have you come visit us!

On a different note, if you happen to have any extra prayers this week, can you send them south of the border for me?  Mitchell is on a 10-day mission trip to Mexico.  I know it will be a life-changing event for him, but I also can't help worrying a little bit too.  He was thrilled to go and was learning how to say "Do you know Jesus loves you?" in Spanish so he can say that to the kids there.  Tom and I are excited for him to have this experience.  We are prayerful that God can use this group of kids to further His kingdom and then that He brings them home safely. 

Thank you for your support and prayers on our behalf, always.  You are such a blessing in our life!

I'll leave you with an excerpt from our Pastor, who is with the kids in Mexico and is keeping a blog for us.  Of their devotional time today, he said, "This morning we read from Job and talked about faith that is not tied to circumstances but rather it is founded on the character of God."  I thought that was so profound because our faith truly cannot be tied to circumstances, which change all the time, but only in God's character because that never changes.

July 5, 4pm: Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for our "Freedom from Chemo" party!  We had over 150 people join us!!  We were overwhelmed with having such supportive friends and family.  We are truly blessed!  Thank you to all of you who have supported us through each step of this journey.  We know we can never thank you enough, but we hope the party was a small way to show our gratitude.  It was an amazing night and we loved spending time with you!

I have created a website with a few photos from the party and the weekend.  There were too many to post here!  You can visit it at: Freedom from Chemo. 

Once again Tom and I were reminded of the incredible blessings that have come from our family's cancer walk.  If we hadn't have gone through that tunnel, we wouldn't have been able to build such strong relationships and friendships.  We feel very blessed and we thank God for each of you!

We are so thankful that God never left us... and you didn't either! 

"I will never leave you or forsake you."  Hebrews 13:5

July 1st, 9am:  We went to the Children's Hospital in Omaha yesterday for a check-up for Ellie.  It was her 6-month check-up since her surgery in January.  During that surgery, they removed part of her small intestine.  Yesterday we talked about the 4 vitamins that are absorbed in that part of her small intestine.  Her surgeon felt that enough of her small intestine was left to still absorb those vitamins.  Beyond a multi-vitamin, she shouldn't need to do any additional vitamin supplements or worry about not receiving the vitamins her body needs.  So that was good news!

Her surgeon was very pleased with how Ellie looked.  He said he couldn't have asked for better recovery.  He felt like her re-attached intestine was working great and he thought it all looked good. 

We go back in a few weeks for rounds of scans and tests to make sure cancer is still at bay. 

So for now, we celebrate!  Thank you to everyone who has responded to our RSVP for the party for Ellie and for YOU!  We will be having our "Freecom from Chemo" party on Friday night, July 3rd, from 5-10pm.  Please email me at: dvolk@neb.rr.com if you want to join us and I'll email you back directions and details.  It will be our chance to thank all of our supporters in some small way.  We are really looking forward to showing our appreciation and gratitude.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Ellie's last chemo treatment.  We are so extremely thankful that Ellie has come so far.  What a joy to celebrate the passing of that anniversary.  We praise God for all He has done in her life.  What a blessing! 

Thank you also to all of you.  We have been so blessed by all of you for the prayers and support we have received.  We are overwhelmed with gratitude.

I will post pictures after our party Friday night.  I am looking forward to spending time with all of you.  

We thank God for strengthening Ellie.  We pray that He continues to do so.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Philippians 4:13

June 24, 8am:  Ellie continues to do great.  She has tons of energy and is growing like crazy.  She is having a fun summer.  We were in chemo at this time last year, so it is fun to have such a different summer this year!

Speaking of chemo, July 2nd will be the anniversary of Ellie's last chemo treatment!  To celebrate, we are going to have a party.  We would like to invite anyone reading this to join us!

We are going to celebrate on July 3rd from 5pm - 10pm.  Please join us anytime you can stop by.  If you can make it, please e-mail me at: dvolk@neb.rr.com and I will get directions and details to you. 

We are very excited to thank everyone who has been so wonderful in supporting us through this ordeal.  This party will be one, small way that we can show our appreciation.

Thanks so much for being such an incredible support system for us.  We have been very blessed through this journey.  Amazingly so!  We thank God for you.  We also thank Him for never leaving Ellie and allowing her to heal and recover.  God is so good!!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forver."  1 Chronicles 16:34

June 8, 11am:  I know it has been two weeks since I updated.  Please forgive me!  We are in full-throttle summer mode and time slips away.  For example, this last weekend, Mitchell had 4 baseball games (congrats to Lincoln Lutheran for winning the tourney!) and Lexie had a track meet (congrats on winning triple-jump, Lex!).  It's just a crazy time.  And, for Ellie, that means attending a lot of events.  She is so good and never complains about going to everyone else's things, but we felt it was time for her to have "own thing".  So she started dance class.  She is very excited and it seems as though that once-a-week class can not arrive soon enough for her.  To watch 3 and 4-year-olds learn jazz, tap and ballet is quite a thing to behold.  Most of them aren't even facing the right direction.  And then they get distracted by their own reflection in the mirror and need to spend a few minutes making faces at themselves.  It's hilarious to watch.  But Ellie loves it!  And she is so excited to have her own thing.

For the last two weeks, we have been focusing on trying to give back.  We would love to have Ellie's cancer be used for good, somehow.  Ellie was chosen to be the Ambassador Child for the Optimist Childhood Cancer Campaign.  We are hoping that her face can help the Optimists raise money to help other families who are facing this horrible disease.  Ellie was in a newspaper article last week and in a clip on the news.  The picture above is of her being filmed for that.

She also attended "Bash at the Beach" which was a sand volleyball tournament that helped raise money for childhood cancer.  Ellie went to just say thanks to everyone who participated and volunteered.  Here is a picture with Ellie (in the hat, being held by Tom) and some of the players.  Ellie had a great day and was covered in sand when it was over!

As far as her health, Ellie is doing really good.  She is very strong and full of energy.  She seems to catch colds easily and not be able to fight off the little things, but otherwise, she is doing great!  She is eating like crazy and seems to really be growing. 

She will be heading back for checkups soon.  She will have her 3-month full body check and scans in the next few weeks.  She will also have her 6-month checkup after her January surgery.  I will let you know when we go in for those appointments.

A few other things on the July radar: July 2nd will be our 1-year anniversary of being done with chemo.  I can't believe it has almost been a year!  We are so excited to mark this milestone.  In fact, we are tentatively planning a big party on July 3rd.  We would like everyone reading this to join us!  Mark your calendars and I'll keep you updated on details.  Also in July, we will be participating in the Relay for Life again.  This event raises money for the American Cancer Society.  We will have a webpage up soon about that.  Last year, Ellie was completely bald at the Relay for Life event and tuckered out easily.  This year, it will be fun to have her attend again with much more energy!

Our hope is that something good can come from Ellie's journey through cancer.  We are very prayful that Ellie will have no more bouts with cancer and that we can move forward and try to help other families dealing with this issue.  It's such a horrible thing to go through and we want to try and help in anyway we can. 

Even though I have been so bad about updating the site, I thank you for your continued prayers and support.  I know those don't stop!  You have been so faithful about praying for Ellie and all kids with cancer.  Thank you!  I know we would not be planning a party to celebrate Ellie being done with treatments if it wasn't for the incredible support we have received.  I truly believe in the power of prayer.  We are grateful to you for uplifting us.  We are thankful to God for allowing Ellie to stay with us.  We hope He can now use her to help others in some small way.

He has been so incredibly faithful to us.  We are grateful.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love.  Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you." Jeremiah 31:3

May 22, 10am: Just a quick update.  I wanted to answer a question we received on the comments section today about RJ.  He was a 4-year-old little boy I told you about who was battling cancer.  RJ did go to heaven.  If you want to read his story, you can visit: www.caringbridge.org/visit/rj2.  RJ was a very brave little boy.  Because his cancer made his legs so sore, he told his dad that when he got to heaven, "I want God to rub my wegs."  I am sure RJ's leg pain is gone and he is running all over heaven!  Thank you to all of you for your prayers for him and his family.

May 21, 1pm: Today was Ellie's last day of preschool.  When we got home, she wanted to show me a scrapbook that her teacher had made for her about the school year.  It was very cute, but it did stop me in my tracks.  The first page featured a picture of Ellie from the beginning of the school year.   I had almost forgotten that she ever looked like this.  When you are always looking forward and moving ahead, you almost forget where you came from.  I am so focused on the healthy child in front of me, that I don't even think of her ever looking like this. 

What a difference a school year can make!  Below is Ellie today.  As I burst into tears looking at the scrapbook, Ellie asked, "Don't you like it?"  Of course, I loved it.  I was just so overwhelmed to think of where we are today.  Ellie has come so far.  I learned of a new child diagnosed with cancer recently (pray for Jacob!) and while reading his story of having the port put in and the needles, chemo... I almost can't believe we went through that same thing.  As you are going through that journey, you simply focus on the next hour, the next day and put one foot in front of the other.  You do what you have to do to get your child through this horrible situation.  But then, something like today happens.  Something that makes you stop in your tracks and realize how far you have come.  It makes you think that you may have actually made it through the tunnel and are coming out the other side.  

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.  We know we would not have made it to today without you.  We are very blessed.  And, of course, we praise God.  He has been so good to us.  I'm sure most moms didn't go home from preschool today and burst into tears, but I know just how extremely blessed I am to be picking up that little girl from preschool.  And I know that I am going to cherish each and every day that God allows her to stay with us.  We thank Him for the miracle of simply surviving. 

"God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance."  2 Corinthians 9:8

May 13, 8pm:   Please forgive me for not updating for almost 2 weeks!  With two        teenagers and a four-year-old, sometimes time gets away from me.  And I guess that's a good thing.  Life is returning to normal and we aren't constantly thinking about illness and doctor's appointments.

Ellie is doing amazingly well.  She is growing like crazy!  I swear she looks bigger every day.  Her hair seems to grow more each day and she is getting stronger and stronger. 

Here is a picture of Ellie right before her school program on Friday.  She is wearing the t-shirt the entire school wore.  It says, "Plug into the Power of God."  Love that!  She had practiced and practiced the song her class was singing in the concert.  She sang it everyday in the car and around the house.  But when her class got on stage, she just stared at the girl next to her.  Everyone around her did all of the actions and sang, but Ellie - who usually sings her way through most days - just stood there.  After the concert, on the car ride home, she sang the song at the top of her lungs!  You just gotta love four-year-olds!

I am also including a photo of Ellie with Lexie and our niece, Katie.  We attended Katie's high school graduation this weekend.  Congrats Katie!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support.  We are extremely blessed by you.  I felt incredibly blessed as we celebrated Mother's Day.  To have three healthy children is something I will never take for granted.  I thank God every day for healing Ellie and allowing her to stay with us.  We praise Him every day we get with each of our children.  It was truly the best Mother's Day gift I received: to simply be a mom of three healthy, "normal" kids.

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your good and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."  Jeremiah 29:11

May 1, 10am:  Yesterday was a very long day of tests at the hospital for Ellie, but the news was all good!  We started with scans and x-rays in the morning.  The hardest part for Ellie was that she couldn't have anything to eat beforehand.  She was very hungry through all of the tests.  We were then given time to go have lunch.  After lunch, we met with Ellie's chemo doctor and she read all of the tests from the morning and gave Ellie a check-up. 

She felt that Ellie looked great.  The tests showed no signs of cancer or anything negative.  Ellie's remaining kidney is working well and has grown to a larger size to handle the job that two kidneys used to do.  They also took a very close look at Ellie's intestine which was operated on in January.  Everything there looked good too.  It was all good news!

Ellie also has grown.  Finally!  She is now 31 pounds.  That was a milestone for us because Ellie has never been over 30 pounds.  She was almost there when she was originally diagnosed with cancer and then through surgery, radiation and chemo, she lost about 8 pounds.  She was working her way back up to 30 lbs when she had her surgery in January.  That took her back down in weight.   So she is now - finally - over 30 pounds!  We were excited about that.

Although she was hungry, Ellie handled all of the tests very well.  She let the doctors and nurses do whatever they needed to do without complaint.  Once again, she amazed me with her courage and strength.  I can't believe what that 4-year-old can handle. 

Here are a few photos from the day:

Scans...

scans....

and more scans....

X-rays...

Getting a break to play...

Trying to catch bubbles that the doctor was blowing for her...

We are so extremely excited about Ellie's results.  I was on the verge of tears most of the day because I was fearful that they would find something bad.  Each test made me nervous.  But God is so very, very good!  He allowed Ellie to be free of illness.  We feel so blessed.  We are thankful and grateful beyond belief.  We are praising the Lord!!

And thank you for all of your prayers.  We felt enveloped in prayer and support all day.  Thank you!!  We have truly been blessed with our prayer warriors.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34