First family birthday party

Tomorrow is a big day for the girls, they will have their first real birthday party with some other children.  Indeed it took us only three years.

The first birthday party was one of the hardest days of our lives when Miabelle was diagnosed with HLH the day before her birthday.  Sorry but your child has HLH and about a 50% survival chance, and just because this news isn't hard enough we regret to inform that tomorrow for her birthday we have a special gift... Chemo!  There was little joy that year.  People showed up in the morning at our home to celebrate Noelie's 1st birthday and another group of people showed up in the afternoon for Miabelle's birthday.  We had looked forward to this 1st birthday for a long time and we did everything to at least have some joy.  Balloons not allowed in the hospital?  Seriously.  No preblemo, take a few gloves from the nurses blow them up... et voila... we had balloons, a cake, a few family members and the godparents... let's not forget the "piece de resistance"... gifts.  No way Mr. Death was going to ruin this one.  He pissed off the wrong United Puerto Belgians or Belgo Rican Americans.

 Ok, get this silly hat off my head!

 Mama, my godfather and Kiki.

The party must go on! 

Her belly, liver and spleen were swollen and she lost control of her eyes due to HLH.  Only when arriving at Cincinnati Children's a week later were we informed that her entire right side of her body was paralyzed because HLH had reached her central nervous system.

The second birthday party was filled with joy.  Although we never lost hope, we always feared that Miabelle was not going to make it to her 2nd birthday.  The Cincy Angels made certain that Miabelle and Noelie had the best birthday ever.  It was a lot of fun being just the four of us but we did wish that family and friends could have joined in.  Our strict isolation policy prohibited any visitors during the flu season, so no crowd to join in.  Nevertheless, Neolie and Miabelle's second birthday was our biggest gift.  Thank you!

We regret but due to a crash of Mama's computer we lost all pictures of Miabelle and Noelie's second birthday.  But no worries our memories are fully intact.... euh I correct... Mama's memory is intact!

Although tomorrow is not their birth day, which is a few days later, we did decide to bring some family together for the occasion.  Everybody has been very nice and understanding as to our sensitivity to ill children.  Relatively speaking, the good news is that Miabelle is on Antibiotics so it is very unlikely that any child would hand something over to her (touching wood).  So hopefully tomorrow we will have an excellent 1st family birthday party for our two little girls.  Hip hip Hoera!!!

Happy birthday to our two girls and congrats Miabelle for being the warrior that you are!!!!!  you both make us very proud parents.

O.