From Billy: 18 days ago my wife went in at 6 in the morning and had her marrow surgically removed from her hip to donate to our daughter, and by the afternoon it was being infused directly into Ava. Ava, who at this point had just been thru 15 days of pre-conditioning intensive chemotherapy in order to completely hollow out her immune system was finally getting what is the ultimate cure for her illness that has impacted much of her life. Today, on Mother’s Day, Ava’s neutrophils have for the first time passed the 500 total threshold. Which in the Bone Marrow Transplant world is a big deal. 500 neutrophils is the benchmark used to declare engraftment has taken place and Ava hit it exactly on Mother’s Day. And while there are many more milestones and a long journey still ahead for Ava, today is a big one. I know there are a lot of great Mother/Daughter stories to be told on Mother’s Day, but I don’t know if there will ever be one that tops this one for me personally so I felt I should share it. I could not be more proud of my 2 children and their Mother. Happy Mother’s Day!

Thank you to those who’ve sent well wishes, I am not the best at responding to things but I did see them all. And special thanks to everyone who donated to COTA for Team Ava:  cota.org/cotaforteamava/