KELLEELASER / photographer

Toledo Parent Article...

Looky what I found in Toledo Parent Magazine today... how lucky am I?  LOVE IT... A BIG THANK YOU TO MY FRIEND "G8R" WHO CALLED THE MAGAZINE AND TOLD THEM ABOUT ME A COUPLE OF MONTHS BACK... 

Makes me smile...

It was a busy day yesterday... after photographing the kids for the "Give Autism the Boot" campaign, I headed over to Perrysburg to photograph the newest additions to the "R" family (love this family)... They welcomed twins in January... and let me just tell you... I immediately fell in love with these babies (especially little man "G").  Since we had to work around the babies' schedule... I got to help feed and rock him...  SIGH... heavenly.  Anywho... Miss "N" (only child for 3.5 years) came home from preschool... and we got a few of her with her new siblings.  I knew I loved this picture the minute I took it... Mom mentioned early on that "N" was "adjusting" to now sharing mom and dad... and was also a bit partial to her sister... HMMMM... a bit?   Let's just say... I think this image says it all... what I love about this is that it just makes me smile... I hope that it does the same for the "R" family...

3/02/08... thought I would just add some additional pictures to this post...

I don't know why... but this image (in color) just tugs at my heart... (another new favorite)...

Until next time...

Faces of Autism 2008

I am once again humbled and honored to be asked to take part in the "Give Autism the Boot" campaign.  This morning I went over to the M.O.D.E.L. Community School to photograph some of their students.  This was my first time visiting the school... the teachers that work there... let me just say... it takes an incredibly special person... with an incredible amount of patience... to do what they do.  I was amazed at how the children responded and communicated with the teachers... some spoke... some used sign language.  Lots of smiles and laughter and love (I got my full dose of hugs from one of the students). The M.O.D.E.L. Community School is truly in amazing place.

The beauty of these children... they touch my soul every time I photograph them...

   

Unbelievably beautiful...

Drove around for a bit this afternoon after the snow stopped falling... This is a hard time of year for me... has been since I moved here 8 years ago...  this time of year just seems to DRAAAAAAAAAG... and I get a little homesick for the beaches in California.

But... on a day like today... I wouldn't want to be anywhere else... it is unbelievably beautiful outside...

I tried to get into Secor Park... but the gates were locked (and I wasn't too happy about that... I thought about just parking and trespassing :).  I found a side street and another park entrance... the first two images were taken there.  The one of the barn and water were taken near my home on King Road (between Dorr and Bancroft)...

Until next time...

Nine Months Beautiful... PART II

Remember this picture...?

HMMMMMM...

My girl "A" is pregnant with her second little one... and her twin sister "C" is just a couple of months behind her in her pregnancy.  This is my favorite of the both of them...

Here are just a few more favorites from this morning...

Until next time...

Busy weekend...

Still playing catch up... have maternity shoot Monday... really looking forward to that...

Tonight... 6 of us (Zoe and her friends) are all going to see Lion King (tickets courtesy of my rockin friend "AR"... love you girlie!!!)... and tomorrow... I am going as "AR's" date to OSCAR NIGHT.  Her very hot hubby "G"  (lead singer from Hepcats) is playing there.  Should be a great time.  I promise to get pictures... hey, it is not that often I am in a full face of make-up... much less a formal dress.

Zoe and I are running around trying to get a birthday present... we were rockin out to our favorite song... you should hear us sing it together in the car... (okay... maybe not)  LOVE IT!!!!

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A simple cheek swab...

Some of you joke and say that you "stalk" my blog (and I love that... "STALK ON" I say).  I too stalk certain blogs... and this is one of them.  The author of this blog is the father of the family I photographed in New York... I don't read it every day because often I am left in tears.  After reading this story though... I left with hope... hope because while I don't know "who" looks at this blog... I do know "how many" of you look at it daily...  My hope is that after you read this story... you will pass this along to anyone of Indian descent.  The test is a simple cheek swab... you just never know... 30 minutes of your time may save this special girl...

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

February 3, 2008

Carlson: 7-year-old survivor faces death without bone marrow donor

BY JOHN CARLSON
REGISTER COLUMNIST

The back door slammed, and perky, smiling Maddie Landwehr, home from school, ran straight into the living room and hugged her dad.

The 7-year-old girl gobbled down three chocolate chip mini-muffins, did a cartwheel and told her parents, again, that she wants to go to Disneyland.

Amazing, given what this child has gone through, what she endures every day, and what she faces.

"Maddie has had nine surgeries," said her dad, Ernie Landwehr.

"No," said Maddie. "Ten."

They counted. She was right. But that's only part of this child's story.

Maddie was 2 years old when she was adopted by Ernie and Nancy Landwehr of Altoona. It's when orphanage workers in India told them of the horror of how the girl's life began.

Born to an unwed, teenage mother, Maddie - whose full name is Madison Aditi Landwehr - literally was "thrown away" moments after her birth and left to die in a remote area of central India. Lying in the open, she was mauled by wild dogs. Her right buttock was devoured, as was her hip. That destroyed a growth plate, which allows a child's leg to grow properly.

She was near death when she was found and carried to a hospital, where doctors saved her life. She weighed only 4 pounds.

Four months later, she was taken to an orphanage in western India, and that's where she stayed for a year and a half until the Landwehrs brought her home to Iowa.

"It was terrible, unimaginable, but I guess that's obvious to anybody who hears the story," said Ernie, a college admissions official.

"I just know that when we saw her picture and then when we saw her with our own eyes, we knew that this is our little girl."

Which should be the beginning of a happy story. And, through all those surgeries to fix her leg and help her walk, a story that should bring a happy ending.

Not yet. Maybe not at all.

Ernie and Nancy learned last year that their happy, beautiful little girl has an inherited, rare blood disease called Fanconi anemia.

It prevents her red and white blood cells and platelets from reproducing as they should. People with the disease are likely to develop serious infections and cancer-related illnesses, particularly leukemia.

That means Maddie needs a bone marrow transplant to have a chance to survive. So far, no suitable donor has been found.

"We're told that any suitable donor will almost certainly have to be of Indian descent," said Nancy, a stay-at-home mom who with Ernie has three grown biological children. "There are a lot of people of Indian descent in Iowa and around the country, and we're trying to get the word out and encourage people to be tested."

Any healthy person between the ages of 18 and 60 is eligible for testing. Their blood cells are examined after a quick, painless swab of the cheek. Information from the swab is entered into a database, and a computer analysis determines if a person is a suitable donor.

The 2000 census, the most recent count of Iowans with a reliable breakdown by age and race, found 3,751 Asian Indians between ages 18 and 60 living in Iowa. It's likely that number is higher today.

The donor can come from anywhere - there are 6 million names on the worldwide bone marrow donor registry. Ernie and Nancy are certain that somebody, somewhere, can save their girl's life. It's just a matter of finding the person.

The thing is, while Maddie seems healthy - spend time with her and you'd never know she was sick - she can't wait long.

"She is very sick, and she definitely needs this bone marrow transplant," said Dr. Deborah Smith-Wright, a Des Moines native and a pediatrician at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Minneapolis, who has been caring for Maddie since 2005. "Spontaneous remissions are extremely rare in Fanconi anemia patients."

Smith-Wright said there are only about 1,000 cases of Fanconi anemia worldwide.

"Maddie has been through so much," Smith-Wright said. "The injuries, the infections, the treatments and now this. It's been a rough time for her, but she's a brave girl. She's a real favorite around this hospital."

Her first surgery was 3½ years ago and was an initial step in repairing her hip and lengthening her right leg, which was not growing as it should.

"The doctors in India did their best, I'm sure," Ernie said, "but doctors here told us she looked like she'd been sewn up in a hurry by a vet."

She was in a body cast for eight weeks after the first surgery in Minneapolis - the first of three such casts.

But her blood tests indicated a probable infection. Her white blood cell and platelet counts were at a critically low level.

"She wore a thick-soled shoe on her right foot to even out her legs," Nancy said. "It was so she could walk reasonably normally. She hated it. It was like wearing a brick."

The first leg-lengthening surgery was last March at the Shriners' hospital. The leg was attached to a crank-like device, which had to be turned four times a day for 45 days.

"Maddie is the one who turned the crank," Ernie said. "Her leg grew a little over 4 centimeters."

Other than a short time in a wheelchair, she never stopped walking. There were more infections, more drugs, more surgeries and injections, including the strong antibiotics she is given through a port in her chest three times a day.

"The Fanconi anemia, we never imagined such a thing was possible after all she'd gone through," said Ernie.

"She was sitting here one night, and all of a sudden her nose started bleeding. I put a towel over it. It wasn't long before the towel was soaked with blood. We had to call an ambulance. I couldn't believe she could have that much blood in her little body."

The infections, the bleeding and sporadic blood counts led to the tests that confirmed Fanconi anemia.

The orthopedic treatments have been done at the Shriners' hospital at no cost to the Landwehr family. The bone marrow transplant would be done at University of Minnesota Hospitals.

"My daddy tells me I have special blood," Maddie said, listening as her parents describe her illness and treatments. "He says I have angel's blood."

Friends have created a Web site, "helpmaddie.com," which tells her story and gives information on how to donate money to the family to help with travel expenses. The Web site also lists fundraising events to help the family, such as a Feb. 23 pancake breakfast in Maddie's honor at Clay Elementary School in Altoona, where she is a second-grader.

Maddie is small for her age - she weighs 30 pounds - and wears three little silver rings on her tiny fingers.

"I love jewelry," she said, giggling.

She wants to meet Faith Hill. She wants to ride a bike. She loves school, and her favorite things at Clay Elementary are, in order, recess, science and math.

When she grows up, she wants to become a doctor.

"I want to help sick people," she said.

But all of that depends upon finding a donor.

"It's not critical today," said Nancy. "She's getting along fine - today. Next week, it could become critical. Or next month. We just don't know."

"It's not a matter of if this kicks in," said Ernie. "It's a matter of when."

They have talked to some of the best doctors in the world and have done their own research. They know that Maddie could be expected to live only to the age of 12 without the bone marrow transplant. With it, she might well live into her 20s or 30s or longer. And by then, with ongoing research, who knows?

"What we are certain of is that she needs the transplant to save her life," Nancy said.

"It would be wonderful if everyone got themselves tested. The chances are you can save a life. If you're of Indian descent, for Maddie's sake, we ask that you please be screened as a potential donor."

Maddie understands - at least as much as a 7-year-old can comprehend such a thing - and she's ready to deal with whatever comes next.

"Somebody will help me," she said.

It would, everybody in this family knows, be the ultimate gift.

But Ernie said the greatest giver of all has been Maddie.

"I can't measure what she has done for us," said her dad. "I can't imagine what our lives would be like without her. She is the joy of our lives. She has courage and great humor and a spirit unlike any I've ever seen."

With the help of somebody they have never met - possibly somebody they never will meet - she will be in their family for a long time.

Columnist John Carlson can be reached at (515) 284-8204 or jcarlson@dmreg.com

Round 4

Yup... Round 4 began precisely at 2:41 a.m. Tuesday morning.  I know this because I woke up (clock staring me in the face) and said aloud "Oh My Gosh... you've got to be fricken kidding me"... (other words were used... but this blog has a PG-13 rating :).  I didn't last much past the first bell...  Two words... WICKED AND VIOLENT.

The upside... everyone has had it now... and Spring is within sight... I can feel it (oR... maybe it's my fever).

I promise to write about happier things... thanks for all of your e-mails... many of you wrote (with sympathy) as you had already have been where I was this weekend.  Are you all still doing laundry?  OMG... the laundry... I can barely get the laundry room door open.  I think I will just keep the door shut today :)

Blah day...

What should have been a "fun-filled no school day" has turned out to be a day of BLAH!!!!  Round 2 of the stomach flu struck Maddox late Saturday night (of course... after just arriving home from a fabulous dinner at La Scola... have y'all been there?  SCRUMPTIOUS!!!)... this is his second time having it in the last 2 months (as well as Grayson... he had it last week).  Anywho... I've spent the day trying to play catch up... proofing... laundry... and painting (yes... an unlikely time to decide to change the boy's room... but I am going crazy... the crib needs to go and the room needs to be reorganized)...

NEWS FLASH... the stomach flu just struck again... it's third victim... Zoe (which SUCKS because I was going to surprise her tonight and take her to see "STEP UP 2"... she wasn't able to go anywhere or have any playdates because this thing is so contagious) We are getting taken down one by one... UGGGGGH!!!

I am showing you a "before" picture of the boys' room... this was the first "coat" of primer to get rid of the mural I painted last year... GOODBYE ELMO... GOOD-BYE LOCKER ROOM...  I am painting stripes like I did in Zoe's room (I'll show you in bit... her room is too messy to photograph right now) and hanging some pictures and a very cool "bat" coat hanger from Pottery Barn.  )... Anyway... hopefully by tomorrow the stripes will be done... as long as I'm not the 4th victim. 

I am also sharing another picture I found while proofing... love, love, love the tippy toes... and that worm... LOVE IT...

Family...

Here are a few to share from this morning's session...

Until next time...