Who am I ?

For most of you reading this, you probably already know me as Ashley Velting, formerly Ashley Altenbeck. I grew up in a small community in northern Ontario. Moved from my small town in 2005 to Queens University were I did my nursing degree. Fell in love in 2009 and moved out West to Alberta. Fast forward a few years, to 2018, when my life changed forever. April 14, 2018 to be exact, my husband and I introduced a beautiful baby boy named Sawyer James Velting. Everything about him was perfect, or at least that’s what we thought. He did everything a baby should do … ate and slept ( but let’s be real, hardly slept haha). It wasn’t until October 2018, 5 months after his birth, that our once healthy baby was diagnosed with Cancer.

At the beginning of his diagnosis, I could hardly stand the word CANCER. My husband and I often refused to say it, because saying it out loud made this nightmare a reality. So I will admit, we hardly talked about “it”.

So why now? Why talk about our lives in such a public forum? Well, for one I realized I needed to heal and to heal I needed to talk about “it”, our current struggles, and our new life. Maybe writing things down will help, maybe it won’t. One will never know, but it’s a start. And maybe this will help others who have struggled through this, because let’s be real, we are not the only ones hurting. Sawyer’s cancer diagnosis has impacted our family, friends, and community. We are all hurting together.

So what am I hoping to achieve through this blog .. well I am hoping that through my words we can all heal together. Because let’s be real… I need to off load some heavy shit… some dark days and some hard times. So if you’re interested in learning more about what’s been going on or want to better understand my son’s journey through his momma’s eyes please feel free to read my posts. Xo