SSSC#218 - Hello There

 Hello there!  If you're a follower or subscriber to my blog, you might be wondering where I've been over the last month or more.  It's a long story and I usually don't share my private life here on my blog but here goes...(I'll try and keep this short).  About a year and a half ago my youngest son was diagnosed with scoliosis, the first doctor that we took him to recommended that he wear a back brace to try and correct my son's curvature.  The doctor did think it was odd that 1.) My son was so young to have the curvature he had (5-6 years old) 2.) He was male as most cases of scoliosis are female and 3.) That my son had a lot of muscle stiffness.   After many month's of wearing a back brace with no success in holding his curve or improving his scoliosis, we were recommended to another pediatric orthopedic doctor who was wonderful.  This doctor was not only great with my son and my husband and I but also recommend that my son have an MRI.  Having an MRI literally saved my son's life, because the results showed that my little guy had a three inch tumor within his spinal canal and that he had what is called a sirnix (an abscessed filled with spinal fluid) putting pressure on all his nerve endings within his spine and pressure on the spine it self which in turn caused his scoliosis to become so sever. On March 28th my little guy had extensive back surgery (he's seven years old) to remove the tumor.  I Thank God for giving us the talented pediatric neurosurgeons that operated on my son, they truly are miracle workers. And so thankful to all of our family and friends who were there to help support us and pray for our son. After two weeks of waiting to hear from pathology, we were blessed with the news that the tumor they took out was benign.  But because only 95% of the tumor could be removed during surgery and the chance that the 5% that's left may grow back, he may still require radiation.  As of today he is doing so incredibly well, it's amazing, he's almost back to his old self again. Soooo...that's what I've been up to over the last month.

As far as my card goes for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, I kept it fairly simple.  I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets Ruby Rose (I just love that set) along with the coordinating dies and the sentiment is from Mini Blooms.  The colors are Raspberry Fizz (PTI), Summer Sun, Pink Pirouette and Kiwi Kiss.  Karen's thrown me off with this tilty top panel sketch, I kept tilting my head to try and make it look right.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Sketch Stampers have created:

• Dana White
• Jackie Pedro
• Jodi Collins
• Karen Giron 
• Karen Motz
• Lisa Henke
• Lori Tecler  
• Sarah-Jane Kalé
• Tracy Clemente
• Vicki Burdick  
• Barbara Anders
• Jenny Peterson