June 30th, 2021- Diagnosis Day, Six Years Later

Six years ago today, everything in our world changed.

On the afternoon of June 30th, 2015, we would hear the four letters that would re-shape everything about our lives but most painfully, prematurely take our beautiful Avery’s life.

DIPG.

Six years.  The same age Avery was when she was diagnosed, just a few months short of her 7th birthday.

Six years of a healthy life, 7.5 months of sheer pain and torture and now six years since that torturous 7.5 months began.

Six years since our lives changed.

Six years since Avery was given a death sentence.

Six years since we were told to go make a lifetime of memories in as short a time span as we possibly could.

Six years since we were told that a cancerous tumor had been spotted on Avery’s brain stem, that there was no option for surgery, there was no life-saving plan, there was, essentially, no hope.

Six years since our hearts were ripped apart.  

Six years since we took her in for an MRI, hoping for the best, not even preparing for the worst, because, no way this could happen, right?

Six years since the ophthalmologist said “Avery, you were so brave” after she had the MRI done, only to turn to us and say “But unfortunately, there is a tumor.”

And everything changed.

Six years since Avery sat in a hospital room at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, told us “how everyone is being so really nice to me.”

Only for five minutes later, have an oncologist tell us Avery had Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, DIPG, and there was really, nothing, nothing that could be done.

Six years since our heads spun, our hearts sunk, our stomachs ached.

Each year, on June 30th, and only on June 30th, I go back and read the very first Caring Bridge entry I made (https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/averyhuffman/journal/view/id/5594afb8a589b41969f8406d).  

There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t look at a picture of Avery, spend time thinking about her, miss her so much it hurts, wish everything would have been different.

So much more different.

Six years later, everything in our world is different. Nothing makes sense.

Six years ago, everything changed, and while we’d love to say we’ve become better people as a result, all I can say with certainty, we’ve become different.

But six years after a diagnosis would lead to 7.5 months of bravery, fight, love and compassion, we can still say, we’ve never been more motivated or inspired by one person like we were by our sweet, precious, Avery Hayden Huffman.

She is why we fight.  Every single day.

And why we will ALWAYS fight.  Every single day.

Because she was the picture of brAvery.

She was the face of fight.

She is our hero, our inspiration and our motivation.

And we will never, ever, stop telling her story, carrying on her legacy or being inspired by her fight.

The Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation will fight until there is a cure. Until no family has to ever hear “we’re sorry, but there is nothing we can do.”

Because there is so much we can still do.  For her, for every family.  Fight with us. 

Fight for Avery. https://averystrongdipg.org/donate

We miss her so much, we love her so much and she is in our hearts forever.

#AveryStrong

Brandon, Amanda, Alexandra, Cade and Addison.