By Amy Moore

The News staff writer

The birth of a bouncing baby boy was a short lived celebration for the Sleeper family.

Just days after baby Brady arrived in the world, his 5-year-old sister, Brooke, was diagnosed with cancer.

“It came about because she kept complaining that her legs were hurting,” the young girl’s mother, Kim, said. “I thought it was just growing pains but by the time her brother was born, she was limping and crying.”

When it came time to discharge the new baby from the hospital, he had lost too much weight and was scheduled to see a doctor. Kim thought this was a good time to have her daughter’s legs checked out, too.

“They checked her out and there was one tender spot that every time he touched it, she cried,” Kim said. “They did a blood test and found blasts in her blood. By the time they called to tell us, they had already called Texas Children’s (Hospital).”

Brooke, a kindergartner at Hillcrest Elementary in Nederland, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on March 13.

“That was the first time I’ve seen my husband cry since we’ve been married,” Kim said of her husband, Kevin. “It was all overwhelming because we got the news and I had just had a baby five days before. It’s kind of like a dream — a nightmare — and I keep wondering when I’m going to wake up. Never in a million years would I have though this was going to happen to my child.”

Family and friends have bonded in support of the Sleepers and are hosting a Mud Bug Benefit in their honor from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Saturday, April 26 at the Rockin’ A Cafe, 3520 W. Cardinal Drive, Beaumont.

“There’s been an ungodly amount of family and friends support,” Kim, who is on maternity leave from her job as a diagnostician at Hillcrest, said. “People are with us at all times and that’s what’s gotten me through this.”

Kim said there are good and bad days for Brooke, who had to quit dancing at Dawn Fitzgeralds for treatment. Only recently did she begin to throw up from the chemo therapy.

“She’s always been very healthy and active. Then all of a sudden this happens. I don’t think she understands the seriousness of it, but she’s handling it very well. She rarely complains,” her mother said.

Brooke has also had to stop attending classes at school and is now homebound. Her teacher, Erica Mendoza, teaches during the day at the school and then twice a week goes to Brooke’s home to teach her one-on-one.

“Most home school teachers are retired teachers but Erica was very upset (when she heard about Brooke’s diagnosis). She went to see Brooke when she was in Houston for treatment,” Karen Sue Noble, Hillcrest Elementary principal said.