Grace's last step.....removing her portacatheter

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Dear Grace,

Today you looked fear in the face-in the form of surgery. You had your portacatheter removed from your heart, finally closing the book on your encounter with Cancer. Today you are sore, but soon you will be healed. Soon all the hurting will be a thing of the past. Cancer did not stop you. Fear did not stop you. You looked fear in the face and sent it on its way. Today, you brought our family to our knees in humility. Thank you, Grace. Thank you for fighting your way through the pain, suffering, and fear. Thank you for trusting your mom and dad through the fight. Tonight, with humble and happy hearts-we are taking our "Team Grace" bracelets off. The fight is over and you won!

Love,
MOM

Grace,
You pulled your head off your pillow early this morning knowing you had to have your port removed from your chest, knowing you would be in pain, and knowing it would be scary. Yet, you got up smiling like always and trusted your parents to guide you through another piece of your heroic journey. As you sat there on the gurney with you hospital gown on and your hair in a side-pony, I was speechless witnessing your courage. The familiar is comfortable to everyone and you have made even going to the doctor and having spinal taps seem familiar, but today you were in a new hospital with new nurses, and new surroundings and you handled it......well what better term than GRACEFULLY! Grace, I hope someday you will read this and feel the pride, and amazement that your parents feel about you and your strength. This strength will serve you all of your life and will give you opportunities and chances that many of us would not even know. I know your Heavenly Father does not give trials bigger than what we can handle and he gave you an enormous one, which you handled astonishingly well. That is not to say you did not have your bouts of fear and emotion, but in the end, tonight, after your last big battle, you came out smiling, healthy, happy, and glowing with life. I cannot think of anything more to say than WOW! Thank you Grace for touching so many with your strength. Now be a kid and enjoy the simple things you have had to grow up enough for a while.

Love
DAD

"DRIBBLE DRIBBLE SHOOT......HOOP.....DRIBBLE DRIBBLE SHOOT."

Ever since Ben has been very young he has loved any type of spherical object, whether it is the lights in the chapel at church, the moon, oranges, or typical soccer and basketballs. Since Tanner's basketball season just ended, Ben observed a lot of basketball games, which we think is the reason he is completely obsessed with basketballs, dribbling, basketball courts, and hoops. An extreme example happened tonight. Ben has figured out that ward buildings have basketball courts, in fact he has memorized all the outdoor basketball courts in our neighborhood and yells "hoop, hoop!" as we near them. Tonight the stake primary kids had a singing concert and as soon as Ben got in the building her starting yelling "hoop!", after trying to distract him with everything Kim and I could think of, we found our way to the empty gym. For the next 30 minutes Ben pretended to dribble and then shoot at the hoop. He asked "up more" which means hold me and let me dunk it, like he does on our home hoop which is only 8ft tall. I lifted him up trying to get him as close to the 10ft hoop without success and he continued pushing off of me saying "up more!" He was so frustrated that he couldn't stand it, not even the promise of getting a treat and seeing mommy would distract him. He wanted to dunk it so bad. He finally threw his head back balling. All the way home he was saying "dribble dribble shoot hoop!" until we got home and let him dunk the ball on our hoop. What a funny kid. Soccer season has just started with T, let's hope soccer isn't such an addiction because he may get a little frustrated kicking the ball since he can't walk quite yet.

Lots of catch up...

Random- Tanner came up to tell the girls good night dressed as a ninja lucha libre with a sign that said Hello My name is Ninja

Eva in her cheer camp- the video is too large to upload but I am sure you can imagine her moves

Ben loves to wear this ball cake form as a helmet- Tanner reminds him of it almost daily

You can feel the intense love between the two- Ben calls out to Eva all the time yellie "EEVIEE"

Grace at cheer camp. She had some great moves as well and was equally impressive

Ben loves wearing glasses- so much that he cried when we tried to take them off

Kim and I found Tanner's old 100% polyester superman outfit and cape. Ben loved it , but like always could not put down the ball

Omi visited during spring break and we all had a great time spending time with her and enjoying her company.

Grace at Timbers Soccer Camp- she didn't feel her best, but pushed on and almost made it the entire session

T started spring soccer and has been playing great. Who knows how he can see through his beautiful flowing hair.

Make-up day! I made a compromise that we could wear make-up as long as we took a shower after. I think I started a bad precident

Eva was pulling back her hair so that we could play golf. She loves to play golf and whenever the sun is out (not much lately) she asks if we can go out and play.

Ben like all of our children loves music and has a natural ability to hear a song and be able to sing it will all the words. This is one of his favorites which he sings all the time with his siblings.

Eva asked me at dinner one night how Ben got out of Mom's tummy. She then said "I know..." and proceeded to tell me how it happened. I dodged a huge bullet that night. Also as you can see at the end, Grace and her have some sibling rivalry which is usually punctuated with an evil glare and some intense screaming. Welcome to the Ujifusa's.

Booty Slammin

Sorry that I booty slammed you? Seriously? This cracked me up so much that I had to scan it and post it. Can you tell Grace is FINALLY feeling better after ending chemo five months ago? People have been so considerate to ask how Grace is doing after chemo. We really appreciate all of the love and concern, so we wanted to keep you posted.

One of my favorite quotes by Henry Kissinger says, "There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." In truth, emerging from the depths of Grace's fight with Cancer has felt almost as hard as living through it. I don't know if it's the constant worry that her Cancer could come back, the realization that we are utterly vunerable to any and every fraility of humanity, or just merely that we finally had a chance to sit back and breathe for a second. But, I will say this...the last five months has felt challenging. We have been trying to help Grace get back into school full time (which she has!) and prayed for her Platelet condition to clear up (which it has not, but is looking better), and have tried to readjust to "normal" life.

But, admist this we feel profoundly grateful that she is ok! Grace is just amazing, the way she gets through pain, fear, and hardship. Though the process of "feeling better" has been slow for her, it has been steady and for that we are thankful. Grace's platelets are still flagged as abnormally low, but they are steadily rising. The doctors have told us it may be something she lives with for her lifetime, but we have high hopes that as she regains strength, so will her platelets. Some of the chemotherapy drugs used to treat her Cancer are pretty toxic, so she has to have an Echocardiogram in April and some preemtive blood work, but if that all checks out, she will have surgery to remove her portacatheter in April. Once that is out, I think it will feel like closure and hopefully Grace will just get stronger and relish in every moment of her existence! So, she is well on her way to a full recovery! When that surgery is over, JR and I will prayerfully and thankfully take off our TEAM GRACE wristbands and tuck them away as a strangely fond memory of our encounter with Cancer.

T's great game and much much more...

Although there aren't any pictures because we were so involved in watching the game, T had a great game and pulled off a triple-double. Although I can't be sure since they don't keep stats, I am pretty sure he did. He played the whole game and had at least 20 points, 10 assists, and I think around 10 rebounds. His whole team played great and it was a great way to finish his season.

BED FORT...

The other day, Eva wanted to feed Ben some yogurt while he was in the bath. I ran to grab my cell phone that was ringing and this is what I came back to. At first I thought it was just Ben moving and Eva not really paying attention until I looked into Eva's big brown eyes and I could tell Ben was her new canvas....and what a willing canvas he was.