Everleigh is silly, spunky, goofy and shy. She loves dogs, cats, magical unicorns and mermaids. Her favorite colors are blue, pink, red and purple. She loves to paint, do crafts, sing and dance. Everleigh loves the outdoors and camping.
Everleigh was diagnosed on 6/20/17 with High Risk B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, but moved off clinical study on day 29 when she did not go into remission, bumping her diagnosis up to very high risk ALL. It was 3 months into treatment before she would achieve remission and continue 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy. She is such a fighter and determined to keep her spunky spirit up.
During the time leading up to her diagnosis, Everleigh complained of a hurt leg. We took her to an urgent care facility, concerned that she broke or strained it somehow. They did an X-ray but no bloodwork, explaining that they didn’t want to scare her. They said it was nothing and sent us home. We gave her Tylenol when hurting and went about our day. About 1 1/2 months later, she started looking pale and started acting tired and sickly. She suddenly woke up from a nap while on a camping trip screaming that her stomach hurt and begged to go to the doctor. This was unlike our child. We went to the nearest ER and they did bloodwork. The ER doctor asked what Children’s Hospital we would like to have our daughter transported to by ambulance as we needed to go immediately. His suspicion was that she had leukemia. And so the journey began.
Everleigh has been through so much that no child should have to go through. Our little princess has been missing out on what other little girls do. While other kids are playing with each other at school, she plays on the fifth floor with doctors and nurses. They have become her best friends. During initial treatment, we (her parents) missed a lot of work. We are now with only one paycheck and 5 children to care for, but our beautiful little girl is still with us. We also love more, don’t take each other for granted, really consider that the people around us have a story and we should slow down and listen more often. This isn’t the life we wanted to wake up to, but we are thankful that God opened our eyes to so many wonderful people.
Everleigh has a big heart and is a very determined child. We are so blessed to have this beautiful child in our lives.
Hope Session by Shelly Niehaus Photography | Facebook