*Thank You*

Dear Friends,

Evans has been doing so much better and making improvements everyday. And we would just want to write a thank you for all your help, prayers and words of faith towards us. These things lift us up and have helped us get through Evans fight against cancer. We all hope that one day we can show as much love and friendship as you have shown us for the past year. I remember the very beginning of all this, with moms complications during those 9 months. I remember her in the hospitol just waiting for all this to end. But not only do I remember that, I remember all the people who came to the hospitol to see mom or to see Evan. And for all the people who came to the Fundraiser (hosted by Brittany Checketts) and not only donated but also took the time out of their day to be there. I also thank all the people who brought dinner for us or who were there for us DeVol kids as well, I know some of you may think these things are very small but it made a big difference in our lives. I have learned a lot of lessons in the past year and I thank you all for that. May god bless you,Thank You.

Sincerely,

DeVol Kids

*Written by Nadia DeVol

The boy without strings

Well, Today was the day!!!! Mom, Dad and Evan braved rush hour traffic in a snowstorm to get to Children's Hospital. We were only an hour late...the snow was terrible, traffic was even worse. Our appointment was for 7:45 am we left at 6:30 thinking we would get there with time to spare...boy was I wrong. We arrived at 8:45 and thankfully we were able to call ahead and warn them. The Hospital staff was great of course. The proceedure took all of an hour to take out the central line, stitch the tiny cut, and slap a band aid over the line site. This part they tell me will scab and heal on it's own with out a stitch. Amazing!!! Thank you for all of your prayers and angelic blessings of support and most of all friendship. We feel extremely blessed for all of your prayers and fastings that you have performed on our behalf. We are so grateful for all of you who have placed our names in the temple. We know that God lives and loves each of us here on this planet. He gives us challenges in life to prove our faith. To prove whether or not we will remain faithful to Him. Our challenge is not over, we understand this...Evan is only five months old... Life will roll out something else to overcome, hopefully something else we can overcome together with your help and especially the help of our Heavenly Fa.ther

Evan Almighty :)

  Evan's results came back yesterday, finally!!! It was the longest wait in my life!!! He did it! Without any treatment since December 21st Evan's markers dropped from 92/89 to 34/22. And all I know it is AWESOME!!!! We are happy beyond measures and SO grateful to our Father in Heaven for his mercy over our little boy. He is a fighter, but without God's help and all the angels here, on earth, we would not be able to get through this.
  On Monday, the 31st, we'll have to deal with another sedation, cause Evan's line will get removed. As silly as it sounds, I can't wait to give him a bath without any protecting covers on his chest.:)
     My heart is bursting out of gratitude to all of you, our friends, for your prayers, to the team of doctors who made the wise desisions in treating his desease, to all the nurses who had to take care of him in this journey, to Tiffanie who was here every Monday changing his dressing, getting his vitals, labs, weight and just being SO supportive.
   The journey is not over yet, I know, but where we are rightnow is a great feeling....

                                                First discoveries

                                                      Project Linus Blanket

                                                      With Peter

                                                     The whole crew, Evan's first Christmas

                                                              With Anya

The longest weekend ever...

 So, Evan's appointment was yesterday. It went pretty good all together. The lab results looked great, only magnesium and white blood count was a little lower than normal, but not alarming. The doctor was impressed with how healthy Evan looked, which I am reading as a very good sign. Now we are facing a very long weekend of waiting on urine test results. It takes 72 hours to get the results. So, the story is, that neuroblastoma activity can be determined by so called "urine marker". When Evan was diagnosed, his number was over 290 with a norm of less than 35. After 2 rounds of chemo, and 44% of tumor shrinking, the number dropped to 92/89. If the results of this recent test will be lower, then we have a chance of removing central line and have Evan on every month checks and scans every 3 months and hope we would never face a treatment again...

    With my worries about over 50% tumor being there... As the doc explained to me yesterday of what possibly happening. The chemo destroyed the active tumor cells, and whatever left there, Evan can possibly fight on his own. And I know he can, because he is a fighter and he is surrounded by love, and he is watched over and protected by our loving Heavenly Father. We've seen a lot of miracles already and believe that with faith and hope everything is possible!

Can't wait till Friday

Well, my morning started with changing a dressing on Evan's line, for the first time. I remember how stressed out I was when the nurses were training me to do it before we left the hospital back in November. Since then Tiffanie has been changing it every Monday, and if emergency arised, tnen Mat did  the job. So I thought I will never have to deal with the task. Little did I know.:) this morning, as I was changing Evan's jammies, I noticed that the top of the dressing had an opening. I panicked at first cause Mat was at work, and then , with my mom as an assistant(singing every song possible:)), I did it. Yay! It went well and now I am not afraid of doing it ever.
    Wanted to share that Evan has been gaining nearly a pound every week for the last 3 weeks. He definetely has a good apetite and looks like a very cute chubster. I could just eat his cheeks, so cute! That gives me hope that he is strong enough to fight on his own without any treatments. Looking forward to find out on Friday...

Waiting...

It's been pretty quiet in our home lately in regards of Evan's health. But in our books quiet is good.:) We are just enjoying getting to know him finally, without hospital and clinic visits. He had his labs drawn once and the results were looking very good. Even though his white blood count was lower than normal, it was still fine. And the reason of lower number was his sniffles and stuffy nose. I am SO grateful for our homecare nurse, Tiffanie, who comes every Monday to change Evan's central line dressing, and check his weight, and just give me a piece of mind, that he is doing good so far. Speaking of weight... Our little chunk is gaining almost a pound every week. He really doesn't look like he has cancer... That gives me hope, that he is strong enough to fight it off on his own. And he has such a cute personality! He is just ADORABLE when he smiles, but it's hard to catch on camera since, he is being a little stinker, just stares at it and studies the camera.:) Evan loves Peter, and Nadia, and Anya's dancing makes him smile. He can't get enough of babushka's stories and songs. Thankfully she knows SO many of them, that he can be entartained probably for hours.:)
     It's all peaceful in DeVol's home for now, thanks to all your good friends prayers and support! And we hope it will stay this way. So, January 21st next appointment, couple of days to wait for test results, and then we'll know what's next. Please, continue keeping our little Evan in your prayers...
Love
Zhenya

New Year...New Hope

Well, another week has gone by and now a new year has come upon us. Evan's test is coming up on the 21st. It is still a long ways away. As a parent of a sick child the thought of him being sick breaks my heart. I am on pins and needles every time he cries. I am so very thankful to my Heavenly Father for protecting all of us. The thought of possibly overlooking the behaviors and signs we were given to discover his illness scares me to death. The thought of losing him scares me even more. Thankfully the Lord has given us good doctors with experience and good medicine to reduce the size of his tumor. His hair is starting to thin, but it is still there...sort of. His appetite is back, and he recognizes Mom and Dad really well, We are grateful for all the little things.