Love For Livi

This isn't a fun post to write.

It's one of those that you read about other people and feel sorry for them and then move on to the next post.  One where, after you read it, you silently thank God that it isn't your family. 

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know, but there's only so much you can put in a short blurb of a status update and my heart is too heavy to keep carrying all the words inside of me.  I need to process and the only way I can do that is to write.  So tonight I'm writing without an agenda, even though I don't want to. 

You all have been my warriors.

Carried me through some of my darkest days.  When fear gripped me tight and the waters covered my head, there were always emails, comments, phone calls to lift me higher.  And tonight I'm asking you to reach down to lift up my very best friend.

Most of you know Amber. 

Heck, some of you might assume she's my Sister Wife.  Here lately she's around the old blog a whole lot more than my husband is.  We've been friends for 5 years now, since right before her first baby, Olivia, was born. 

Neither of us really cared for the other when we first met.  Then we realized we were the same kind of sarcastic, the same kind of edgy.  And when her husband got Andrew a job at Waffle House, she initiated me into the Waffle Wives Club and we became friends. 

We bonded over crazy work schedules and our shared love of cheap wine and good books.  I cried with her as she longed for her second baby and she gave me late night bathroom pep talks when my second baby had open heart surgery and I was certain I'd reached the end of my limits. 

In the last couple of year, Olivia and Josie have become mini best friends and somewhere in there we switched from good friends to family.

Amber and I have helped raise each other's kids in all the important ways.

Stepping in to provide breaks and doling out love and laughing when the situation warrants tears.

So when Livi got sick a few days ago, I worried about her just like I would if it were Josie or Gabe throwing up.

And when she called to tell me she had to take her to the hospital and, no, she couldn't wait an hour for me to get home to keep Amelia, that worry intensified.

But we still thought it was just a bug.  Surely she was dehydrated.  Maybe needed an IV and some drugs to give her a boost.

What we didn't expect was that a few hours later, the doctors would drop a diagnosis that would rock her world, all of our worlds, forever.

Olivia has Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, otherwise known as ALL.

This child.  This gorgeous, spunky, won't take no crap from anyone, child.  The one that was playing dress up at my house, staring at herself in the mirror for hours, just 24 hours before, has Leukemia.

What?

I still can't figure it out and I suppose I never will.

This isn't my story to tell.  But I needed to share with you, because it's one of those moments where everything looks different.  A moment that has split time into before and after.  My heart is scared and sad and broken and I wanted you all to know why.

I hate the road they are about to walk down.  It won't be easy.

I don't know what the day to day will look like or what the plan is or how she will feel.  But what I do know is that Livi has an iron will and it's about to come in handy.  I have no doubt that Livi will be ruling the entire Cancer unit in no time flat.  I've seen God first hand as he healed Gabe in a timeline we were told wasn't possible and I'm praying the same thing for Livi.

 

She is currently in ICU fighting a virus and could use your prayers.  

We are organizing a shirt sale as well as a few other fundraisers to help David and Amber not have to worry about anything extra while they adjust to this insane turn of events.  If you'd like to follow along and offer them words of encouragement, you can follow the Facebook page "Love For Livi."

Amber is taking a break from all social media to care for Livi, but when she's ready she may blog again at Moments With Mabrey.  I know that you guys are the very best encouragers and I'm asking that you rally around her as you've done so many times for me.