We are really in need of prayers again this Christmas!

Hi everyone,

Taylor, our Taylor, is doing fabulous. She is fighting an ear infection, but other than that she is absolutely fabulous.

So why do we need prayers? A lady who we came across while Taylor was in the hospital and fighting for her life, helped Mindy, Landon and Taylor in so many ways. She offered us inspiration and hope. I think hope is one of the biggest things a person needs when fighting an uphill battle. We need to know, or at least think we can make it to the top. Often our hope comes from within, but often when we have been struggling for a long time we may get worn down...thats when we need others to give us back our hope.

I especially like to reflect on Mother Theresa's quote “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” We are often faced with many that need something, but where do we start? If you could please take a look at Tammy's blog: http://hairmassacure.blogspot.com/2011/12/praying-for-taylor.html

Please help us send out a huge prayer chain for Taylor #2. We need to send them our prayers, hopes and wishes....send them all the strength you can spare as this is a battle!

Love you all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012

Taylor's Auntie Leah

Taylor has had another CLEAR MRI!!

Hello,

Taylor had her 3 month scan last friday, November 25th. Of course as always the build up of nerves grew, we all don't really talk about it, to afraid what might happen if we should "jinx" her scan or whatever other crazy thing we feel could happen if too much is said....some of you may understand what I'm talking about, some may not, but needless to say its kind of weird and surreal...no scientific or true logic, just another way to cope. Mindy took her for her Chicken and fries afterwards of course...I wonder though if we may be teaching her a negative thing with "bad things" equalling "eat foods you like, but are not so good for you", but then I think we have worse things to worry about than obesity.LOL Sorry I am a slight tad twisted.

Yes Taylor is a "dippy" girl! It's so crazy getting over how time flies by and how quickly Taylor is growing up. She speaks, she goes on the potty, she can play by herself (not for long, she prefers to socialize.LOL), she eats on her own and grabs stuff from the fridge....She is pretty amazing. Taylor is quick to fit in with others and does not miss a beat. My daughter had her tenth birthday party at home this past saturday. There were 10 crazy little ten year old girls and Taylor was right in the thick of it all, she let all the girl's now in an extreme psyched OMG "we're doing a craft, we're doing a craft" Taylor wiggled into a chair with the girls at the table and began to do her craft (painting a picture frame).LOL Later amidst the gift opening Taylor told Aaryanna all the things she got her "JEANS!" LOL she was just so excited and so sweet you just want to scoop her up and squeeze.

So on Monday Landon began the "phone every 5-minutes" until they give us results routine...LOL They always have been excellent at the University of Alberta Hospital of letting Mindy and Landon know the results. A CLEAR scan was again Taylor's prognosis. Relief, tears and a huge smile on my face when I got the text. It seems so crazy that Taylor has been given this miracle, where the last few year things were so crazy, but I'm not complaining.

So I will add some more pics of Taylor so you can see how much she has grown. She has been doing fantastic. She is extremely bright (yes I know I'm her auntie, but very important and smart doctors have said the same thing.LOL). Taylor apparently after her appointments today at the hospital (for all her routine checks: hearing, speech, etc) was throwing up, so she may have a touch of a flu bug. She has been plagued by lots of colds and sinus infections of late, but then again she is in a day-care/preschool now, which may have added some new fun bacteria.

Can I ask for prayers...

Hello,

As some may know we follow many other kids that have the same cancer as Taylor. We follow them for hope, to follow their journey's, to give support.

We are in desperate need for prayers, hopes and wishes for a beautiful little boy named Sterling Bacon. Sterling has the same cancer as Taylor and has been battling this cancer monster for 3 years....the same amount of time as Taylor. His family has had shattering news, Sterlings tumour that returned has in the last month tripled in size. There is nothing left for the doctor's or medicine to do, this is now in God's hands. Please, please, please send prayers, hopes, wishes to Sterling and his family! All of you have managed miracles before with Taylor, but someone else needs a miracle...

I am going to leave you with my favourite quote, you may remember it, but it is fitting yet again;

"When you think hope is gone, that is when you need to look farther than your eyes can see."-Peter Kasule


In regards to Miss Taylor. We continue to be blessed with her good health. She is so full of life, ENERGY, happiness. She is staying at her Nana Roberta's and Grandpa Don's house with Mindy an Landon until they get possession of their new house. Taylor has been a tad confused in regards to their accommodations. She was at first repeatedly telling Mindy "Mommy, Daddy, Ruby, Taylor go home." Landon took her by their old house to say "Good-bye" as she never really got to do that as she was at Grandma Josie's while they moved everything. So hopefully time goes quickly and they will all be settled.

Taylor is such a funny duck in sooo many ways. She has a day home with a bunch of little boys, so she tries to be like them. She was leaving the day home on friday and was telling the boys "bye, got to go. I going to play ball, baseball, football." LOL of course she does not play these things, but must have figured that was the thing to brag about.

Taylor's birthday is on Saturday coming up, September 10th where she will be three! I will try and get some pictures up for everyone, maybe a video if I am really good.LOL I think I'm going to buy her some "boot boots" as she seems to love boots. She wears her rubber boots everywhere so I think she may need a style intervention.LOL

Thank you so much for following Taylor. She is an Angel.... although at times when she is lacking sleep I wonder about that...The pic below is when I was out with Taylor and my Mom shopping and we turned around in the car and saw Taylor had put her bathing suit on her head.LOL

Taylor's Auntie Leah

MRI is done

Well Taylor had another MRI under her belt. Luckily Dr. Pugh her neurosurgeon was there and checked her scans. He says they look good to him, which is a HUGE relief. Of course other Doctor's will still be reviewing her scans, but I know Mindy and Landon are relieved not to have had to wait. Mindy said she could not sleep last night and Landon was a wreck...so that probably would have continued if they had no feedback on the scan....so one thing I just can't help but put down here and maybe I'm moralizing, but forgive me, as I don't mean to offend. I hear so much in the news and people talking in general about the healthcare system and how bad the Doctor's are....I have personally had some most AMAZING doctors as well as all Taylor's doctor's. Dr. Pugh has always gone that extra mile for Taylor, so please if you hear anyone saying nasty stuff about these doctor's, nurses and other healthcare providers, remember there are sooo many more amazing ones than bad!

Wow sorry its been sooooo long!

Well hello everyone,

I am really sorry I have been so remiss about keeping up here. I am sure people would like to know what the heck is going on. It has been a hectic year for us...duh! But at the end of August last year we found out our father had Colon Cancer that had gone undiagnosed for a long time, which was now spread throughout his body. He was told he had a short time to live, but he battled through and passed away on June 21st of this year. It was a horrible thing to watch, but we are still trying to wrap our minds around this.

Mindy and Landon decided they had enough of beach living and put their house for sale and the have sold it, bought a new house in Edmonton. Taylor will have a nice new pink room. So they have been crazy busy as they had to do repairs to the house they were selling and now are trying to move all their belongings into storage containers as the possession date for their new home is 2 weeks plus after they have to be out of their house....ugh, its been pretty exhausting for them. So as Mindy jokes "we will be homeless for Taylor's birthday" LOL (September 10th).

Taylor has continued to be our miracle. I sit and ponder how crazy this has all been. It is so surreal to think
 of our lives and all that has happened over the last 3 years....OMG Taylor will be THREE!!! As many know or any who want to know you can go to the original blog posts to see our journey, just too hard for me to do that in this post, but after our last years horrible doomed MRI and diagnosis things have been "weird".

Why "weird"? Well prognosis for Taylor was dire to say the least, we faced such horror with the prospect of Taylor leaving us...quickly. Mindy and Landon had to face what that might look like...its too horrible to even continue, just want to try and put that past me as we always seem to reface the new upcoming MRI's (3 months is just so short, and comes too many times). Than we sent out our hearts to everyone, we pleaded for help, we shared our story, Taylor's story, and AMAZING things happened. My Mom says we must continue to believe it was a miracle, that we cannot deny what we have been given. Taylor after more tests were done, another MRI that followed that initial one came back clear.

Taylor was able to fulfill her wish list due to zoo many amazing people who lent Taylor, Mindy and Landon their support, love, prayers, wishes and hope. We have seen Taylor have continued clear MRI's but its these ones that near the beginning of the school year, the ones when she was first born that to me are the scariest, they seem to always wreak some havoc, show some sort of new growth in tumour. Taylor has her MRI tomorrow, August 22nd. We all are feeling dread as we always do, but for me its "the bad one", but I am going to accept the miracle and say its gotta be clear!

We have heard of some horrible losses  and complications from other cancer kids that have the same cancer as Taylor, we reach out our thoughts, prayers and hopes to them. If you are reading this please know we think of you all the time, you are never far from our thoughts.

So what is Taylor up to? Better questions is what does she not get up to...LOL Taylor is a tornado like none other. She seems so perfectly norma, so happy and strong you would never know by looking at her. Her scars generally do not show through her hair and the ones on her chest only show in bathing suits or sleeveless tops. Taylor seems to have no fear as she will jump at you at full speed, boundless energy, and a motor mouth! Taylor has become quite the little parrot, copying Landon apparently saying "HOLY CRAP"....the Thiessen's must watch for their potty mouths.LOL

Taylor has also been working on peeing on the potty, apparently she is probably fully potty trained! taylor is extremely proud of her peeing on the potty, she gets so happy when she talks about what a big girls she is, with "no accidents".LOL Yahoo. Taylor still enjoys bossing us all around, but I'm getting clever to this and trying to put my foot down! LOL The pictures I have added were from our trip to Kelowna this year. Weather was terrible and Taylor was on hyper-speed.LOL She tuckered us all out, my kids even were making suggestions that maybe we should consider taping her mouth shut so she would be quiet for awhile (horrible I know, but they weren't trying to be mean, they are just kids and Taylor is "normal" to them, and us). Taylor still busts a move whenever music plays, also she likes to sing along to the tunes.

Taylor is still smart as a whip, so you have to be careful what you say or do around her as she picks stuff up very quickly! She is so funny with her expressions of "hold on tight" "goodbye, see you later", etc. She can talk on the phone and tell you what she is up to and really can follow any of the questions you ask her and give you the right reply to the question. She recaps her day to you and all the people she has seen or what she may be about to do. Mindy says she has an uncanny knack of telling her who is calling when the phone rings, as well as knowing when its the day she goes to see Nana Roberta and Grandpa Don. Taylor still LOVES the water and taking baths....okay so I am blathering and will stop. I will try really hard to be better at updates, but we have been blessed with Taylor having a clear MRI now and seemingly good health, so I tend to forget to keep my updates (well and I have been crazy busy, but whatever, "excuses, excuses" as my husband always says to me.LOL)

Please don't forget to keep Taylor in your thoughts with prayers, wishes and hopes for another clear MRI! Love you all,
Leah (Taylor's Auntie)

ALL CLEAR

I am so sorry, I completely forgot to post on here that Taylor's MRI Results came back clear! The appointment on June 2nd went as smooth as we had hoped. The endocrinologist (hormone/growth doctor) that has been following Taylor said she is keeping up and is totally normal on that side of things. The only thing he suspects may be a side effect from the Radiation Therapy is that she won't be overly tall...which we already knew based on our family stature, that she didn't have a chance as a basket ball player to begin with! They said she won't be noticeably small, just a little shorter than she could have been.


The Radiation Oncologists are very happy that things are still clear, and that she is growing and living a normal life, the Neurosurgeon's (Dr. Pugh & team) were overjoyed to see how happy and full of life she is - and how perfect she really is considering all of the odds against her. She is such a miracle!


The Pediatric Oncologist (Dr. Wilson) almost cried when she seen how big she is getting and how much she is talking and just being completely unaffected by everything she has been through so far. Our nurse Clare and Dr. Wilson have been involved with Taylor since she was a newborn...so I could imagine only seeing her every three months now, how much things change.

There was no need to see the speech and language pathologist as she is talking up a storm and communicating very clearly. The neuropsychologist wasn't around, but once Taylor is 3 and we are considering playschool or those types of things, we will likely look at ensuring she has some assistance to make sure she doesn't start falling too far behind the pack. I can't imagine this girl that we have right now ever falling behind the pack since she is so intuitive and quick at figuring things out...but they are preparing us for what the statistics say will happen, so we won't worry about it for now...just keep it as a distant possibility :)


We are going to continue the MRIs every 3 months until we cross the two years post treatment - which will be in two or three more scans. So for now, we are just going to enjoy our summer and our fabulous little girl!


Thank you all again for your continued support and prayers as they are WORKING!!!!



Love,


Mindy, Landon & Taylor


xoxoxo





P.S. I will try to remember to post some new pictures soon!

Taylor's MRI/Results

Hi Everyone,

I just realized that we didn't post on here that Taylor's MRI was last Friday, May 27th. Everything went well from the test side of things, so now we are waiting for the results meeting, which is June 2nd.

We are expecting that everything is going fine, as she hasn't shown any side effects or changes to make us worry...but we never like to count our chickens before they hatch, as that is usually when we get a slap in the face with reality of this devastating disease.

So far, Taylor is up to all her usual tricks, being bossy and full of life and laughter. She certainly knows how to have fun, and you can't help but feel her energy when she is around.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We will keep you updated on the results!

Love,

Mindy, Landon & Taylor
xoxoxox

We are hanging in there

As many of you know, we have been fighting various cold and flu bugs for the past 4-6 weeks...and now Taylor has a bug again!

We are happy that Nana Roberta and Grandpa Don are back from their holidays to Florida, as Taylor sure missed them, and I sure missed having a backup for childcare.

Things have been busy, my brother Clayton and his wife and kids came to Edmonton to visit our dad who is also dealing with cancer, but he is at the end of his fight, so they came up for one last visit. It was great to see them, as we haven't seen them since last summer, and plan to spend two weeks holidaying in Kelowna with them again this summer. Too bad we were all sick - they ended up getting sick when they got back home!

Taylor has been chatting up a storm - she copies almost everything we say, and says many full sentences, and has no problem communicating what she wants, needs, likes, and clearly dislikes! She has been LOVING shopping (I think she gets this from her mommy and aunty) and loves playing with other kids. She is still going to the same day home, which has become our extended family, and she loves everyone there. She talks about her days when I pick her up, and she is always so excited to go home and see daddy and Ruby. It is quite a delight for her to be able to communicate with us, and have conversations. She is such a smart and clever girl, it is amazing that she hasn't suffered any difficulties in the learning department so far...lets hope it continues to go so well.

Taylor's next MRI is May 27, with the results meeting June 2. I am going on a girls trip to Vegas at the end of April, and Landon has been able to head to the mountains for two sled trips this year, so we have been very lucky to have things just be normal for the time being.

We have lots of work to do around the house this year, so it will be a busy spring/summer as it always is...lets hope we get to have some fun too.

Love you all, and we continue to receive many messages of hope and prayers for our little girl, so thank you for always keeping us in your thoughts!

Taylor snuggling on Ruby while playing on her leapfrog gameboy toy

Just hanging out watching some tv in her pajamas

Modeling her hat from our friend Crystal (Dixie Clips) that has a special gold cancer symbol on it in the bow - so cute!

Love,

Mindy, Landon & Taylor

XOXOXOXO

Taylor gets ear tubes today

So Taylor is going in to get ear tubes today due to her many ear infections. I am sure this well be an easy surgery and Taylor will be fine, just hate the poor thing constantly going under the knife.

I have not seen Taylor in a long,long time. Things have been stupid busy. I am going to make sure I see her this weekend, even if I need to peak at her through a window.LOL I am sure they will let me in the house.LOL Hopefully I can grab some pics of her to freshen up the ones on the blog!

MRI CLEAR!!!

Well hello,
I am being a very bad blogger. Taylor's latest MRI results were in on Friday, February 11, 2011. ALL CLEAR. Mindy said when she was off the phone just vibrating. She laughed and said she probably should have been vibrating before the news, but I think she has been trying to be really brave and not focus to much. I am so relieved with the news. We all seem to get really depressed, edgy, possibly crazy around MRI time so its nice to be sane again.LOL Funny thing is that our Mom who generally is always the more pessimistic this time was completely unfazed. She was like "it's a miracle, so I have to believe." Boy do I love my Mom!

I have not seen my darling girl and think I may be going into withdrawals. I MUST see her this weekend even if I have to just show up at their house and peek through windows.LOL My Mom had her for a sleep over yesterday and has filled me in on all her "latest". Taylor had a "Shut up" session where Taylor told Grandma to "Shut up" and then would say "I don't have to shut up", LMAO I think Mom was wondering what that was all about. Mindy told Mom that she has been doing this a bit lately, but that they tell her that she can't say that, to say "be quiet"....LOL I did the same with my kids, told them it was a "bad" word and they were not allowed to use it. I still think it would be funny to hear Taylor telling people to "be quiet". The nerve of her as she is usually the loud one! LOL She is obviously testing her boundaries.

Grandma was also super impressed with Taylor's potty training, she thinks Taylor is training herself. Yes Grandma, Taylor is BRILLIANT! LOL

On Friday, February 11 Landon, Mindy and myself got to experience a very short volunteer stint at the annual Valentines Day Hair Massacure. What an absolutely amazing event! Landon did decide on shaving his head so he is a bald eagle. I am so thankful we got to be a part of the event. It was so surreal and possibly a sign as I had many "Taylor" registrants (although some different spellings of the name).

MRI February 8th

So Taylor's next MRI is February 8th. Please send all your well wishes, prayers, and hope to us - we are starting to get wound up in preparation for this day - as we do every 3 months!

I just wanted to thank all of you for all of your support, I am constantly in awe of how many people care and support us. Just this week, I had three lovely surprises at work from some colleagues that most certainly made me want to cry, I can honestly say there are some fabulous people that work with me. For every one of you that thinks about us from time to time, and maybe just appreciates the smaller things in life, and doesn't take their children and friends/family for granted - I thank you for coming along with us on this journey.

And, for those of you who I haven't harassed yet, we are participating in the 2011 Hair Massacure at WEM on Friday February 11th, so if you would like to make a donation, please sign on to the hairmassacure.com website and if you pledge a participant, Landon and I are both listed along with the team name "A Wish for Taylor" - This cause is especially close to us, as it funds the pediatric oncology ward at the Stollery, the Make a Wish foundation, and the Ronald McDonald house...I would say almost every kid we have met in our two and a bit years has benefited from these charities...and I couldn't imagine life without them.

Thanks again, and we will keep you posted with regards to the MRI results!

Taylor Update Sunday January 30th, 2011

Well I have been racing around doing all of a number of things, so have not been the best blogger. Taylor is actually doing very amazing, although she has been battling colds, and ear infections, but those are fairly "normal" kid stuff.

After Taylor's trip to Disneyland she became hooked on Toy Story. She has all three shows and can watch them all day long...she wakes up demanding "woody", comes home "woody"...you get my drift. Taylor is also doing a fabulous job talking and can parrot really well. I joked that when I babysat her to my husband that maybe I could teach her some "choice" phrases she could stun Mindy and Landon with, but thought better of such a silly idea.

Taylor has another MRI February 8th with the results being gone over on the 17th. Please make sure to keep Taylor in your prayers, send her wishes and hopes, these are such amazingly hard days waiting to find out what happens next.

St. Valentine's Day Hair Massacure!

So Landon and I have decided to help raise funds and awareness for the St. Valentines Day Hair Massacure this year. We have both died our hair HOT PINK and are collecting online pledges and/or cash/cheque pledges in person. If you would like to learn more about the Hair Massacure or donate to the cause - please go to www.hairmassacure.com You can pledge a participant and look up our team " A Wish for Taylor" or search for Landon or Miranda Thiessen to see our pages.

It has been quite a while since the last post as there hasn't been much to report on the medical side of things. Taylor had a wonderful Christmas with Family and Friends, has been growing so fast. She is in love with Toy Story (1, 2 & 3) and asks to watch "Woody" first thing in the morning, all day, and all night if it isn't on already. She has been talking up a storm learning new words daily and picking things up so quickly that we really have to watch what we say around her, since she repeats almost everything.

Her next MRI is on February 8th, with our results meeting scheduled for February 17th...but as usual, hopefully we get some news before then, as it is too long to wait! She has been going in for her other checkups and tests regularly, and they continue to be amazed by how unaffected she seems to be by everything she has been through - a true blessing!

Things are finally starting to slow down a bit from all of the excitement of the trip and Christmas, and with all of the snow we have had and the colds and flu bugs that have been going around, it feels as if we haven't had a moment to catch our breath...so hopefully we will be able to actually start visiting some of you that haven't seen us in a while!

Hopefully we will get some time to post some updates on here soon...but just for those of you who wanted a sneak peak...now you know :)

Love,
Mindy, Landon & Taylor
XOXOXOXO