Juliana's Story
We are so honored and excited to introduce you to our October featured child, Juliana Carver. Juliana was adopted by John & Tammy Carver from Minsk Belarus on August 26, 2003 when she was 20 months old. Until Sunday, February 18, 2007 Juliana's parents had no idea that there was anything wrong with their beautiful, happy, confident five-year-old daughter. She came into their room that morning complaining about a "bump" under her right arm. The bump turned out to be a swollen lymph node and the family discovered the next day at the pediatrician's office that she also had a tumor on her right forearm. After x-rays and an MRI, the family received the devastating news from their doctor--it appeared the tumor was cancerous and that it had matastisized to the lymph node.

Juliana was diagnosed with stage 3, group 3 Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma on 3/7/07. She had 28 days of radiation therapy and 42 weeks of chemotherapy. She was off treatment for three years with no evidence of disease. She relapsed on 3/17/11 and received another 36 weeks of chemotherapy and 5 more weeks of radiation therapy. Juliana relapsed AGAIN on 6/5/12 and again in March 2014. July 2015 Juliana relapsed AGAIN and is fighting for the 5th time! Juliana is now 13 years old and is currently continuing to receive chemotherapy, in addition the family is now adding complementary cancer treatments that are not covered by their health insurance.

Juliana's parents believe that God placed her in their family for a reason. Had she remained in the orphanage in Belarus, she would not have received treatment for her cancer. Instead, God allowed her to be adopted into an American family where some of the best medical care in the world is within driving distance and surrounded her with many, many loving, caring family members and friends.

On September 3rd Juliana had a full body PET/CT scan as well as separate CT scans of her chest, abdomen and pelvis and they showed that the two small tumors are gone and the large tumor has shrunk by 50%!!

The family has been consulting with Dr. Loeb at Johns Hopkins Hospital and have decided to try a bone marrow transplant. They have a phase two clinical trial of hapoididentical bone marrow transplants for high risk solid tumors that Juliana qualifies for open right now. However, this is complicated by the fact that Juliana was adopted from Belarus as the bone marrow donor is usually a parent or sibling. The family has another daughter, Kristina, who is Juliana's biological half-sister tested and she is NOT a match. Fortunately the family has been able to locate Juliana's birth mother and she has agreed to be tested and donate her bone marrow if she's a match, unfortunately the Belarusian government is now holding up the process by requiring that the family submit paperwork requesting special permission for the blood samples to be shipped to Johns Hopkins for typing (they don't allow any biological materials to leave their country).

Juliana is continuing to receive chemotherapy--she's having side effects that include bad diarrhea, radiation recall and needing multiple blood/platelet transfusions. She has now completed three rounds of vincristine, temozolomide and irinotecan and is getting ready to receive her fourth round this coming week. Dr. Loeb wants her to have five rounds before doing the transplant so, if Belarus will cooperate with the family and her birth mother is a match, Juliana should be having a bone marrow transplant in early November.

Let’s rally around this amazing family and lovenly show our support for Juliana throughout the month of October (and beyond!) while she continues to bravely battle cancer for the 5th time! Pray for God’s blessing for full and complete healing over Juliana's body.

The family has set up a page for donations. Please consider helping the family with the cost of Juliana's complementary medicine as she continues to bravely fight cancer.
The family truly appreciates your prayers and any monetary help you can give toward expenses not paid for by their health insurance.

gofundme.com/ajs690

Please visit and Like Juliana's Facebook page: Angels For Juliana
facebook.com/pages/Angels-For-Juliana/250289225091998

You can write Juliana at:

Juliana Carver
P.O. Box 39
Manchester MD 21102

Feel free to email Juliana's father at : johncarver@wildlbue.net