A Magical Weekend

The days and months that followed Amaya's brain tumor diagnosis were heart wrenching.   We knew what she was facing but, it just seemed that every time we started to feel OK about her treatment we received more bad news.   It was inoperable.   It was not responding to chemo.  It grew at an astonishing rate.   It was a time when we were always holding our breath and onto each other.

On very short notice Amaya and her family packed up their lives and moved to Denver for the summer.   Over a course of 6 weeks, she received radiation treatments everyday to shrink her growing brain tumor.   After her treatments, she returned home and went back to her normal life.   She started school and hasn't missed a beat.   Then, it was just a waiting game.  We had to wait several months before Amaya would return to Denver to see the results of the radiation.  During this time, we would all search her eyes for any signs of what was to come.    We analyzed her every behavior and and never stopped thinking about that tumor and what it was doing inside her head.

The day came.   It was time to take a look at "Boogernotlicous".    I held my breath all that day.   I sat and stared at my cell phone, knowing she was in the MRI machine.   I played our favorite song by the Imagination Dragons and sang it at the top of my lungs and tears streamed down my face.  Waiting.  Just waiting.

I just knew we had to be in Denver with her after she met with her Dr.'s and we got the results of the radiation.  We had to be there by her side no matter what.  We all needed to be together.   I loaded all the kids in the car and we drove to the airport still waiting to hear the news.   I remember sitting on the floor in the airport playing with the kids when the phone call came in from Megan.

I was afraid to answer but, I picked up the phone.    I heard Megan say, "it's shrinking, the tumor is shrinking".  I took a deep breath.   Waves of relief washed over me as a big smile came over my face.   I jumped up and down and screamed.   Yep, everyone around us looked but, I didn't care.   I did my crazy Aunt Kris dance for Amaya and took a picture of it.   It was an amazing moment.

Here are the pictures taken of Amaya's tumore.  The middle picture was taken the day we found out about the tumor.   The first picture is what it looked like after 1 month of chemotherapy treatments and the last picture was after radiation.  What a reason to be thankful!

We landed in Denver, ready to celebrate!  And, we did.   We rented a house in Nederland, Colorado and spent the whole weekend together just knowing that tumor had shrunk and being so thankful.

This place we stayed was spectacular.   It was magical.  In fact, I don't even think I can explain in words how beautiful this place was or how special it was to be all together during this time.   My pictures will have to speak those words for me.