Ari’s Update January 22, 2011
Many of you have been asking me how Ari is doing. I apologize for the delay in responding.

Travis has been in Salt has been texting me updates from the hospital in Salt Lake. I received the following text from him this morning. With his permission I am going to post it:

She is still the same. Her heart has remained strong. They anticipated her heart to fail soon because of all the work to take care of the other organs not Functioning. But her heart has remained strong. My thoughts are; are we prolonging her death having her hooked up to these machines that keep her alive? But in The moment as a parent if she is willing to fight I feel like I have to make the calls to do all we can to help her live. If we disconnected her she would die very rapidly. But how do you pull the plug when she is still fighting. It reminds me of a boxer who is getting killed in the ring but told his corner man "do not throw the towel in no matter what" "I think that was actually a scene on Rocky" then he came back and won. He was willing to die trying.
I believe Ari is Saying the same thing. "do not give up on me because I haven't given up on myself" but as a parent it is the hardest thing to allow to continue. But it is also The hardest thing to "say pull the plug" I guess what you do is trust God and fight right beside her and appreciate the moment that you have to fight with her Win or lose, as a parent I will look back and know that I didn't give up on her, God or myself and regardless of the outcome we will all win.

It reminds me of When Kaleb Pierce showed up at our door back in Highschool in Page with blood coming down the side of his face. He had gotten himself into a fight that was going to require some help. So 4 of us showed up to literally fight 15 plus people and half those boys could bench press small vehicles. But Kaleb went out there and with Zero hesitation of reservation commenced to pick out the biggest boy and convince him he was going to eat him for lunch. I knew all 3 of us were going to have The butt whooping of our lives. Yes I said 3 because the 4th had high tailed it out the other way and left just us 3 and the 3rd guy couldn't whip himself out Of a wet paper bag (as Dad would say) But because Kaleb was willing to go out with such tenacity I had no choice but to fight with him. Well for those of you that have heard The story. You know we walked away glorious. Well now looking back I have to add "Glorious Bastards"
Anyways Haley and I have remained very positive and Supportive of her through the night and Haley has been very encouraging to her. When you have such a little thing fighting so hard with so much faith, I have to Admit watching Ari fight with such faith and strength "It is easy to remain strong, positive and allowing much faith to be put into the Lord." after last night I feel extremely honored to be her father. I have never been so touched and moved by an individual’s example. I never ever would have dreamed it would be by a three year old little girl. Right now I feel no fear, no doubts, patients and full of love and hope. That doesn't mean it’s going to be sunshine and rainbows for us. and it doesn't mean the outcome is Going to be what I want but I do know that God is in control and loves us and that is enough for me. So I am just going to continue to fight right beside her and continue to trust God and endure until the answers arrive.

He sent this picture and wrote, "she is peaceful"

This little girl has been through so much and remains the sweetest little thing. I love her so much.

Happy BMT birhthday

We are now getting bone marrow. Alaina is setting records for recovery. She gets to be in the room with Arianna. They sang happy BMT birthday to her and is was a lot of fun. We now will celebrate 2 birthdays every year. Every one cheered for both Arianna and Alaina. Laney felt like quite a hero today. The bone marrow looks like a christmas red. I think that is from the oxygen in the blood. Eventually Ari will only have Alaina's blood in her. We are pretty exited because Laney has graet energy and a good imune system.

Liz's song

It's hard to say goodbye, when we barely said hello
It's the hardest thing I've ever done, I have to let you go
I hold you in my arms, and kiss your angel face
I'm holding on to memories to fill this empty space

I thought I had a lifetime to teach all you need to know
Instead you were the teacher, I needed time to grow
Watch over me from Heaven, my little angel up above
You'll be in my heart forever, there's no greater love

CHORUS:
I'll see you once again
Time will never end
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
Forever we will be
Together through eternity

Travis

Well I got to thinking the other day that my life is a bit challenging. But then I thought of all the blessings I have and the list seemed to never end. However my mind went back to the picture of Arianna vomiting and convulsing uncontrollably, with tubes in her mouth, nose and lines running into her chest, with numerous other lines on her head, arms and feet to sustain her life. The monitors indicating her heart rate at a dangerous amount her breathing so low that she is requiring a machine to breath for her, her head so swollen that it looks deformed her stomach literally 4x the size it should be due to the disease that has infected her organs and brain.

That is a sad picture for anyone to witness especially as her parent, you want so bad to somehow help her or even take her place. I am safe to say, that is not something a father wants to witnesses his 2 year old daughter going through. However, this morning I am grateful that this is my challenge. Today I read in the Book of Mormon Moroni Chapter 9 and thought how terrible that would be to be a father and have to witness your daughters lives to come to an end in such an evil and horrible way.

Then I thought about the challenge it is to face these investors on a daily bases, it really hurts to know that I have put these people in such a financial wreck, the fear that they have, the negative feelings they have towards me ect. But then I read verse 6 and Mormon was very inspiring in his words. Even as bad as the situation was for him he continued "diligently"

I really want to thank all of you for your prayers, fasting, love and support. It is comforting to know that I have friends and family that care and that are willing to help in anyway that they can. "its just a good feeling to know your not alone"

I really am grateful for my challenges it has given me an opportunity to exercise and increase my faith, hope and to be able to dig deep inside of me and become a better person, by being diligent and never giving up. I am learning that victory and success is not defined by the outcome, that it is defined by the honor and integrity that you fight for and stand for despite the outcome.

Faith

To me faith is knowing that if you are trying to live your life right God is taking care of you no matter what happens in your life.
So many times in church you hear people talk about how heavenly father protected and blessed them because they were living there life right and paying there tithing. This is so true and I have been protected and blessed so many times for trying to follow the spirit and do what's right. But you hardly ever hear the lord let my little baby get cancer and experience all her pain because we were trying to live our lives right. But I believe having faith means knowing that what ever he has happen in our life along our journey. If we are trying to choose the right it is all a blessing and for our good and benefit. He loves us and knows what we can and can't handle and I am so grateful to him not only for my blessings and protection but for my trials as well and knowing that he will always be there for me.

bone marrow is a go. Her hart looks better so even though they can't get her disease under control they are going to go ahead. So here we go. We all fasted that if she was meant to be done that her hart would not look better. So we are hopeful.
When we heard about being able to do bone marrow Alaina leaned down to Ari and excitedly said did hear that Ari you don't have to die.

According to Taylor. Alaina has fancy vain and we are lucky she is the match. When we got labs done the nurse said that alaina medieval vain is easy to access. It has less nerve cells so it doesn't hurt very bad and it has great flow.

When we saw the nurse that worked on Alaina she said "that is the nurse that poked me and took my blood, she so nice".

It is official Alaina is crazy. Just teasing. Here she is getting labs.

Family pictures

I love Hayley and no I'm not talking about myself. My sister is law Hayley is the bomb. She took our family pictures on my birthday. She us so talented. It takes a lot of work to make people 50 plus Pounds over weight look decent. We had so much fun doing them. Ari and Lilly did great they were both really happy. Ari was in a lot of pain, but she was such a sweet hart. Thanks again Hayley.