The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived
Seventeen years ago, authors Tom and Vonne Barnett were suddenly confronted with every parent’s worst medical “bolt from the blue”: their only child, 30-month-old Emily, was diagnosed with an advanced – meaning metastasized – pediatric cancer. At the time, the thirty-something couple was living in northern Virginia.

What followed was the defining crisis of their now 25-year union: an intense 20-month battle to keep their first-born alive. About six months into the struggle, Tom started writing a weekly update on Emily’s progress (or lack thereof) for interested parties. Vonne contributed to this blog-like diary, and it was sent out by email, fax and regular mail to several hundred relatives and friends who spontaneously organized themselves into the family’s extended support network. Over time, the couple came to view the updates as something more important: a real-time memoir that would someday prove crucial to Emily’s understanding of how she became whom Tom and Vonne hoped she would become.

The family now hails from the Indianapolis area, and besides 19-year-old Emily – the girl who lived, it boasts five additional children: sons Kevin (16) and Jerome (11), an adopted Chinese daughter Vonne Mei (7), and adopted Ethiopian sisters Metsuwat (4) and Abebu (3). Would the Barnetts have achieved such a blended clan absent the early experiences of Emily’s cancer? They can’t ever be sure, even as Tom and Vonne suspect it played a significant role in their subsequent decisions to expand their family in this manner. But yes, that’s perhaps another reason why they wanted to revisit this tumultuous early family chapter at this time. As Vonne now finally gets back to restarting her professional career after all these years, the couple wanted to take this moment to remember how they got here – or how the journey truly began.

What you are about to read in this series of eBooks are the original weekly updates as Tom wrote them – with Vonne’s continuous inputs – across all of 1995 and into early 1996, a period encompassing the last 14 months of Emily’s treatment protocol. Those 45 updates constitute Chapters 3 through 9 in the series: Chapter 3, which concludes with the birth of their second child, in included in Volume I, along with two opening chapters that recreate Tom’s discovery of Emily’s cancer and her initial hospitalization; Chapters 4 and 5, which cover the difficult summer of 1995, make up Volume II; Chapters 6 and 7, which chronicle the family’s final push on the chemotherapy, fill out this volume; and Chapters 8 and 9, which encompass the post-treatment diagnostics – and Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World, constitute Volume IV.

The authors haven’t made an effort to “improve” the updates from today’s perspective. Tom and Vonne now claim to be wiser on a host of subjects that arise in this family memoir, but a lot of that wisdom stems directly from these experiences, so they felt it made most sense to share them with you, the reader, in this unaltered format.

The concluding fifth volume in the series is written from today's perspective, to include that of a grown-up Emily - the girl who lived!

If this series of eBooks helps you better understand an analogous past experience or ongoing crisis in your life, then Tom, Vonne and Emily have accomplished what they set out to do by sharing their intense story.

Finally, as a reminder regarding where you are in the story: you rejoin events in August of 1995. Emily’s diagnosis occurred in July of 1994 and her treatment continued until late 1995, so the family is nearing the end of the chemotherapy now. Many adventures still wait, but everyone is burning out at this point.
1114817509
The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived
Seventeen years ago, authors Tom and Vonne Barnett were suddenly confronted with every parent’s worst medical “bolt from the blue”: their only child, 30-month-old Emily, was diagnosed with an advanced – meaning metastasized – pediatric cancer. At the time, the thirty-something couple was living in northern Virginia.

What followed was the defining crisis of their now 25-year union: an intense 20-month battle to keep their first-born alive. About six months into the struggle, Tom started writing a weekly update on Emily’s progress (or lack thereof) for interested parties. Vonne contributed to this blog-like diary, and it was sent out by email, fax and regular mail to several hundred relatives and friends who spontaneously organized themselves into the family’s extended support network. Over time, the couple came to view the updates as something more important: a real-time memoir that would someday prove crucial to Emily’s understanding of how she became whom Tom and Vonne hoped she would become.

The family now hails from the Indianapolis area, and besides 19-year-old Emily – the girl who lived, it boasts five additional children: sons Kevin (16) and Jerome (11), an adopted Chinese daughter Vonne Mei (7), and adopted Ethiopian sisters Metsuwat (4) and Abebu (3). Would the Barnetts have achieved such a blended clan absent the early experiences of Emily’s cancer? They can’t ever be sure, even as Tom and Vonne suspect it played a significant role in their subsequent decisions to expand their family in this manner. But yes, that’s perhaps another reason why they wanted to revisit this tumultuous early family chapter at this time. As Vonne now finally gets back to restarting her professional career after all these years, the couple wanted to take this moment to remember how they got here – or how the journey truly began.

What you are about to read in this series of eBooks are the original weekly updates as Tom wrote them – with Vonne’s continuous inputs – across all of 1995 and into early 1996, a period encompassing the last 14 months of Emily’s treatment protocol. Those 45 updates constitute Chapters 3 through 9 in the series: Chapter 3, which concludes with the birth of their second child, in included in Volume I, along with two opening chapters that recreate Tom’s discovery of Emily’s cancer and her initial hospitalization; Chapters 4 and 5, which cover the difficult summer of 1995, make up Volume II; Chapters 6 and 7, which chronicle the family’s final push on the chemotherapy, fill out this volume; and Chapters 8 and 9, which encompass the post-treatment diagnostics – and Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World, constitute Volume IV.

The authors haven’t made an effort to “improve” the updates from today’s perspective. Tom and Vonne now claim to be wiser on a host of subjects that arise in this family memoir, but a lot of that wisdom stems directly from these experiences, so they felt it made most sense to share them with you, the reader, in this unaltered format.

The concluding fifth volume in the series is written from today's perspective, to include that of a grown-up Emily - the girl who lived!

If this series of eBooks helps you better understand an analogous past experience or ongoing crisis in your life, then Tom, Vonne and Emily have accomplished what they set out to do by sharing their intense story.

Finally, as a reminder regarding where you are in the story: you rejoin events in August of 1995. Emily’s diagnosis occurred in July of 1994 and her treatment continued until late 1995, so the family is nearing the end of the chemotherapy now. Many adventures still wait, but everyone is burning out at this point.
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The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived

The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived

The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived

The Emily Updates (Vol. 3): One Year in the Life of the Girl Who Lived


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Overview

Seventeen years ago, authors Tom and Vonne Barnett were suddenly confronted with every parent’s worst medical “bolt from the blue”: their only child, 30-month-old Emily, was diagnosed with an advanced – meaning metastasized – pediatric cancer. At the time, the thirty-something couple was living in northern Virginia.

What followed was the defining crisis of their now 25-year union: an intense 20-month battle to keep their first-born alive. About six months into the struggle, Tom started writing a weekly update on Emily’s progress (or lack thereof) for interested parties. Vonne contributed to this blog-like diary, and it was sent out by email, fax and regular mail to several hundred relatives and friends who spontaneously organized themselves into the family’s extended support network. Over time, the couple came to view the updates as something more important: a real-time memoir that would someday prove crucial to Emily’s understanding of how she became whom Tom and Vonne hoped she would become.

The family now hails from the Indianapolis area, and besides 19-year-old Emily – the girl who lived, it boasts five additional children: sons Kevin (16) and Jerome (11), an adopted Chinese daughter Vonne Mei (7), and adopted Ethiopian sisters Metsuwat (4) and Abebu (3). Would the Barnetts have achieved such a blended clan absent the early experiences of Emily’s cancer? They can’t ever be sure, even as Tom and Vonne suspect it played a significant role in their subsequent decisions to expand their family in this manner. But yes, that’s perhaps another reason why they wanted to revisit this tumultuous early family chapter at this time. As Vonne now finally gets back to restarting her professional career after all these years, the couple wanted to take this moment to remember how they got here – or how the journey truly began.

What you are about to read in this series of eBooks are the original weekly updates as Tom wrote them – with Vonne’s continuous inputs – across all of 1995 and into early 1996, a period encompassing the last 14 months of Emily’s treatment protocol. Those 45 updates constitute Chapters 3 through 9 in the series: Chapter 3, which concludes with the birth of their second child, in included in Volume I, along with two opening chapters that recreate Tom’s discovery of Emily’s cancer and her initial hospitalization; Chapters 4 and 5, which cover the difficult summer of 1995, make up Volume II; Chapters 6 and 7, which chronicle the family’s final push on the chemotherapy, fill out this volume; and Chapters 8 and 9, which encompass the post-treatment diagnostics – and Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World, constitute Volume IV.

The authors haven’t made an effort to “improve” the updates from today’s perspective. Tom and Vonne now claim to be wiser on a host of subjects that arise in this family memoir, but a lot of that wisdom stems directly from these experiences, so they felt it made most sense to share them with you, the reader, in this unaltered format.

The concluding fifth volume in the series is written from today's perspective, to include that of a grown-up Emily - the girl who lived!

If this series of eBooks helps you better understand an analogous past experience or ongoing crisis in your life, then Tom, Vonne and Emily have accomplished what they set out to do by sharing their intense story.

Finally, as a reminder regarding where you are in the story: you rejoin events in August of 1995. Emily’s diagnosis occurred in July of 1994 and her treatment continued until late 1995, so the family is nearing the end of the chemotherapy now. Many adventures still wait, but everyone is burning out at this point.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940013212459
Publisher: Barnett Consulting LLC
Publication date: 10/29/2011
Series: The Emily Updates, Vols. 1-5 , #3
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 227 KB

About the Author

Tom Barnett (dad to Emily, husband to Vonne) was born in Chilton, Wisconsin in 1962, but grew up in Boscobel WI. The eighth of nine kids, he attended Catholic grade school and public high school there. Tom attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1980-84 (BA in Russian and International Relations). While working as a cook at an Italian restaurant there, he met and started dating Vonne Meussling, another student. After a year spent apart while he attended Harvard grad school in 1985, Tom proposed and they were married in 1986. After getting his PhD in Political Science in 1990, Tom began a work career in national security, information technology and management consulting that continues to this day. Tom is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Pentagon's New Map (2004) and three other books. A sought-out professional public speaker, he is available to speak on The Emily Updates.

Vonne Meussling was born in Fort Wayne IN in 1960 but grew up across the state line in Payne OH on her family's farm until she left the area with her mother and younger brother in the early 1970s. Vonne attended high school in Eau Claire WI and Fredonia NY, and then went on to a BA in journalism and an MS in Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She met Tom while waitressing at an Italian restaurant where he was a cook. While Vonne stayed behind to finish her Master's degree, Tom went to Harvard for grad school. After a year apart, they got engaged and Vonne joined Tom out East. They married in 1986 in Madison WI and celebrated their 25th anniversary earlier this year. While Tom was in grad school at Harvard, Vonne worked in elder affairs (service supervisor) in Boston (North End) and later as a nursing home ombudsman for the South Shore and Cape Cod. Following her move to the Washington DC area with Tom in 1990, Vonne attended law school but withdrew when she became pregnant with her first child, Emily. While the family lived in northern Virgina, Vonne worked part-time in retail and then as a unit secretary in a major regional hospital following the birth of her second child, Kevin in 1995. Vonne has been a stay-at-home mom since mom since 1998, through her third child's birth, Jerome, in 2000, and the international adoptions of three daughters: Vonne Mei from China in 2004, and sisters Metsuwat and Abebu from Ethiopia in 2010. Vonne is now getting her Master of Social Work from Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI).
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