When Everything Changes: One Family Battles Leukemia

I couldn’t sleep Monday night; tossing and turning, I reached over to check the time on my phone, ending up mindlessly thumb swiping up through Facebook recaps of friends’ Mondays. They come and go, usually unwelcome, typically mundane. Just another day of back to work, back to school, back to the juggling act. Except for my friend MaryKate.

February 9, 2015, will be etched forever in this family’s story. In the loneliness of night, the same MaryKate probably stayed awake through, I read what changed everything.

“There is no easy way to describe the past 12 hours. We started our day like any other but by this evening we were sitting in a hospital room at Children’s Mercy with the news that our sweet baby girl Kit has leukemia. My heart is broken and shattered. So there it is. In the blink of an eye our whole lives changed. We started our morning like any other and ended it in a way I never imagined.”

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It’s a strange thing being a mother; we still feel like girls inside sometimes, wonder if we’re playing house. We remember the tears of our own childhood and work with everything we have to protect our little ones from those threats. Toddler tumbles and elementary school drama – it’s petty, but it still hurts. And yet, in a doctor’s single phone call, MaryKate was faced with choices and decisions and then no choice, every other pain she’d ever cried over faded. It was now simply about fighting.

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Sunday for the VanSickle family was smooth. MaryKate had noticed a few bruises on her spunky little one and when running her hands through tousled wayward curls and felt a bump at the base of her little head. Consulting nurse friends in conversation, they attributed it to simple childhood ailments, but suggested a checkup with a doctor, just in case. A mother’s intuition is unparalleled in wisdom, and they were in for an appointment the next morning. Things happened quickly from there.

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After an examination and blood work, MaryKate returned home to wait. As she tucked Kit in for a nap as normal, the phone rang. “We think Kit has leukemia. Please come in right away,” she was told.
“Pack a bag, for both of you.”

“Pack a bag?” she murmured incredulously, telling me later, shaking her head, tears filling her eyes.

“How do you pack a bag for this sort of thing? I was a crazy woman. I didn’t end up with anything I needed. It was worthless. I had three pajama tops, no pajama bottoms. I mean, I just couldn’t process.”

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Less than 24 hours after the initial appointment, Kit was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and underwent surgery to implant her port for the first dose of chemotherapy which she received promptly after the surgery, as well as a spinal tap for bone marrow samples. Of Kit’s blood cells, 86% are leukemia cells. Blood transfusions, hemoglobin count and steroids will be a part of this family’s daily vocabulary, their living, for a long time to come. Where her momma used to run her fingers through tangles of the days’ adventures, she’ll soon run her fingers over softer, smoother skin.

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Corey, Kit’s father, posted as his little girl dosed off for the first time within strange hospital walls, “Scared, angry, afraid, heart broken… these are some of the words that could describe us the past 24 hours. ‘Alone’ is not one of them.”

MaryKate wrapped her arms around me as I visited them the next day. Her body leaned into mine, needing, numb, exhausted.

“There’s no way we could get through this except for God and friends. I can feel them lifting us up. It’s the strangest thing. I can, literally, feel us being lifted by everyone.”

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Personally, I have been changed this week. I’ve seen a family go from every day to one day at a time. I’ve watched friends and family come together, share the story and rally behind one mother, one father, one brother, all because of one baby girl. The monetary donations are essential as jobs will need to take a back seat as full-time caregiving will become the new normal and hospital visits become a part of the routine. The funds are coming in steadily, but there is more. A four year-old brother will need care, dinners will need to be on the table, a house will need cleaning. Naps will become a thing of the past as Kit works through the steroids and the subsequent physical and emotional battles. She’ll need to be kept peaceful, yet busy. The needs are many, but the community is greater.

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There was no warm-up, no easing into this battle. Adrenaline is high, emotions are worn and everything has changed. Their journey is a hopeful one, one they know many have traveled before them, but it won’t be without fight. And their baby girl, she’ll join the ranks of those fighters, Irish spunk and all.

See Kit’s story and more photographs by Allison Corrin Photography here

Please pass Kit’s story on, share her video, give as you feel led here.
But, most importantly, be prepared to watch how this little girl fights her battle with joy, strength and triumph.

Allison French
Allison French is the mother of Ellie, Tristan, Judah and Lucy, living in south Kansas City with her hubby of eight years, Chris. After teaching elementary school in Blue Valley for six years, she established her photography business, Allison Corrin Photography and specializes in newborn and lifestyle photography. Passionate about soaking up the sweetness in the simple, she muses over the dirty diapers, noisy time-outs, piled-up dishes, read alouds, never-ending pile of laundry, and other everyday lessons of motherhood in her personal blog here. A good day for Allison would include getting up while it’s still dark (and quiet), a good cup (or two…or three…) of creamed-up coffee, reading one of the (at least three) books she’s always in the middle of, a little blogging, followed by a long run or dancing at her Jazzercise class and concluded with baking something sweet with her own sweetums … and then promptly chowing down.