Anything is possible!

Yesterday I couldn't help laughing. Bianca put some of her own make-up on her face and she then took her pair of koala ears and she put it on her head and then said "guess what I am"
So I then asked "Are you a giraffe?"
She shook her head.
"A monkey?"
She shook her head.
"Oh I know, I know, you are a koala bear"
She shook her head once more and then proudly declared "I'm a funk".
"Sorry a what?"
"I'm a funk".
It then dawned on me and I said "oh you mean you are a punk?"
"No, I'm a funk"

I could not help laughing.

Yesterday we met our neighbours. So they invited us to their house for a barbeque. There were some other people as well and I think it was their house warming party. What a nice time we had! They are really nice. Jenny and Brian have the cutest little girl Stella who is 2 years old and they are expecting another baby in June. Bianca had great time playing with Stella and the other kids. Caitlyn happily toddled around and she loved playing on the little miniature piano. We'll definitely be inviting Stella for some play dates.

Tomorrow morning (Monday 10 March) Bianca and I will have a busy day to start off with. We will (if all goes to plan) appear on the Good Morning show on TV1. We will probably be on around 11:20am (somewhere between 11am and 11:30 - I would think). I'm a bit nervous as this is a live broadcast, but I am also really excited. I hope Bianca won't be too shy!

It seems that the shingle rash is still mostly on the one side of Bianca's chin. And it seems to really irritate her quite a bit. So we have to put calemine lotion on several times a day. I really can't wait until the rash is totally gone.

Tonight Bianca is also pretty grumpy. I think she is probably a bit tired, and of course it didn't help that I had to remove a plaster from the one side of her face...

Bianca has quite a bit of hair at the moment. It feels so exciting that it is busy growing back. Although I must say I thought Bianca looked really beautiful even though she had no hair for a very long time. One thing I am so pleased about is that we have never had to worry about insensitive people or people staring and pointing. Most people seem to treat us as normal, as if nothing was wrong. Just once, when Bianca met a little boy in the park who said "you have no hair" and Bianca looked at him and said "well, it is busy growing back" and she then turned her back on him and carried on playing.

So now we are finally at the point where we can actually wash her hair. It does seem to be a bit darker than before, so we will have to see.

Of course with Bianca having no hair, I guess it is easier for people to understand our situation a bit better and as soon as she has proper hair again, most people won't realise she is still fighting leukemia and will still fight it until September 2009. One thing about leukemia is that it takes so very long, not many people realise just how long the full treatment process really is. And even then we won't ever really be able to put the experience behind us, it will remain part of us as we go forward. With leukemia there is no definitive test that will confirm that the treatment is a complete success or not. We will just have to live day by day until she reached 4 or 5 years off treatment and only then will they consider her "cured" but only because her chance of a relapse then will be much much less than before.

But it is all good and in the end this is a very good learning opportunity designed to make us stronger. And I know that one day we can all look back and say "if we could do this, then anything is possible!"