Give Us Hope

Getting admitted instead of receiving outpatient chemo as planned was a pretty big let-down yesterday. Then there was the GFR "discussion." Today HAD to be better, right?

Fortunately, it was. A long day, but turned out to be a good one. I'm hoping one that starts a string of better and better days. Sure, there will be down days, but we could use some upward momentum.

Today is Harper's birthday. This special little girls has been with us for 8 years as of today. It has gone by SO FAST.

We'd been asking Harper for days what she wanted for her birthday. She's received so may gifts since her diagnosis, honestly there was little left to get her. She kept shrugging her shoulders. She didn't have any idea.

The morning started, and we asked her again. More shrugs. But we had something up our sleeves. Her trainer had called the day before, and something had come up that would turn out to make for one hell of a birthday for Harper.

Now, we didn't really know, when the day began, when/if we would get to go home. Her rash was improving. Her thrush was clearing. But, it was hard to say what the doctors would want to do.

Early on, we let them know it was her birthday. I think, in the end, that helped them make their decision. They contemplated just starting us on the second round of chemo (4 days long) inpatient and keeping us over the weekend. But when the doctor came in to see us around 9:30, he suggested we go home, enjoy her birthday, and then come back and start the chemo outpatient at the clinic on Monday. We agreed, and we began to plan to head home.

Before we could go, the majority of the staff that has cared for Harper at Kosairs showed up in the room. They had the music therapist there with his guitar, some gifts and a cake. They sang Happy Birthday to Harper, watched her open her gifts, and enjoyed some of the few precious smiles Harper has blessed us with in the past month. They were so sweet.

We made it home, and Harper was suddenly upset. We had to dig, but she finally let it out that she had expected a surprise birthday party when she arrived home... Ugh. I hadn't even thought about it. We didn't know when we would be home - hadn't even really tried to do anything like that. Whoops.

We promised, her, though, that there would be something better.

As the afternoon progressed, we got word that our "surprise" was shaping up nicely. We needed to be there about 8.

I made an errand run, to pick up a few last minute ancillary items, and after dinner, we packed everyone in the car for a ride.

Now, if we'd taken the normal route, we would have given away the surprise. Or, at least they would have figured out where we were going, if not the surprise itself.

So, we took an alternate route. Took longer, but the girls didn't realize we were going to their riding lesson barn until the last minute.

We walked in. The girls were forced to turn around, and then, at the right moment, given permission to look.

This is what they saw:





Everyone, please meet Princess Hope. She is a 1 year old pony, and she now belongs to Harper.

Harper started to cry once she saw Hope, but quickly got that under control and wanted to love on her.





Princess Hope did excellently, and makes me think she's going to be an awesome pony. She is so young, but she was still and calm, even with 3 excited little girls walking around her, touching her and even (Finley) walking under her.





They had at first just called her "Hope" but told Harper she could call her anything she wanted. She wanted to make it Princess Hope. So, Princess Hope it is.





All 3 girls were so excited. Unfortunately, it will be a little while before they can ride her. She's so young, and she hasn't been trained. But, Carly will be working on that, and I have feeling it won't be too long.

They fed her some treats (one of the things I picked up on my errand), brushed her, and changed out her lead rope to a pink one (another item from my errand).





Then Harper got tired, and headed for the car.

A BIG thank you to Carly and Sandy Dolan for making this happen. They found the person who literally gave us the pony, and will be keeping, caring for and training the pony while Harper builds her strength to get back riding.

As I've said multiple times, our biggest concern has really been Harper's own drive and fight. She's feisty, and always has been, but she's lost some of her spunk as this journey has started.

We're praying THIS will spark a flame and ignite her fire. Horses are her love. They are her passion. Now she has her very own.

(Princess) Give Us Hope.