Violet Brielle Spataro

Please join Violet in her very special Give Love campaign to benefit Make-A-Wish. When Violet heard that hundreds of children were not receiving wishes due to lack of funding, she immediately wanted to help. Now through Valentine's Day, Violet will be fundraising to  help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.   When asked about her wish, Violet had this to say, "It made me forget all about my hospital appointments. When I got to Disneyland, I was so happy! Mickey played Candy Land with me and everyone called me Princess Violet. I loved it!"  You can help by contributing any amount you feel moved in your heart to give - $10, $50, $100 or even more. Every dollar you donate can help Make-A-Wish kids renew their courage and find a turning point in their lives. Give Love and donate today by clicking HERE . <3

Our sweet Violet is having an amazing summer. We were blessed to start it off with a perfect EUA showing no recurrence! Tears of joy every time. We are so grateful to God for His loving mercy and for His protection over our family. <3 The night before Violet's EUA, we kept her up late in hopes that she would sleep in the next morning as she had a late check-in time. Since she is not able to eat anything before, we wanted her to sleep through as much of the morning as she could. It worked. Violet didn't wake up until 10AM and we had just enough time to get her ready and head out for Seattle Children's Hospital. Violet played games, colored a few pictures and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as we waited in the surgery center waiting area. She was doing really well with no food or drink. Unfortunately, Violet's ophthalmology team ran very behind on this day. We didn't get called back to begin the process of vitals and prep until a little over 2...

For the first time in a very long time I feel like we are beginning to live a normal-focused life together as a family. It is an amazing feeling and I am so grateful for it. The days of being in the hospital on a weekly basis gets smaller and smaller in the past behind us. I thank God for that every single day. We are no longer living with family. We have recently moved into a home of our own and we love it very much. And, although we are still in financial strain with all the catching up we have to do, it was time. Time for us to be together on our own, in our own space and to just feel settled. To be able to unpack things from our home in California that we haven't even seen in over 2 years ... it's a wonderful thing! I can never express fully how thankful we are for all the help we have received to get us to this point. And, it is so reassuring to know that we have such an amazing support system to help us get through the years to come with Violet's monitoring ap...

This sweet little girl. She continues to amaze us and inspire us every single day. What a huge blessing we have in Violet. There is just so much to be grateful for and not a day goes by that we take for granted.  Violet has had her port-a-cath surgically removed and life after the port-a-cath is amazing! Can I just share with you that Violet was running around playing just a few short hours after surgery? It was as though she knew she was free from it and I think our happiness in reaching this day just seeped into her. We can pick her up under both arms without worry of dislodging a device in her chest. It's wonderful! Josh yearned for the day when he could lift Violet up into the air (like many parents do on a daily basis without thought) and now he can and does often!  The concern over Violet's chromosome 13 deletion and the developmental/physical impairments that we were told she may have ... they are not an issue. Violet is walking, climbing, talking up a ...

The day before an EUA (exam under anesthesia) for Violet is always filled with a bit of nervousness. Being human, we have our moments where our hearts and minds can wander and fear will always try to take a hold of you if you choose to allow it. That night before we had to take Violet to the hospital, we all got into bed and (for probably the dozenth time that day) I began to pray for God to take care of our baby and for us to receive the news that Violet continues to be cancer free. As I began my prayer, before the thoughts even got past the "Please Lord" I was gently interrupted. I felt the comfort of God tell me that I didn't even need to continue, that he knew my heart and that it was already taken care of. This was so powerful that it made tears poor down my cheeks and brought a smile to my lips. I felt safe as if I was just given a huge comforting hug and I fell asleep knowing, not thinking, that Violet's exam would yield great results. Everything ran pretty...

It has been so amazing getting out and about with Violet this past month! We have been able to visit our family so much more and go on fun outings together. We have gone everywhere from the grocery store, the mall, church, the Seattle Aquarium and the Point Defiance Zoo. After 6 months of only getting to see the hospital it has been so exciting! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to get Violet out of the home and to see her enjoying new sites. Violet loved the aquariums! Seattle Children's Hospital is decorated in an ocean theme so there are some small fish tanks throughout. Violet has loved to watch the fish and that is one of the words she loves to say. So, we knew that she would be so excited to see the huge tanks at the aquarium. She was hugging the tanks like she wanted jump right in and was squealing with happiness. It was funny to see all the people around her smiling and laughing at her excitement and my husband, Josh, heard a woman behind us say, "She's ...

I have lost a lot of sleep over the last 6 months with everything that has been going on with Violet, but the last couple of nights I can barely sleep at all. First, I want to focus on the great blessings that we have right now. Violet is done with chemotherapy and her labs yesterday showed that all of her counts have almost fully recovered. This means that active treatment is completely over. There are no more weekly port accesses and blood tests! And, chemotherapy was very successful. Violet's ophthalmologist said that it was one of the best responses to chemotherapy that he has ever seen. That is so much to be grateful for. Violet's eye was saved (though we won't know exactly what kind of vision she will have for some time) and that in itself is amazing. 20 years ago, medicine wasn't anywhere close to where it is today for Retinoblastoma and her eye would have needed to be removed immediately. Thankfully, that was avoided. Another wonderful thing to report is Vio...

December was full of blessings for our family. Celebrating Violet's birthday and Christmas were very welcome distractions for us. While Violet's blood counts were down more than up, we were still able to be with family because thankfully no one was sick or had a cold. It was so wonderful to be able to dress her up, take her out and see the enjoyment on her face! excited to see Santa ... then a little bored haha not sure what to think of Santa yet I love that Santa gave Violet sweet cuddles opening presents! trying to figure out this ribbon this is fun! getting help from her cousins playtime! We did have an fever scare the weekend before Christmas. Whenever a child going through chemotherapy gets a temperature over 100.5 it means a trip to the ER to make sure there is no infection. With a port-a-cath like Violet has, there is always risk, and so it scared us, but thankfully after they checked her ANC level and found that it was not severely low, they felt co...

On December 6th, 2011, our sweet Violet Brielle turned one year old! This little girl has been through so much in the last few months, so we were extremely excited to have a day of celebration and fun with our family here in Washington (and 2 very special family members even flew in from CA to be here!). We had Violet's first birthday party on Sunday, December 4th at our apartment building in the 6th floor lounge. It was a great day and Violet had so much fun! Here are a few photos of the special day ... Pretty fresh flowers surrounded by sprinkles of paper violets  Handmade decorations for our owl theme (Look Whoooo's Turning One!) Birthday cupcakes Violet's first birthday cake Happy Daddy & Violet The party room Happy Grandma & Violet Playing with her butterfly shoes ... Violet loves butterflies! Mommy & Nana Opening presents! Sweet birthday girl Ready for some yummies! Having fun! Playing her new piano (just like Mommy!) H...