YOUR SPACE: Cancer survivor eagerly awaits dog

Like the Obama girls, 5-year-old Grace Kriegshauser was promised a dog when her family moved into their new home.

In Grace's case, that was more than two years ago. In a few weeks, she'll finally get her pooch.

She faced a battle as monumental as winning the presidency. She faced cancer.

Knowing a dog was at the end kept her going through the 27-month treatment regimen.

Her parents, David and Heather, wound up checking out cancer clinics instead of dog rescues after moving here from Arizona with Grace, then 3, and baby Jacob. A week after settling into their Woodland Park home, Grace was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood cancer most common in children under age 15.

Gazette readers were introduced to her in a 2006 story about the "Pennies for Grace" campaign at the school where her dad taught science. Her progress was followed in several Gazette articles.

This story should be the grand finale - see the video "Grace for the Cure" on the right. Grace recently completed the regimen of chemotherapy and spinal taps. It looks like she beat the disease.

With the frequent trips to the cancer center behind her, there's time to bring on the dog.

"Santa is going to bring us a greyhound," Grace says. She plans to name the retired racing hound "Martha" or "Skip."

It's part of what her dad calls the "new normal" for the family.

On Halloween, the Kriegshauser clan went out looking for treats disguised as "The Simpsons." This wasn't possible before because of Grace's vulnerable immune system.

During treatment, some days she couldn't walk. The drugs evoked mood swings and intense cravings for Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Armed with hand sanitizer, the family made a Make-A-Wish trip to New York City last year. Grace wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, not Mickey Mouse.

"That was great. We got to go to the top of the thing," Grace says of the statue.

Make-A-Wish also sent them to a Colorado Rockies game. "This guy hit two home runs in a row. They were playing take me out to the baseball park," Grace says.

She wants to play baseball, take ballet and conquer "that big snowy mountain" - Pikes Peak.

She looks back at the cancer ordeal with a child's awe - and sentiment.

"It was a part of her life for so long that she says she misses it," her dad says.

When he dumps a big container of the dozens of empty pill bottles of cancer fighting drugs and antibiotics she took, Grace's face lights up.

"All that," she says, "went through my body. That's a lot."

Then she puts the bottles to a new use - as blocks to form the outline of the Statue of Liberty.

The bottles don't include all the IV chemo pumped inside her body at the cancer clinic, where her doctor put her long-term survival odds at about 90 percent.

The 10 percent looms large.

"I'm not sure when we are ever going to rest easy," her mom says. "We made it through the biggest hurdle. The worries are still the same. For myself and lot of other parents, the chemo was almost a safety net. Even though it was making her so sick it was keeping the leukemia away."

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Tell me your stories: 636-0253 or andrea.brown@gazette.com