Update for April/May

Well Alina has been doing well and continues to be a fiesty young lady.  April has seen her counts drop a little but the Doctors do not seem concerned.  May continued on the low end with her ANC at 1000 but the Doctor said all her other cell functions look strong.  She does not seem concerned but we are a little anxious as we are expecting better numbers. We continue to pray that her body continues to strengthen post chemo treatment and continue with normal activities for all the kids!

Alina has done well in school achieving straight A's and earning an award at school!!  We are VERY PROUD of her!  Soccer continues and the girls LOVE it!  They are already looking forward to the fall league.  Aubrey has made great strides and has scored a couple of goals.  Alina really enjoys playing goalie and has made several spectacular saves.

Bryce is rambunctious as usual and is full of energy.  He likes to play soccer with the girls at their practices yet continues his passion of baseball and can't wait for the fall when he can start playing.

May was a fun month as Aubrey had a school sleep over at Sea World.  The kids and parents(Roxanne) slept in the turtle exhibit.  Dad and the other two stayed in a nearby hotel and met up early Saturday morning.  We spent the day at the park and had a great time!

Mother's day was a good day with family.  The day was spent in L.A. at Grandma Angies house with All the family stopping by.  It was a great day!!

I have a seperate update for May/June that I will get on in a few days.  SORRY FOR THE DELAY!  It seems that we have had something every weekend since March and life has flown by!

A few photos of some fun times and a little more details in the next update.

PLEASE keep Alina in your prayers for continued strength and healing.

Love,

The King Family

Updates

Well quite a bit has happened over the last 6 weeks.  Alina has had two blood work draws and two breathing treatments and the Doctors say everything looks good!!  Alina will have her last breathing treatment on February 28 and then we only have the lab draws for the rest of the year at one month intervals.  We are praying and believe that Alina will continue to stay cancer free and that she will gain her immune system strength back in no time.

January had an amazing event for Alina and Roxanne.  As you know the Light the Night Walk in October was a great success in raising awareness for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society!  Well Alina and Roxanne were both celebrated at the awards banquet.  Alina received the Michelle Carew Legacy Award and Roxanne was recognized for her hard work and awarded the Dianne Callahan Inspiration Award.  Both of these honors were unexpected yet greatly appreciated.  I'm so proud of both of them!!

January also saw the kids go back to school and they are all doing very well.

The first week of February, Alina had her port removed after two years and five months.  It was definitely a strange day as this had become a part of our routine yet at the same time it marked an important stage in Alina's end of treatment.  The surgery went without any problems and she was back at school the next day.  Thankfully everyone has stayed reasonably healthy through this first part of 2017 which gives us peace of mind as well.

Alina and Aubrey have begun soccer and both are very excited to play in their first games on Saturday February 25th.  It's good to see them out being kids and having a good time.  Bryce will be cheering from the side lines this year, but next year he wants to play BASEBALL!! His plans are to "take Mike Trouts spot on the Angels when he gets bigger and bigger"😀😀. 

I apologize for the extended delay in this update( for those that still follow) and will try to keep up every few weeks or so in the future.  THANKFULLY, the future updates will mostly include the life events of the kids and the results of the monthly blood draws.

Please continue your prayers for Alina to remain in remission and stay free of any further health issues.

With love and heartfelt thanks for all your support!!

The King Family

December 2016 Update - Chemo Finished!

What an amazing month December has been!

Alina had her last chemotherapy treatment on December 5th at CHOC followed by a week of her steroid treatment.  Everything went well and Alina had no side effects.  The BEST news is that on December 23rd, Alina FINISHED her last chemotherapy pill and COMPLETED her treatment protocol!!!  God is good!!

Alina no longer has any medications to take and she will start the new year cancer free!

We are so blessed to have this path in our lives coming to a completion. In 2017 Alina will have a blood test once a month to monitor her after the treatment and our prayers are that she remains well and continues to be cancer free!  

We ask that you continue to pray for Alina and we know that God has GREAT plans for this little girl throughout her life.

Our wish for you all in 2017 is that you have good health, create loving memories, and spend more time with family and friends.  That is what life is all about!

We love you all and THANK YOU for all your prayers and support over the past two years!

More to come in the new year...

God bless you!

The King Family

Scot, Roxanne, Alina, Aubrey & Bryce.

Happy Thanksgiving 2016

Well it's been awhile and a lot has happened over the last month! The Light the Night Walk at the Auto Club Speedway on October 28th was a HUGE success! Roxanne did an AMAZING job putting this event together and over 5,000 people were there for this first time event at the facility. The Leukemia Lymphoma Society was very excited with the results and they can't wait for next year! TEAM ALINA raised just over $9,000.00 towards the fund raiser and the event raised approximately $450,000 for cancer research! It truly was a successful event and we are excited to be a part of the goal to " end all blood cancers". Alina spoke on stage during the event, and Team Alina had a group of friends, family and co-workers who all walked the 2.3 miles to help end blood cancer. Halloween was a great night for the kids. Although it was on Monday night we still took them out around the block in their costumes and trick or treated for a little fun for the evening. Alina was a green witch, Aubrey was a cowgirl, and Bryce chose Superman. The kids continue to do well at school and in pre-k and have settled into their groups of friends. Aubrey turned five on November 14th and we had a small party at the house with her friend from school Sophia coming over for the jumper and piñata breaking. The kids had a fun day and Aubrey was happy to be able to play in her Star Wars themed jumper and birthday party. Alina has been doing well at school and continues to excel in reading and writing. Math takes a back seat yet she still performs well. Her report card was all O's for outstanding and we are very proud of her! Alina's treatment has continued with only a minor adjustment during the middle of October due to her low ANC counts, but since then she has been doing great and now we are within 25 days of FINISHING her treatment protocol!!! We will be going in on Monday December 5th for her last "silly medicine", and the weeks worth of steroids. As of today Alina's last chemotherapy pill will be on Friday December 23rd which will be an AMAZING CHRISTMAS PRESENT for her and all of us who have been praying for her to complete this journey. We can't believe it has already been over two years of treatment, hospital stays, emergency room visits, over 150 blood thinner injections at home for the blood clot treatment, and endless days and nights of worrying about keeping her healthy. Yet now we are less than a month away from ending the treatment stage and enter the five year blood testing phase. Alina will have blood tests done once per month for the first year, every other month the second year, once every three months in the third year, once every four months in year four and twice in the fifth year. About 27 blood tests in all to confirm that she is cured. At the end of those blood tests when she has been free of any cancer, she is considered CANCER FREE!! God is good!!! We can't thank you all enough for your continued prayers and support!! We love you very much and can't wait to celebrate Alina's final chemotherapy treatment!! Love,

The King Family

September/October Update

Okay so it has been a busy three and a half weeks around here! As of the last update we attended the Orange County Light The Night Walk at Angels Stadium which was AMAZING. To see about 10,000 people walking around the Stadium carrying lanterns of various colors to help end blood cancer was a very humbling experience. Alina took part in the ceremony by getting on stage and thanking the crowd for their support. She will do the same this weekend at the Inland Empire Light The Night Walk at The Auto Club Speedway. It is truely a great way for us to be able to give back and hopefully help other families that may go through this same life changing event of finding out that a family member has cancer. Your support as always is greatly appreciated and we could not have done a lot of this without you!! Alina has been feeling well and her ANC counts have gone up enough to increase her Methotrexate dosage back to what she had been taking before last months minor set back. She will go tomorrow to have lab work done to check her levels and to see if the medication doses can remain the same. Believe it or not it has been a little over two years since this journey has begun and now we are within two months of ending the chemotherapy stage of Alina's treatment. GOD IS GREAT!! By his grace and plan for Alina's life we are blessed to be completing this next stage of the journey. Please continue to pray for Alina as after the treatments end we still have five years of blood tests until the medical diagnosis can say she is cured. WE BELIEVE GOD HAS CURED HER ALREADY! and believe He has BIG plans for her life ahead. She has already accomplished so much and we could not be more proud of her!!! Aubrey, Bryce, and Alina took a picnic lunch to Oak Glen this weekend and we had a wonderful time. The kids got to run around and play along with going to the pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins to decorate. We had an amazing weekend! School is going well for both Alina and Aubrey. Alina has joined the running club on Tuesdays and Thursdays before school and really enjoys it. Her tennis lessons continue on Saturday mornings and we see minor improvements every week. I hope she doesn't want a tennis court in the back yard anytime soon😜. Aubrey continues to excel in kindergarten and has made many friends. She wants to play soccer in the spring so we will be shuffling kids around frantically in the near future. Bryce is growing into a good young boy and is just so fun to be around. Full of adventure and mischief as a boy should be yet learning to be a gentleman around girls which is most important. We are very proud of the little people that they are becoming and can't wait for the next adventures that life brings. We are very excited about the Walk this weekend and we will share very soon in the next update. Thank you as always for your love and support! We love you all! The King Family

Rough August

Well it's been an exciting month around here! Alina and Aubrey both started school. Alina in first grade and Aubrey in kindergarten. Bryce is still in day school where Aubrey attends kindergarten and that is going well. Alina's teacher Is very kind and well structured and Alina really likes her. Aubrey is doing very well already in her class. Learning her Bible verses, letter combination sounds and she has even begun some sight words. We are proud of them! Bryce is a playful boy full of ENDLESS energy and LOVES to play Baseball in our backyard. He's hitting off the T Ball stand as well as when we pitch to him(he's only 3!) We will send out videos to Major League scouts next spring. 😀 Alina had a rough August with her ANC counts. The whole month her counts were unexpectedly low 463-525. We had to stop her daily chemotherapy pills for a week and then the dose has now been cut in half to at least keep the medication working. The Doctors have NO explanation for why this late in the treatment this happens, they say it is just her body and everyone is different. Alina had her first to last "Silly Medicine" treatment on Monday September 12, and now there is only one left in December. Her ANC count went back up to the 1200 level which we were very excited about. They will continue to monitor her over the next two weeks to find a stabilization point and adjust her chemotherapy as necessary. We are entering the home stretch and although we are VERY EXCITED, we remain guarded as the cold a flu season is beginning and we don't want anymore set backs or hospital stays. Alina has started tennis lessons and seems to like them. She's in a ten week program and it is filled with a lot of kids her age. She picked out a tennis racket and practices in the back yard with some of the skill drills she learned the prior week. Good sport for her hand eye coordination and conditioning. She has also expressed interest in a running club in the morning at her school on Tuesdays and Thursday's so we will look into that as well. The Light the night walk is fast approaching. We are going to the Orange County walk this Saturday to help support the cause and for Roxanne to see how the program works so she can gather information for the Auto Club Speedway walk on October 29th. We hope that you can help support the research for a cure for blood cancer by donating to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and join Alina's Team and come walk with us!! The information is on the home page of the site with a link to Team Alina. We hope life finds you all we and thank you for your continued prayers and support! Love, The King Family

July/August update

Well the summer has come and gone so quickly that I completely forgot to update the site. The kids have had a fun summer! Playing with friends from school, visiting cousins and family, and doing a little swimming at the Barnard's pool. Everyone has been healthy other than Alina having pink eye for a little while in July. Her last breathing treatment in July went well and her ANC counts stabilized around 1600 after a couple of months where they had spiked due to an infection and another bout of pink eye back in late June. Alina will have her monthly breathing treatment and lab work done tomorrow so we are hopeful that all remains well with those results! The kids started back to school this week. Alina started First Grade and Aubrey has been enrolled in the Kindergarten program at Emanuel Day School where they all spend the afternoons for child care. Bryce has become POTTY TRAINED over the last month and we are sooooo greatful to be out of DIAPERS!!! He has done a great job and loves his big boy Star Wars chonies. Alina has been involved with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society for the last six months and is continuing to be chosen for their functions. One of the highlights of the summer was the Light the Night Walk kick off for the Orange County chapter. Alina and Roxanne were on the field at Angels Stadium before a baseball game and introduced to the crowd. It was an amazing experience! We are looking forward to the Light the Night Walk in October at The Auto Club Speedway in Fontana where Alina is one of the Honorary Hero's being celebrated. We have created a walking team( Team Alina with Roxanne as the Captain) and we would love for all of you to JOIN and DONATE to a great cause of fInding cures for blood cancers!! Please join the team and raise funds for this charity as they are doing cutting edge research and funding to find a cure. The web site is lightthenight.org/ocie/ When there click on the Inland Empire Walk Then click on the Auto Club Speedway TEAM ALINA page, go to the bottom where there is the Team Alina / Roxanne team and then join and donate! We look forward to seeing you all there in October!! I will definitely update sooner in August as we have a few things coming up over the next three weeks. As always, THANK YOU ALL for your continued prayers and support over this amazing journey. THE FINISH LINE IS CLOSING IN!! Love to you all, THE KING FAMILY

Light the Night Walk - October 29th

Hi Everyone!

I finally have all the info for the Light The Night Walk in October.  This walk will help raise money for blood cancer research and other programs (co-pay assistance & travel assistance) that help families like ours who have to go on this journey.  

The amount of support we have received from all of you has not gone unnoticed.  We are blessed to have each and every one of you help us along the way.  While we can never repay everyone for their generosity, kindness and support, we can pay it forward.  This is our way of giving back.  I hope you will join us on Saturday, October 29th.  The walk will be at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. 

Below is the link to Alina’s fundraising page and I have also attached instructions.  Quite a few people have asked how to get the lantern.  If you are interested in walking and getting a lantern, make sure after you join Alina’s team you go back into your name to donate the $100.  That will get you the lantern, t-shirt and gift.  If you can’t make the walk (I hope most of you can) you can donate by clicking on Team Alina, once on the team page click on Alina’s name (located on the right side of the page) and click on the donate button.  

Feel free to pass along this info to family and friends.

Please call or email me if you have questions.  Thank you for all your love and support and I look forward to seeing you at the walk in October.

Link:  http://pages.lightthenight.org/ocie/InlandEm16/teamalina

With Love,
Roxanne

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALINA!!!

Just a short update to wish our BEAUTIFUL little girl a very Happy Birthday! We are so proud of your strength, courage, compassion, and love of life. We look forward to celebrating many more years of your life.
A great day with friends and family and more celebration to come over the weekend. Love, Mom, Dad, Aubrey, and Bryce

Sent from my iPhone

May June update

Well it's been about a month since we have updated and a few things have happened.
Memorial Day weekend Alina caught a virus, spiked a 103 degree fever and spent two days in the hospital. So the weekend wasn't great but it worked out well since we had time off. The next week Roxanne, Bryce and myself caught whatever virus was going through the house and we all were down for a few days. Alina was part of a fund raiser effort for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and the Stater Brothers markets. Her photo was on the donation card at the registers to raise money for the travel assistance program. She is also an honorary hero for the light the night walk coming up this October at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. We will post the info on how to donate and join her team in the next post. SOON!! We want everyone to come out and support her as well as the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. This is our way of being able to help others in need and we are VERY HUMBLED to be able to assist in any way we can! Bryce had his third Birthday on June 10 and we had family over for a small party. Batman was the theme and the jumper provided the entertainment. He had a great time and it was really nice to have cousins George and Lisa come over with Sophia and their newborn James. Eric, Elenor, and Valentina made the trip down and got to spend some time visiting with them as well. Auntie Nicole, Uncle Bob and cousin Alexa came up from Temecula to celebrate and visit with the family. A fun day for the little man! The last two weeks have been pretty normal. Alina had her scheduled appointment where she gets her lumbar puncture, and chemo treatment along with the breathing procedure. A long day but she has always been such a trooper and powered through it as usual. The last week she was on the steroid which makes her a bit moody but that concluded on Saturday and by today she was her old self! Aubrey had some excitement. She graduated from pre-k and will start kindergarten this fall. She is very smart and we are blessed that she likes her school work. She excels in all areas so far and is very excited to be going to kindergarten. Alina will be having her 6th Birthday this Friday July 1st. We are so blessed that she has been strong and under Gods plan over the last year and a half. Every day is a present and a gift from God! We are planning a bowling party for the weekend with friends and family followed by a barbecue. The girl wants burgers and hot dogs for dinner that night. And so it shall be. We don't have too much planned for the summer but we hope to get out and visit on some weekend trips and see some old friends get some swimming in, and create a lot of fur memories! We hope that life finds you well and we thank you as always for your support!

Love the King Family, Alina, Roxanne, Scot, Aubrey, and Bryce

Sent from my iPhone

April/May update

Well it's been awhile since the last update so sit back and enjoy the ride! Shortly after Alina had her last treatment on April 25th and everything went well, we surprised the kids and took a long overdue yet short family vacation. We did not go far but it was a great surprise and "adventure" for the kids. So we packed up the truck and headed to Disneyland for two days!! The kids were soooo surprised and excited when we got to the hotel and then spent the rest of the day at Disneyland. That evening we dined at Goofy's Kitchen where the characters come around to your table while you eat dinner and interact with the families. They LOVED IT!! We went to California Adventure the second day and hit a few of the rides we had missed the previous day at Disneyland. It was exhausting but well worth the little smiles on their faces!
Alina has continued to do well at school and is excelling in the English and reading portions of her testing. The math side has had its challenges but she is still in the high 80th percentile in her testing so we are very pleased with her. Aubrey and Bryce are doing well at Emanuel Day School and we look forward to Aubrey starting Kindergarten this fall there. She is very bright and really applies herself to her studies. Bryce is such a lively little boy full of ENERGY! If the energizer bunny ever runs out of juice I think Bryce could recharge its battery. So a little update on the LLS light the night walk coming up in October. We finally have the team set up for Alina and will be sending out an e-mail blast, Facebook notification and post on this site so everyone can get involved to raise money for this great charity. We feel BERY BLESSED that Alina has been chosen as one of the honorary heroes for this year and it will be a great way for us to " give back" for all the love and support that we have received!! We are setting a VERY AGGRESSIVE GOAL for the amount of money we want to raise so it will take a monumental effort on the part of all our friends and family to reach out to people in their communities, local businesses, and to others to raise money for this good cause. We will post the flier and info soon so we would appreciate your help with raising awareness for this cause.
As for the last couple of weeks life has been pretty normal, work, kids, family, and repeat. We definitely need to make some time to get out and visit a few more of our family friends in the near future, so be ready.. we are coming to visit!! Alina has another breathing treatment scheduled for May 23 and we expect it to go well as she has become much more comfortable with this procedure. We also have a follow up appointment with the ear Doctor who put in the tubes and don't expect any issues as Alina has been doing great with no earaches ever since. So although it's been awhile since our last update things have been pretty quiet which is a HOID THING so to speak. We are truly thankful for Alina's health and her progression through this treatment process. Your prayers and support are why we are at this point and we can't thank you all enough. We will update in the next few weeks with more on the LLS Light The Night Walk and Alina's treatment at the end of the month. Thank you for continuing to follow Alina's progress and most of Sal your prayers and support!

We love you all... Alina, Aubrey, Bryce, Roxanne, and Scot

April 4,2016 update

Well a lot has happened in the last month! Alina has been doing SOOO well in school and we are so proud of this little girl. After starting two months late and two trips to the Hospital, Alina is reading in her level 6 books and LOVES math! She really has done a fantastic job in school this year and is learning a good deal of the basics to carry on to first grade.
Aubrey and Bryce have FINALLY settled into the school routine at Emanuel Day School. Aubrey has been excelling in her school work and has made several friends! She is so disciplined in her studies and homework routine that we could not be happier with her learning ambitions. She actually is learning Alina's site words already and will be starting the kindergarten program in the fall at Emanuel. Bryce is as adorable as ever and his little personality is really starting to shine. He is such a fun loving little boy and has several friends at school and is soaking up everything his little mind comes in contact with. It is a blessing to see our children growing in such a fulfilling way. Roxanne was hard at work with the NASCAR race at the track the weekend of March 19th and a special kickoff for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Light The Night function which will be held at the Auto Club Speedway in October of this year. Alina has been selected as one of the Honorary Heroes for this event which will raise money for blood cancer research. WE ARE VERY BLESSED TO BE A PART OF THIS AND GRATEFUL for the opportunity to give back a little as we have been helped out so much during our journey! We will be creating a team with the Speedway and Alina to raise awareness and donations to help find a CURE for blood cancers!
WE WOULD LOVE YOUR HELP! If you can come and support Alina and do the walk in October we want you there!! More details on the team and fund raising efforts in the next update. Easter was a great day!! The Lord has risen and we were able to celebrate with Roxanne's grandma in L. A. and the entire Padilla Family. It had actually been two years to the day since we had seen everyone in a group setting like that since Alina had gotten sick in the fall of that year. What an amazing day to see all the little kids growing up, new additions, and of course all the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins in this great family. WE ARE TRUELY BLESSED!! We love you all! We have a surprise trip for the kids coming up in the middle of the month to "The Happiest Place on Earth". We have previously gone when the kids turned two but with everything in the past year we had to postpone Bryce's trip until now. With Alina being healthy enough to get out, we can now enjoy small adventures to create some lasting memories for the kids.
We hope that life finds you well and look forward to sharing more great updates in the near future. Love, The King Family

February Leap Year Update

Happy Leap Year!
Alina has had a good month! She has remained healthy and is doing very well. She is continuing to do well in school and has progressed to the level 5 reading books! After starting 2-1/2 months late and missing two weeks in November and December Alina has been very determined to keep up with her classmates and it shows in her school work.
Her health has been doing well and with only a minor sniffle here and there we have had a good couple of months and are looking forward to Spring and more healthy days ahead! Alina had a breathing treatment on Monday Feb. 29th and it went well. Her lab work has been staying within the guidelines of the treatment protocols and we along with the Doctors are pleased with the results so far. She is getting more used to the procedure and is able to stay calm and perform the required breathing to inhale as much of the medication as possible. We are scheduled for her next treatment on March 28th and expectations are that the treatment will be successful. Aubrey and Bryce have settled into the day school routine and now have a few friends and actually ENJOY going to school. Aubrey is doing SO WELL!!! She is very smart and eager to learn everything. She is the first to come home on Mondays and start her homework and is doing a great job! WE ARE SO PROUD OF HER! Bryce is such a fun and loving little guy. He has a friend named Nixon and can't wait to see him every week. Typical boy, he is into everything and likes to "Play rough with Daddy" at every moment possible. He is such a blessing and we love to see him developing into such a good little boy. We will update in two weeks after Roxanne finishes with the NASCAR Race at the track as there will be BIG news with Alina being involved with another charity!! Love to you all, THE KING FAMILY

Over due update

Well it's been a little over a month since the last update and it has been a GOOD MONTH!! Since Alina had her tubes put in her ears on New Year's Eve we have had NO Fevers or illness! Thanks to God for this good health. Bryce and Aubrey have been well also so this has been a blessing for us all and a well deserved break from the hospital and Doctor trips. January was a good month. We were able to go visit Alina's Pals, Eric, Elenor, and Valentina on a surprise "adventure" to Santa Barbara for a weekend. The kids and adults had a great visit! We look forward to going again soon.
Bryce was able to get his BIG BOY bed and is now sleeping in his room through the night. This was a big step and allows mommy and daddy to get a full nights sleep. Aubrey has been doing GREAT at her day school and is slowly warming up to the idea of making new friends and branching out. So, as for Alina's progress everything has been going smoothly. She continues on her daily dose of chemotherapy and her once a month oral treatment at CHOC for her antibiotic. The last visit to CHOC, her blood counts were at 1700 and the treatment went well.
There is big news with the Auto Club Speedway and The Leukemia Lymphoma Society teaming up for a Light The Night Walk. This charity does great work towards the advancement of blood cancer treatment and research. Auto Club Speedway will be hosting a Light The Night Walk coming up in the fall and it will be announced at the up coming race in March. More to follow. Alina has been chosen as one of the Honored Heroes and is featured in the announcement brochure! We attended the LLS awards dinner the last week of January where Alina was a presenter on stage for the 2015 year fund raiser awards and Roxanne spoke to the group about Alina's story and journey up to this point. It was a great time and we look forward to helping this charity raise funds to aid in their research! We have been very blessed that this little girl has been recognized by both the charity Knots of Love and now The Leukemia Lymphoma Society. God has truly put her here for a reason bigger than we know and we are thankful for his blessings! We will update again in a few weeks. Again, thank you all for your continued prayers and support! We are truly grateful! Love to you all. The King Family

Christmas and New Year update

Well it has been nothing short of busy and hectic for this holiday season. Alina has been dealing with an ear infection since the last update which put her in the hospital again for three days the week of December 11th. After she was sent home she continued with the ear pain and slight fever and the Doctors decided that she would have tubes put in her ears to help drain the fluid. So after a check up and consultation Alina had her tubes put in on New Years Eve morning at 5:45 a. m. A long day to say the least but we are praying that this will allow her to not get a fever with any future cold she may get. So as for Christmas we had a GREAT day! My dad and Carol were able to come down Christmas Eve night and were here for the morning opening of gifts. The rest of our family joined in the celebration around 1:00 in the afternoon and it was a present opening marathon as it seemed that when anyone arrived Santa had come to there house and left more gifts. Dinner was good but the family time and memories created are the true blessing. Jesus is the reason we all are here to celebrate and his birth is the blessing of the day. As for New Years we stayed home as we were all exhausted from leaving the house at 3:45 a m to get to the O C by 5:00 for Alina's ear tube procedure. The surgery went well and the only thing now is we need to protect her ears forming getting wet during bath time. Nothing ear plugs can't fix!
We are praying that this year brings good health to us all, more family time with all of you, and that Alina continues to progress through her treatment and will near completion by the end of 2016 with no further complications.
We wish each and every one of you all the blessings of a great New Year and know that we love all of you very much! Love, The King Family, Scot, Roxanne, Alina, Aubrey and Bryce

Thanksgiving 2015

Okay, so after a good update last time we had some eventful weeks here. Three days after our last update Alina spiked a fever of 104.8 and ended up in the hospital for three days. They got her fever down and put her on an antibiotic for seven days.
Everything seemed okay until a week later on Sunday before Thanksgiving when Alina complained of ear pain. Back to CHOC and found that she now had an ear infection. Another round of antibiotics which just finished last Sunday, and here we are. Alina went today for her regular monthly treatment of her antibiotic( I know it's a lot of antibiotic talk) and everything went well! Tomorrow will be back to school and day care for the rest of the week. Hopefully we keep everyone healthy for the remainder of the year! Thanksgiving was a great time to reflect on how blessed we have been over the last year!! We could not have been able to stay as positive or strong as we did if it were not for EVERYONE who prayed, helped out, came over, or donated to help Alina and we are truly thankful to you all. Take some time to yourself and reflect on how blessed you are to live in this country, have your family, friends, your health, and a good job to be able to do the things in life you enjoy. We had my Dad and Carol come down from the Las Vegas area and Nana came over as well. Carol made a delicious dinner for us all and of course we all ate too much! Aubrey and Bryce have been adjusting to school and the new schedule but it will take more time as this has been a HUGE adjustment for them.
We are looking forward to a full house on Christmas and the blessings of family time on this sacred day!

Thank you again to all of you who keep Alina and us all in your prayers and who continue to follow her progress on this site!

We love you,

The King Family

Aubrey's 4th Birthday Party

We'll things have been going well for the past two weeks around here. The kids are adjusting to their new school schedules and of course we have all come down with colds as a result. Alina is doing well and has met a few of the kids in her class and found a new friend Victoria. They have hit it off from her first day and pretty much at dinner when we ask how her day was it always includes Victoria. Aubrey and Bryce have had a little harder time adjusting to school and especially Bryce. It has been a big step for him to go from being around his sisters and at home to being around a bunch of strangers in a different location. We are hopeful that he continues to be more comfortable as the days progress. Aubrey is doing better everyday and is really doing well with her learning! We are very proud of her as well as Bryce and Alina for these big steps in their lives.
Aubrey turned four this past Saturday and we had a Hello Kitty themed party. Pinata, jumper, and a fire to make smoars. The kids had a great time with their cousin Paul!

The King Family - Alina, Scot, Roxanne, Aubrey, and Bryce

One year update

Well I can't believe that it has been a year already since Alina was diagnosed. We have been very blessed by all of your prayers, love, and support for which we are truly grateful! Alina had her twelve week treatment on Monday October 12 and everything went very well. We were greatly SURPRISED to see that her ANC counts were at 3100 which is the highest yet. The treatment protocol has the ANC counts at between 750 and 1500 so we are curious to see if they adjust the dosages of her daily or weekly chemo treatments. With Alina doing well she has been released to start school on November 2. She is very excited to begin and to meet her classmates! Mom and Dad are nervous as we will not be right there if something were to happen, but it is a good step in a positive direction. Aubrey and Bryce will be enrolled in pre-school starting the same week so we have a lot starting in November. We pray that these transitions go well for all of us. The kids are very excited to go out on Halloween this year and costume pictures will be posted soon. They all look very cute! We want to THANK YOU ALL for your strength, prayers and support over the last year! We are VERY BLESSED to have the Family and Friends and caring people who have given of themselves in so many different ways to assist during this time of need.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Love to you all,

The King Family - Alina, Scot, Roxanne, Aubrey, and Bryce

Counts remain good

Well it's been a little over two weeks into the adjusted chemo therapy protocol and Alina has been doing great! We will be going to CHOC on Monday for another dose of her twelve week treatment which includes the vincristine, lumbar puncture, and one month anti biotic. The daily doses are going well and the once a week dose on Monday nights remains the only hurdle. We are trying to get Alina to take a pill form but she struggles with this and it seems that it will take longer for her to get comfortable with the pill but we will keep trying.
With Alina's counts being good we have tried to get out a little more. Last weekend we took the kids to the drive in movie at the Van Buren Theater in Riverside. The kids LOVED IT!!! We also went to Aubrey and Bryce's first Angels game. That was the night Mike Trout made THE CATCH, and David Friese had the walk off home run!! The kids had a great time and both Aubrey and Bryce got game balls. The seats were AMAZING and right on the field on the Angels third base side. Can't wait to go again next year! We are hopeful that the adjustment to the chemo medication will balance out Alina's counts and she will be able to start school at the end of the month. She is very excited about this and is doing well with all her homework so far! We will update later next week after the treatment. Thank you all again for your LOVE and SUPPORT! Love, The King Family

BIG REBOUND

Since the last update Alina has had an impressive jump in her counts! A week ago Thursday Alina had her counts at 463 but the actual was at an even 500 which meant she could restart her chemotherapy treatment(A BLESSING). The following Monday she had a follow up appointment and her counts shot up to 1800!! AMAZING! So now the Doctors have adjusted the medication by half on the Monday Methotrexate Chemotherapy medication and they also adjusted her weekend antibiotic to an IV type which is administered once every four weeks. We are praying that these adjustments will help to stabilize her ANC counts around the 1000 count level. We continue to have hope that Alina will be able to start school in a few weeks.

We have been busy trying to do things while we know her counts are good so thus the late update. We were able to go up to Oak Glen and pick apples and raspberries over the weekend which was a great morning on Saturday. And to top off the day a trip to the kids favorite restaurant Chili's. We had a good day full of fun and great memories. Roxanne and the kids took a drive to Grandma Angie's house on Sunday for a long over due visit and to complete a wonderful weekend! We go back in a week for the follow up blood work draw and to see where her counts have adjusted to with the new dosing. We will keep you posted in about a week.

As always, LOVE to you all and thank you for the continued prayers!

The King Family