I do not have near as much time as I would like to write a ten page update on Tori and our journey together, but for the few minutes I have, here is some information about my precious angel, little sister, and Mini Miss Georgia...
1) Tori is almost nine years old! It is remarkable/scary how fast time flies. It feels like just yesterday she was saying she was seven years old. Even more recent memories are of me attending her eighth birthday as Miss Capital City (my local title before winning Miss Georgia). While Tori was getting chemo one hospital stay, and with me in her bed, I remember so clearly Penny looking at me with tears in her eyes saying, "I want this to be the BEST birthday Tori has ever had."Birthdays truly take on a whole new meaning when the "C word" is involved. Thanks be to God, Tori is still here and healthy for her ninth birthday. She is even waiting to have her birthday party three weeks after the actual date just so I can attend. My schedule is nonstop from here until the day I leave for Miss America 2013 (January 3), but I had one day where I could make it for her birthday. With no hesitation, Tori chose December 8th. This still touches the core of my being: an eight year old who is willing to have her birthday three weeks late just so I can come. How special is that?
2) Tori is really enjoying school and dance. After more than a year of not going to school, hardly seeing her friends, and not being able to do anything active, she is soaking it all up. It was a much harder transition than expected for Tori and her family: having to get back on a normal sleeping schedule, building her stamina to get through a whole day, getting weight back on her, etc. Her memory isn't as sharp as it once was because of radiation treatments, but as Tori always does, she is fighting through and making As and Bs! To brag a little, I also like to claim I am the reason Tori is in dance classes, haha. ;-) When I first met her she was VERY into competitive cheerleading and only wanted to take hip-hop classes if she was going to dance. Well now, more than a year later and after a lot of persuading, she adores ballet and lyrical: the two types of dance I wanted her to try. She is so extremely talented in both and picking up the technique very quickly.
3) Many of you ask what her life looks like "after treatment." I encourage you to read the previous blog post for a longer explanation, but here is a short answer. Tori gets MRIs every three months to monitor whether or not the tumor is going to return. IF it does, her oncologist thinks it will be between the 12-15 month mark from her last chemo therapy treatment (summer and fall of 2013). With that being said, we just never know. Her parents decided to leave her port access (where they draw blood/ administer medicine) in for another year, but it causes no harm to Tori...just a bump on her chest where it sticks out. She said if she can make it a year with her port and no hair, she can surely make it another year with her port and WITH hair! Leave it up to her to keep everything in perspective.
4) I have uploaded some recent pictures of Tori (and her new hairdo). Please continue to keep Tori and her family in your constant prayers. Once diagnosed with cancer, life is never like it was. You have to get used to the "new normal." I continue to praise my Heavenly Father for our relationship; for bringing Tori in my life right when He did; and for her willingness to fight through this all with a smile on her face.
-Love in Christ,
Leighton
