Violet Brielle Spataro

This is the face that I fight for. A fire has been lit within my heart in recent months to connect with other families going through the battle of childhood cancer. I offer whatever I can ... Prayers, encouragement, information, Violet's survival story, handmade hats from our shop for their children ... anything that can help. I know that every act of kindness that you can get when your child is in treatment and in monitoring makes a world of difference. When Violet was diagnosed with cancer, a few very kind friends reached out to me and offered the contact information of other families they knew were going through the same with their children. At the time, I could not bring myself to contact these families. It was too much. I have so much empathy that when I talk to someone on the phone who has a cold I start to feel symptoms, so I just could not imagine taking on more than our own battle with cancer as it was overwhelming. I needed all of my strength to get my family th...

This week is World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week. Early diagnosis is crucial to offer the best chances of saving a child's sight and life. In honor of our brave little fighter, we are re-posting our very first post so that you may understand how the majority of children are diagnosed ... by their parents noticing the signs first and fighting to have their child seen by a specialist. On Monday, July 18th, our sweet baby girl Violet was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a very rare form of pediatric cancer that develops in the retina of the eye. The doctors did not catch this. We did. We don't know exactly when Violet got this cancer but she was seen regularly after birth for her weekly appointments, her 2 month, 3 month and then was seen twice when she was 4 months old because she had a bad cold. At all appointments her eyes were looked at and nothing out of the ordinary was seen. I have read that in most cases of Retinoblastoma general practitioners do not catch this con...

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...

Violet had her last EUA (exam under anesthesia) in December and a follow up with her Oncologist in January. Both appointments had fantastic results! Violet has had no recurrence of cancer and she is exceeding all of her milestones, showing us that her chromosome 13 deletion is having no effects on her physical and mental learning abilities. Praise God with me! :) I say this often and it is with my whole heart, "We are so grateful!" As Violet gets older, it seems the hospital appointments are becoming increasingly difficult for her. It's really hard for Josh and I to see her get so upset and scared. At her last appointment, she screamed when they just went to take her blood pressure. That has never happened before. Violet is obviously starting to associate that one thing leads to the next part that she does not like. Thankfully, Violet is able to go 3 months before she needs to go through it all again. And, we are very hopeful that all will go well with her next EUA...

After singing bedtime songs tonight, Violet snuggled in, sharing my pillow, and held my face close to hers with her little hand. She fell asleep that way. It warmed my heart and made me smile. My thoughts turned right to God and I thanked him for such a precious moment. It was so sweet. We had 3 entire months off from hospital visits this summer and it was so wonderful! We were so happy to have that break. We went to different parks, Seattle Center, Pike's Market, the Bellevue 4th of July festival and had visits from our family in California. Such a blessed time! Violet had a blast and so did we. :) On Wednesday, September 5th, Violet had her EUA (exam under anesthesia) at Seattle Children's Hospital. When the surgery scheduler called to give me all of the pre-procedure guidelines, she had let me know that Violet was the first child on the schedule for the day. I was so grateful because Violet has had so many days where she is later on the schedule and when things run ...

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...