Arden Quinn Bucher

SO SAD TO BRING YOU THIS NEWS,PLEASE PRAY FOR ARDENS FAMILY

At 8:34 pm tonight, Arden’s journey ended painlessly and peacefully. She joined the angels, including beloved family members, in heaven tonight. Rick, I, and our family are overcome with grief, but we know she is and always will be in our hearts and on our minds. Thanks to the diligence of the medical staff here at CHoP, every effort was made to save her. Hers was a dignified passing, and we were never rushed at all, able to hold her, rock her, sing to her, bathe her, talk to her, as well as hug and kiss her. We have been so profoundly moved by the outpouring of love, prayers, and support for our family. Thank you so much. We love you, too.God’s peace.Rick, Amy, and Grayson

Good Luck Stephan and Claire!

To two wonderful parents to be for the second time

Stephan and Claire,

Just wanted to wish you good luck for tommorow as you await the arrival of your new baby boy, Ethan!

Our prayers our with you for a succesful and pain free ceasar and that you are able to relish every moment of seeing Ethan for the very first time.

Please give Hannah an extra hug and kiss from us and tell her she has got a very important job now of being the big sister and we know she is going to be great at it!

Wishing you all our love,happiness and prayers

God Bless

Mark, Samm,Deqlan and Logan

Happy Birthday Lisa

Dear Lisa,

We wish you a very very Happy Birthday for today and many many more!

We hope you enjoyed your birthday picnic and we wish you all the best for the year ahead, we pray for all the blessings you so richly deserve!

Thank you for all your support and prayers and love for our soldier!

God Bless and lots of love

Mark,Samm, Deqlan and Logan

BYE BYE PORT

Hi Everyone

Just a quick note to let you know we spoke to Prof Beale and he will be removing the port on Tuesday afternoon at Morningside clinic. We need to be there by 1pm and then he will remove the port sometime during the afternoon and we can go home as soon as Deqlan is awake and had something to drink.

We had another trip to our paed last night, as Deqlan was screaming when passing urine, so we thought a bladder infection or something along those lines - when we eventually got to see the paed we where horrified to hear that there are still white spots on Deqlans tonsils! This could be the same tonsilitis that is resistant to the antibiotics or it could be thrush, which would explain the screaming, probably burning sensation when Deqlan has a nappy...so we have some stuff that hopefully clears it away and we have a standby prescription for another antibiotic if Deqlan gets a fever over the weekend. But so far so good,he seems great, no moaning today, so I think we are dealing with thrush, no wonder after two rounds of antibiotics in 2 weeks ..........


Please pray that Deqlan is fighting fit so that we can go ahead with removing the port on Tuesday and that he can heal in time for his Birthday!!!!!

God Bless have a great weekend, will post lots more on Meggies Birthday soon and details on our new addition to our site, the music!

Please, please say prayers for all our warriors, especially for Max and Arden

Great news for Will, his scans are stable!


Love Mark, Samm, Deqlan

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD

Happy 28th Birthday Meggie

To an incredible sister, Godmother and best friend

Happy 28th Birthday Meggie! We hope you have the most magical birthday ever and many many more.

I know this year is extra extra special as you have the biggest gift you could have ever hoped for in the form of your beautiful son, Keaton

I wish you all the love and happiness you could possibly imagine and i wish you all the blessings that you give to others, are all showered upon you

Thank you for being the best sister and friend to me - we share the most amazing bond and i know we always will - it is so much deeper then just being sisters,its best friends and we are such a huge part of each other - isn't it amazing how we don't have to say a word or not even be in the same room, and we know what each other needs .For teaching me so much and for making me laugh, picking my spirits up and for giving me the honor of being Keatons Godmother.

For being the best godmother to Deqlan - for being a part of his healing army from the very hour we found out about the journey that lay ahead of us. For being at every doctors appointment, scan, every hour of every day , even getting to the hospital at 6am in the morning to relieve mom so i would never have to be alone. even now, with a gorgeous son of your own, you both get up and get ready no matter what time in the morning, with your green and camo outfits , and join us at every test and scan - my gratefulness for this, can never be shown or told to you in words - know that this has altered my life in so many ways and there is no amount of times i could say thank you for all you have done and continue to do for our Deqlan who loves you very very much.

For the love you shower upon Logan, for all the guidance and love and making her feel so loved and important - cant wait for her to come and visit you to again, she loves you so very very very much to.

You are such a special friend, not only to me, but all those who know you - nothing is to big for you to help with, no problem to insignificant, no friend will be left heartsore without you trying your everything to cheer them up and help them out

Your enormous and giving heart to any project you can help with - again no words to say thank you for the choc projects you have initiated and handed over in absolute honor of Deqlan and others fighting nb and other cancers - you always give to everyone in need , in anyway you can

I could go on the entire day on the amazing person you are

Please always know how much i love and appreciate the compassionate, loving, caring, supportive, giving sister, and friend you are

I am so proud to call you my sister and best friend and i love you with all my heart and soul! cant wait to get to see you today to give you a huge hug to wish you the best birthday ever , holding the most precious gift you will ever receive,Mr Keaton John Du Plessis

love you Meggie, God bless
Mark, Samm, Deqlan and Logan

Charlize Beetge

It is heartbreaking for me to tell you that little Charlize Beetge, went home to be with Jesus.

She was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma at the age of 4, just 1 month before Deqlan was diagnosed. We spent a few hospital stays together and visited in each others rooms sharing photos and stories and prayers.

After 11 rounds of chemo, surgery to remove the remainder of her tumor in her abdomen, Charlize was considered to be doing well, until March of this year, when the monster returned , even worse then before.

Charlize, leaves her heartbroken parents and 6 month old sister and many others who have followed her journey and prayed for this sweet, shy, gentle princess.

Thank you to you all for praying for Charlize, i now ask you for your prayers for her family and friends who have to face the toughest days ahead.

God Bless you Charlize, we will never forget you, rest in Jesus
All our love
Mark, Samm, Deqlan , Logan and all our family and friends

A change in plans

Hello Everyone

After a lot of phone calls and discussions between various different and important parties we have had a change in plan with regards to Deqlans port removal , vaccinations and therapy sessions!

You know what they say, a change is as good as a holiday!

Because the live vaccinations , in the form of the mmr and chicken pox vaccines, can cause complications if administered to close to an anesthetic, and because Dr De Jager feels it is more important to get the port out then give vaccinations at this stage -we have decided to first have the port removed, wait a few days until Deqlan has recovered and then administer the first of the vaccines. This way, we minimise compromising his system by having him healthy and strong into the anesthetic to remove the port.

Our amazing surgeon Prof Beale is away in Australia at the moment, so we can only chat to hom on Friday when he returns, and will only then know when the removal will happen. As you know , there is no discussion that no other surgeon will ever touch Deqlan again.

So, this means that Deqlan will probably only have the vaccines after his 2nd Birthday

This means that the format of you of the vaccines changes from a 6 in 1 , to a 3 in 1 - this means Deqlan will need an additional 3 injections to catch up on everything we need to give him , so 10 in all!!! Shame, poor guy, but we will work out the schedule as best as we can as to minimise side effects and not jab Deqlan with to many shots in one day. So, things are going to take a little longer then we planned, but this is Gods plan and thats the plan we are going to follow - we believe that Deqlans port didnt work 2 weeks ago to perhaps lead us to removing it first, so we trust that this is the right way to go .It just means that Deqlans Birthday party will still be a little smaller this year to continue limiting germs, but next year, boy oh boy is going to be a huge celebration with you all!

The other suggested change comes from our therapists. We are going to try and do a few different things to see what kind of reactions and progress we can get out of Deqlan. As mentioned before deep pressure excercises seem to be a firm favorite with Deqlan and we definitely see results. These include brushing Deqlan down every 3 hours, swinging in a hamock, lying on the floor, sliding on his tummy and his big favorite at the moment, the jets of the jaccuzi- we definitely see a calmer, less frustrated Deqlan after this activities, especially after the jaccuzzi. We are also going to start swimming lessons which we know Deqlan will love.

So we are going to continue these specific activities at home, and try and teach Deqlan things straight after, when he is calm and ready to take it all in . We are also going to try and set up play dates with a few buddies who dont go to school , at least twice a week to increase Deqlans interaction with kids his own age and bring the activities we wouldve done at therapy, into the play session with his friends. Another suggestion by the girls is horse riding therapy for movement integration .

Instead of having therapy at the centre, our therapists will work through us, in Deqlans home environment. We will monitor his progress over the next 6 weeks and then sit down again to decide what works best for our soldier. By this time, Dr Smuts will re evaluate Deqlan again and give us her opinions and suggestions.

I am very excited to try something new and definitely to be around other kids , Mark and I know that this is going to make a huge difference for Deqlan.

Enjoy the new pics they are from the past few days- we had our first braai at our new place and were thrilled to have Grandpa and Nanna, Great Grandpa, Conrad , Meggie and Keaton as our guests for the afternoon .We had a great time watching the boys get up to mischief, especially our monkey we discovered a 'sand pit' in the garden beds of our garden. Deqlan took great delight in tasting the sand, rubbing it in his hair and throwing it all around him - how it didnt land in his eyes i dont know! Deqlan showed everyone how much he loves the sprinkler and then we decided to go for a walk to the park after dinner. The boys enjoyed a bath together , but little Keaton was ready for sleep time by then and nodded happily off into the land of nod, while Deqlan continued to play and entertain us for a little while longer! The other pics are of Monday, even Keaton was sporting his green outfit in support of our soldier remaining NED !!!

Well , its a big week for a lot of our family and friends please help me pray as follows:

1) For Will's scans on Wednesday and Thursday to show great improvement

2) For little Declans tumor to respond to chemo and be destroyed completely

3) For Arden to heal and for her respiratory problems to be resolved

4) For Ruans stem cell transplant to be a huge success and for courage and patience for his Mom Yolandie

5) For Dee's psa cancer levels to be down and for him to remain healthy and well

6) Miracles for Max

Please remember all our friends around the world, their families and friends, our angels in heaven and their loved ones to.

Have a great week, and please please continue the prayers for Deqlan , always to remain NED

God Bless and lots of love

Mark, Samm & Deqlan

BE STILL KNOW THAT I AM GOD