This is Ava Sivley. She is almost seven years old and was recently diagnosed with b-cell ALL (acute leukemia). She is at St. Jude’s with her parents receiving treatment while her four siblings are three hours away at home with family. If you feel led to help this family please donate.

Ava’s Story by Jay Sivley (her dad)

Things change.

I’ve heard that my whole life. I’ve lived through some of those times. Getting married, losing grandparents, having kids, having twins, learning those twin girls have Down syndrome on the day they were born. That was a big one!

But Wednesday was the biggest so far.

My Ava had spent some time at Grandma Judy’s house Tuesday. Mom noticed her lymph nodes in her neck were swollen. So we got her into the Dr office on Wednesday. So Dr Parmer felt of her and noticed the swollen nodes went up onto her scalp as well. He looked concerned. He said, let’s get blood work and we’ll go from there. I already knew when he came back in what was coming. It’s a bit blurry, but I know I heard “high levels” and “consistent with acute leukemia. We need to make a plan.” Everything on earth stopped. It took me a few minutes to even be able to form a coherent sentence. Dr gave me a few to get it together. So, after a few minutes, I was able to get in touch with Rayni at work. She came to the office. After crying a ton and listening to what’s next, the best thing happened. Dr Parmer asked if he could pray with us. That settled my soul. He’s absolutely excellent. The next little bit is a blur as well. Ava and Rayni went to Huntsville to get more test to confirm. I went home so one of us would be with our other kids for day 1 of school, which suddenly wasn’t as a big deal as it has been.

Moving forward, Ava and Rayni got an ambulance ride to Memphis, I came up the next day, and here we go. Instead of going to regular school on day one, we’re going to “B cell ALL” cancer school with my precious little Ava Ruth Sivley. Things change.

Having said that, God doesn’t change. And God knows every little cell anywhere in the universe and what they are doing, and what they will do. Being totally honest, I definitely have sinned in regards to Jesus command to “worry not.” We’re worried. But the Dr’s have been pretty positive in their outlook. We’ll know a little more as the weeks go by. We want every single prayer you can send on her behalf. And we already feel them. Keep them coming!

So far, she’s had surgery to get a port in her chest. She’s had a bone marrow biopsy. She’s been shot up with steroids. And she got her first chemo treatment this morning. And she’s handled everything like a BOSS! Now, she’s just playing!

I’ll do my best to keep everyone posted as we go. We know we’ll be here for weeks/months. And, if things go well, it’ll be 2+ year process. So here we go.

Thanks to everyone for helping out in a million ways with kids and food and support and prayers, especially our families. I cant imagine how someone does this without a bunch of help.

We’ll try to respond to all of the kindness when we can!

God made her. God loves her. And God is in control. Things change. God doesn’t.