April 30th, 2007

Keira is really doing well right now. She had a very good day today. She smiled and laughed a lot and her appetite is up. The only bad part about today is that I did not get to touch my little girl all day long. IT WAS HORRIBLE! I got really sick last night and in order to protect Keira, I had to stay away from her all day. So, there she was being all cute and playful and loving and I could only watch : ( (Why does she have to be so adorable?) All I wanted to do all day is pick her up and cuddle her.

Our next chemo round is scheduled for a week from this Wednesday. The first day will be very long and probably a rough day, but the next two days will be shorter and hopefully that will make them a little easier. I will give you more details as we get closer.

A final thing: Erin's work has been very thoughtful and generous in setting up a trust for Keira. In addition to the medical expenses, our income has dropped some due to Erin going part time and taking time off to be with Keira and so they thought it would be helpful to us. A number of people have asked us either how they might help us or if they could give money to us. This trust is now available to anyone who would like to contribute to Keira in this way. Here is the information on donating:

Please make checks out to: The Keira Grace Bowman Trust

Send those checks either to:

1. Jason and Erin Bowman
4124 West Creek Ct
Dallas, TX 75287

2. Baylor Univeristy Medical Center
c/o Judy Knight - Department of Radiology
3500 Gaston Avenue
Dallas, TX 75246

They will then be deposited into a bank account opened at the Bank of Texas for this trust

Thank you all everyday for your prayers, thoughts and support,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 26th, 2007

Erin has returned to work. This is her second day. It has not been easy. My wife is one of the hardest working people I know, but she does not want to be away from her baby right now.

Keira is continuing to do better. Each day she seems a little more like herself. We pray that she continues to have the strength to beat this thing. She is laughing again and becoming even more curious than she was before.

This morning on my way to work I watched a few dads walk their little girls across the street to elementary school. For some reason this morning the scene really touched me. Sitting there at the crosswalk waiting for them to get cross the street, I suddenly thought I might cry as I thought about Keira. Someday, I will hold Keira's hand and walk her across the street and hug her and kiss her and watch her bound off to class. I have to believe that because I do not have the strength to believe anything else.

Keira really is doing better. Please continue to pray for her. Pray that the chemo is doing its job. And please pray for my wife. It is very hard for her to be away from Keira right now. Thank you again for everything,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 24, 2007 - Alerts to new postings

During this time we are not posting as often as we once did and we cannot expect people to continue checking the blog on a daily basis. At the same time, we would like everyone to be able to stay up to date on what is happening with Keira and be aware of the times when our family is struggling and could really use some encouragement. So, we found a way to alert you when a new blog is posted. All you have to do is the following:

Send an email to jason-erin@sbcglobal.net. In the email, just type out your email address so that we can copy and paste it.

Then each time we publish a new blog, an email will be sent to you telling you that a new post has been published.

Thank you all for being there with us through this,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 23rd, 2007 - the return of the Keira

She is not yet herself, but this afternoon, the pre-chemo Keira showed her face. We saw a glimmer of the careful, laughing and overly curious little girl that crawled through our house before this mess began. After 3 days of fussiness and other more unpleasant experiences, it was a relief and a joy to see little Keira Grace waving her rattles around and trying for long periods of time with such a serious demeanor to open a pink plastic egg. That is the little girl who regularly owned our home prior to her chemo treatments, the girl who almost got lost under the weight of toxic chemicals they had to pump into her little body.

We are so thrilled to say that Keira really had a few good hours today. Little by little she seems to be winning this battle. We only pray that she continues to overcome and that she might be out of the worst of the side effects for now.

We continue to ask for your prayers and we continue to believe that God hears His people when they pray. Thank you so much,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 21, 2007 - Prayer

So far this round has been worse. She has thrown up multiple times, including twice this evening. She is also starting to lose her hair. Please pray for her. It is hard to put into words how it feels to hold this little girl while she cries and vomits in the middle of the night.

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 21st, 2007

Yesterday Keira had her 2 round of chemo. We got to the hospital at 9:00 am and Keira had 7 hours of chemo. She did very well until the last hour or so, when she got a little irritated with everyone. Poor girl, trapped in a hospital all day with no good place to nap. She came home and went to bed before 7:00 pm and slept until almost 6:30 the next morning. Outside of throwing up this morning, she has been herself most of the day. We are praying that she continues to be herself and feel good. Please continue to pray for her, especially that there will be no side effects from this round of chemo and that it will do its job and destroy this cancer.

She has also learned a new "trick" (not sure it is really a trick, but I am not sure what to call it). When we say, "I love you." She puts her hand to her mouth and makes a kissing sound. It just breaks your heart it is so adorable.

Thank you to the people who have donated to Lunch for Life.

Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers and emails. We always appreciate people keeping in contact with us. Have a blessed day

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 17th, 2007 - Birthday Pictures

We recently celebrated Keira's first birthday. As probably all parents have found, it is amazing how quickly time seems to go by with children. I know that is has been a year, but it sure does not feel like it. I vividly remember her first summer. She and I would sit in her room in the early morning before she could even sit up on her own and I would hold little stuffed animals over her while she eagerly tried to use her little arms and hands to grab at them. Now, she babbles and crawls and pulls things out of the cupboards and laughs and plays and interacts . . . my little baby is a year old! And she has never been more fun : )

Erin and I sang happy birthday to her about 7:00 am the day of her birthday. At the end when you say, "and many more" it struck both of us as a very profound moment. That is our prayer, "many more" -- many more birthday's, many more smiles, many more laughs, many more moments of life to share with our sweet girl.

Please pray for two things. First, she has one more blood test tomorrow that will determine whether she can get her next round of chemo on Friday. Second, this Friday is hopefully her next round of chemo. It will be different than before so we do not know what the effects might be. Please ask God to protect her from the side effects and to use this round to beat up on that terrible cancer in her body.

Thank you to those who have given to lunch for life. If you go to the website and click on The Giving Tree link, then find Keira's name, you can see her little tree. Each time someone donates, another ornament is placed on the tree.

Go to www.keirabo.com to see pictures from Keira's first birthday.

Thank you all so much for hanging in there with us and praying for us

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 16th, 2007 - thank you

Thank you Mr. Hunnicutt's class for all the Ducks you sent to me for my birthday all the way from California!!!

April 15, 2007 - Please Help

Many of you have contacted us with the question “What can we do to help?” With few exceptions we have asked you to continue to pray with us, letting you know that we will be sure to ask when there is something more you can do. Today we have something for you to do. In talking with other families who have children with neuroblastoma, we were made aware of an organization called Lunch for Life. Their purpose is to raise money to fund neuroblastoma research. The concept is simple, they ask everyone to give up their lunch money for one day and donate it to help find a cure.

Lunch for Life says it this way: "The cost of one lunch, if enough people contribute, can win this war. It is such a small price to pay, but it can and will save precious little lives. Please donate your lunch money to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation and help us eradicate this disease. Give a little money. Spread the word. Save a lot of lives."

There are two ways that you can help

1. Log onto their website: http://www.lunchforlife.org and click on the link to donate. You can even donate in honor of Keira Grace.

2. Eat at Purple Cow in Plano, TX today through Wednesday (April 15-18) and they will donate a percentage of your meal to Lunch for Life.

We want more than anything to see Keira free from cancer, but we would also like to see the other children that we have met cured. Children should not have to suffer through this and neither should the familes who make this terrible journey with them. Here is a simple way to help.

April 13, 2007 - Good News (mostly)

We have two items of good news. I say "mostly" in the title because neither one changes Keira's condition, but we will take small victories as often as we can get them.

First, Keira's counts are back up! If this remains, it means she will get her next round of chemo on time and she is no longer at greater risk for sickness for the moment.

Secondly, Erin's work has been very generous with us. Thank you for praying. Erin will be starting back to work soon, but they have given her a lot more freedom during this period of time. Erin will be working less, so that Keira will always have one of us with her for this whole period of time (no babysitting), plus Erin does not have to work as many hours so she will get more time with Keira and her work told her that when she needs time off to be with Keira through chemo she can simply take those days off. We even get to keep our insurance! It is such a blessing!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. God bless you

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 13, 2007 - Laughing at ducks!

We have been sorting through ducks recently so that we can give some to Children's Hospital for other little kids and I found this picture and wanted to share.

April 11, 2007 - decisions

Not much has changed with Keira. Amazingly, she is handling the chemo and the cancer as if nothing were wrong at all. She seems to have a lot of energy still and her apetite has not decreased much.

For Erin and me, we have some hard decisions to make this week concerning the next 12 months. Tomorrow, Erin will talk with her work and based upon the outcome of that conversation, I will approach my work Friday. We are trying to make the best decision we can that will allow us to keep medical insurance, keep Erin from falling too far behind in her program, continue to reasonably provide for our family, and most importantly take care of Keira (without knowing whether she will need more chemo, surgery, or something else entirely -- this lack of knowledge is the most frustrating part and makes this whole decision very hard to make). Please pray for wisdom and guidance. We have dwelt upon this for the last 2 weeks and explored every possible option that we can fathom, but now it is time to finalize our plans as much as possible.

We are still getting emails letting us know that people are praying for us and we continue to appreciate those emails. This period is easier in some ways, but harder in others. It is good that Keira is not having to spend a lot of time in the hospital right now and appears to be doing so well. It is hard to just wait, not knowing whether the chemo is working or not. We must simply continue to trust God and believe that He will answer all the prayers that so many people are making on behalf of our little girl.

God bless you and thank you so much,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 8, 2007

An interesting thought occured to me today as we celebrated Easter. This is Keira's second Easter, and she is not yet 1 year old. OK, so maybe it is not that interesting . . .

Keira hunted eggs today. They were placed in plain view and filled with strawberry puffs, but nevertheless, she did hunt them down, shake them and eventually break them open to eat the yummy puffs inside. She had a blast! She also got a new little outfit from some good friends. Watching her with the outfit, you would have thought it was a toy. She scratched at it, used it to play peek-a-boo, stretched it, tugged and chewed on part of it for probably 20 minutes. I have no idea how she will look in it, but she sure did enjoy playing with it.

The only change we are starting to notice in Keira is that she is a little more tired than normal and a little more fussy, but overall, I think she is still doing exceptionally well considering her condition and the toxic chemicals they pumped into her body. She is doing so well in fact that even though she cannot walk yet, she climbed up her red slide all by herself. It was very impressive for a girl afraid to stand up alone.

Please continue to seek the Lord on her behalf as we wait expectantly and eagerly for God to step in and work in her life even as He has already worked so much in Erin and me through this whole ordeal.

Happy Easter to all our friends, family, and everyone who is enduring with us in this fight. May God greatly bless you on this beautiful day in which we celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin could not defeat Him; the grave could not Hold him; He is the Risen Lord; and if He so wills, this cancer stands no chance. Amen.

Jason, Erin & Keira.

April 7, 2007 - pictures of the sliding girl

April 7, 2007 - the slide

Keira went in yesterday for blood work and an echocardiagram (a test in which ultrasound is used to examine the heart). The heart exam came back with good results. They did not see anything negative. The blood work came back as expected. Her counts are beginning to drop, and she is now more susceptible to infections, and so we have to begin to be extra careful. If she gets sick at all, she will end up being hospitalized.

This morning she learned how to slide down her little indoor slide. We took a few of the larger stuffed duck animals and used them as cushions for her to slide into. She absolutely loved it! Giggling and laughing all the way down the slide and then frantically doing her sign for more and pointing at the slide.

So, she is still doing well, still enjoying life, still laughing and smiling, still embracing what it means to be alive in God's amazing world. We love just watching her, listening to her, and being with her. I can think of nothing so rewarding as being part of the life of this beautiful little girl.

Please pray that she stays well so we can keep her out of the hospital and that the chemo works on the cancer and destroys it. Thank you so much for keeping in contact with us, praying for us, and giving us strength as we go through this trial.

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 4, 2007 - faith like a child

Today we had a great experience. A class of first graders wrote out prayers, bound them in a little book, and gave them to us. This amazing class of young boys and girls has a picture of Keira in their classroom, and they pray for her everyday. They also gave us a basket full of toys and books for Keira to take to the hospital. In that class they call her Baby Keira. Baby is just part of her name. It was very touching, and as I read the prayers these little kids wrote out for Keira with their own hands, it gave me great hope that Keira would be healed because how could God not listen to heartfelt prayers of 1st graders?

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support. We are ever grateful

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 2, 2007 - the waiting period

It has been two days since her infusion. She has thrown up 2 times and her appetite is down a little, but her attitude is light and joyful. She has spent the day playing and dancing and babbling to herself. Erin and I are both so thrilled at how well she is handling this so far.

I think this stage is going to be very difficult. It will months before we will know whether or not the chemo is effective. Every week, she will get a shot. Three days a week, she has to have medicine. Once a week, she has to have blood work done. Every three weeks, she will have chemo. If she gets sick at all, she will have to be admitted into the hospital. As we go through all of this on a weekly basis, we will not get to see whether or not it is making a difference. I believe these next few months are going to be so difficult because we will not know whether she is being cured until after the forth round when they do scans again.

For now, we must really trust God on a daily basis and believe that He hears the cries of His people. We express our graditude for those who remain faithful to Keira and continue to email us. Over the next few months there will be no big news, no sad news, no good news, no news at all. I will continue to write, but cannot tell you if she is better or not. This will be a true test. Please continue to pray, and now and then please shoot us a short email letting us know you are praying. Every email (and praise God there have been a lot of them!) reminds us we are not fighting this alone. And that gives us strength.

As always, we are in your debt and we push on in faith believing that God will heal our girl in His mercy and love and through our prayers and yours,

Jason, Erin & Keira

April 2, 2007 - DUCKS

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Over 100 TCA students showed their love and support for us by bringing in well over 100 ducks for Keira. She got them the day she began her chemo.