February 16, 2022

 It’s been awhile since I updated, but we are home! The return home was a bit dramatic as Eston had COVID, but he was fine and we are so grateful to our friends who helped during this time.

Aurelia is thrilled to be home. We have to go to Barcelona every week or two for treatment and blood tests, but it’s a huge sigh of relief to have come this far in the treatment process.

Last weekend we participated in a walk that raised money for the oncology ward at Hospital Sant Joan de Deu. Aurelia was pretty excited to pin on a number, though she was less pleased with her fitness level. The run/walk was 6.5km and she did run some of it, but she told me she is coming back next year to win it all. 😂

Yes, her TDF lion has bows in its hair. 
These two went about 3 weeks without seeing each other due to Aurelia’s treatment and Eston’s COVID quarantine, so they were quite thrilled to be together again. ❤️
Aurelia is psyched to be back on the trails of Girona. Last weekend we did a family bike ride. Aurelia loves to turn the turbo on full blast on her ebike and cruise along at 35 km/hr, but this causes the battery to run out very quickly. I warned her of this, but going fast is too much fun. We rode 35km in total and the last 16km was difficult as she was tired and didn’t have any battery left. Lesson learned! 


With luck, aurelia will go back to school at the beginning of March! She is thrilled. I’d like to think I did a decent job of keeping her going in all of her subjects, but teaching in Catalan and Castellano is not easy and there have been many times where we had to wait for Eston to come home and assist us both. 

We live in a small town and Aurelia has known most of the merchants since birth. Everyone was very upset when she was diagnosed and the outpouring of love and support has been tremendous. Aurelia doesn’t like the attention she gets in town, but she doesn’t complain about the treats. 😂 
Our days are still pretty simple as we adjust and try to find our new normal (which keeps changing). We are just grateful to be at home enjoying the simple things.
Science baking experiments gone wrong. Horribly wrong.
So for now we just…keep going. We watch for fevers or a change in her disposition and hope for the best. Most of her chemotherapy is taken at home now and it all feels strangely normal to plan the day around her meds and how she is feeling. We hope she continues to feel strong and full of energy during the next year of treatment, but we will take it as it comes.

We won’t be traveling outside of Europe for another 1.5 years, but we are tentatively planning some trips within Europe. Aurelia is excited to take a road trip through France to watch the women’s Tour de France and we will of course be spending as much time as possible at our place up in the mountains. 

We have come a long way, but we do feel like we can see the light at the end of this long tunnel. ❤️

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