Thank you so much to those of you who took time out of your busy schedule to say see-you-later to Brooklyn on Saturday night. To be honest, I was pretty stressed out by all the people who canceled the day of, but it turned out to be such a nice gathering of people who came to show their support and are so excited for Brooklyn's adventure!
The Wonderful World of Vance
Hello! Welcome to our Blog. We hope this will be a great way to inform you of what we're doing in our lives, as well as show off a few pictures of our family!
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Going-Away Party
Sunday, August 10, 2025
SURPRISE!!!!
We were beyond blessed to have some pretty special visitors come for Brooklyn's going-away party this last weekend. First, my best friend, Amie, came to town from AZ. Then, Dustin's sister, Marji, surprised Brooklyn. And at the very last second, our nephew, Kobe, came too!
Here's some pictures and videos of the surprise and of our super fun weekend. It went by way too quick!
Thank you, Amie, Marji, and Kobe, for coming this weekend!!!
Marji and Kobe's first time at In-N-Out!!
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Save The Date!
To save money, we only mailed these postcards to our friends and family who are local; however, this invitation is for anyone and everyone who is able to come send Brooklyn off! No RSVP needed. The more the merrier!
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Stay Tuned!! Life Updates Coming!!!
Wow! It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything. After Brooklyn's surgeries I just didn't feel like there was much going on. It was kind of a nice little calm there for a while. But now we have something big going on... Brooklyn is going to Ireland!! She has applied and was accepted to be an exchange student with AFS (American Field Service) for the class of 2025-2026. She will leave the end of August and return home in June. While we know we will miss her more than we can express we are just as excited for her and this amazing adventure she's about to embark on!
So stay tuned! More info to come. :) If you're new here...WELCOME!! We used this blog to keep everyone updated on our surgery journey many eons ago, or so it feels like! There is a "follow" button at the very bottom of this blog. Click on that and you'll get an email notification every time I make a new post, which, let's be real...won't be too often. But I'd love to keep you all updated on how she's doing!!
Thursday, October 23, 2014
I Have an Awesome Kid!
When we were done at the SkyDeck we were pretty hungry. We grabbed Cali a cute little Chicago book at the gift shop & the only thing Brooke wanted was a hot dog. She'd actually said as we were walking to the tower that she wanted a hot dog. Chicago --- hot dog --- You'd THINK that'd be easy to find. HA!!! I must have been walking on the wrong streets, or looking in the wrong places, cause I couldn't find hot dogs anywhere. I took some snacks, thank goodness, that she munched on until we could find something. So I was super stoked when, right next to the gift shop, was a Nathan's Hot Dog place. We grabbed lunch, sat down for a bit, then got her medicine & were on our way again...
From the Willis Tower we headed straight east to Millennium Park. We'd already been there before, but hey, why not again?!! There's actually a picture of Cloud Gate in our RMH room, so I thought I'd take Brooke to see the real thing!
From Millennium Park we headed back to the RMH b/c our friends from IA came in to town for surgery today. We were meeting up with them for dinner. We took a different way back to the house...State Street (which I'd wanted to walk down b/c of all the cool shops.) We stopped in Target on State St (which was super impressive), grabbed Cali a few souvenirs from the dollar bins :) as well as a couple other necessities, then kept walking. And we ran into this....
...which I was super excited for!!
When we got back to the house we met up with Krystal Phillipson, her son Brayden, & her mom. Brayden had surgery this AM w/ Dr. Bauer. Here's the 4 of us in front of Brooklyn's favorite area...the doors at the RMH.
I just LOVE that every single night is something fun for the kids to do. Dinner is always at 6:30pm & then the activity is at 7:30pm. Last night's activity was pumpkin decorating!! It was SO cute! They had a boatload of pumpkins & TONS of foam stickers & paint. The kids could decorate it however they wanted...& Brooke had a ball!! Here's her pumpkin...
This morning we woke up & the first thing Brooke did was go grab a drain, 2 alcohol wipes, & her medicine!!! I swear this kid!! ;) She was SO scared of the drain at first, but now she's a pro at it. And her medicine...my gosh I'm glad there's a kids safety cap on it. She draws it up herself (I check it, of course), takes it, then draws up the second syringe (she gets 1 1/2 syringes), I check it again, & she takes it again. We do this 3 times a day & she's seriously awesome.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
A New Dressing & New Friends
So today we went to see Mim & Susan at Dr. Bauer's office to get Brooke's dressing changed. She was SO excited to see them...& was really an awesome girl during the whole thing. Afterwards she wouldn't let me take her picture...this was the best I got. Her incision is where the white bandage is. And the bubble is just above it in the picture. You can see it bulging a little. Dr. Bauer put 35 cc's in it during surgery.
She is taking her antibiotics like a champ. She actually LOVES the stuff. Thanks to my trusty Medium Thermal Zipper Pouch* we carried her antibiotics around all day & it was still cold this evening when we got back.
After we were done seeing Mim & Susan, we went to the Field Museum. We met an awesome family, the Roth's, during the Nevus Outreach Conference in Dallas in July & they are here with their 7-month-old daughter, Lily. Lily just had 4 expanders placed by Dr. Bauer last week: 2 in her scalp & 2 in her back. She's seriously THE cutest little thing ever**...& Brooklyn just ADORED her today!!!
After the Field Museum Brooklyn & I had a super short drive "home". I had a feeling Brooke would fall asleep in the car...& fall asleep she did!!! So I decided to drive around the few blocks directly by the Ronald McDonald house, to do more exploring & see what was all around me.
Holy cow...let's just say...I've been missing out!!!!! I mean, yeah, the RMH is inconvenient with it's parking & the fact that there's no food or TV's in the rooms. However, you're RIGHT. SMACK. DAB. in the middle of downtown! You're seriously 4 blocks from Navy Pier. There's like 9000 food options, which for me is wonderful. And the shops are to die for. I'm not kidding...anything you could want is with in walking distance! I was pleasantly surprised when I found a PF Changs just about 3 blocks away, so we parked the car & walked, got take-out, & went back to the house. We ate in the dining room & then came & put our stuff in our room, then went & checked out the roof. On the 16th floor (well ok it's the 15th floor cause there is no 13th floor) is a reflection garden on one side & a patio on the other. The reflection garden has a few places to sit, TONS of flowers & bushes, pathways, & is generally just really nice & peaceful. The patio on the opposite side has a hopscotch, slide, tic-tac-toe, grill for BBQ's, & a telescope. It's all pretty cool. :)
When we were done looking around the roof we went back down to the 4th floor to Arts & Crafts time. There were some volunteers that came in to help kids make crafts. They got to make little Halloween masks & then do some sand art. Brooke LOVED it...& it was a nice thing to have available!!
And now...my little bubble girl is fast asleep, after she got some bright pink nail polish & a caramel apple, of course. :)
*To snag up your own Medium Thermal Zipper Pouch, visit: https://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/productdetail.aspx?prod=4363
**This is just Lily's first surgery. She will need several rounds like Brooklyn did, so obviously her parents are fundraising like crazy. To check out how adorable Lily is & to visit the Roth's site please click on: https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamLily/fundraiser/jrroth