Before her second birthday, baby Elisabeth Ellis has endured seven long months in the hospital, six brutal rounds of chemotherapy and two brain surgeries in the fight against a rare cancerous brain tumor.

But the inspiring little girl and her family can finally move toward putting the devastating experience behind them after they checked out of the hospital — hopefully for good — earlier this month.

Elisabeth Ellis with her parents during the bell ringing ceremony at the hospital.

“The fight is worth it,” said Cardon Ellis, Elisabeth’s dad. “It’s such a fight as a parent — emotionally exhausting is not even a powerful enough word to describe it, but you’ve got to do it. And fighting for your kid is worth it.”

Related: End In Sight For Baby Elisabeth Ellis’ 6-Month-Long Battle With Brain Cancer

On Sept. 8, Elisabeth burrowed into her dad’s chest, a small smile on her face, while her mom, Brittany, rang the infamous survivor bell in the chemotherapy ward of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles with family members and nurses gathered all around.

“There’s this little ceremony that they do for every person once they’re done with treatment,” Cardon explained. “They signed this big goodbye letter, and they have this little song that they made up that they sing to you… They do a really, really cute thing.”

Brittany called the return home a mix of emotions, adding that being home is both a relief and nerve wracking because it’s the first time the family is really on their own since Elisabeth’s diagnosis in February.

“It’s a little bit freaky because if kids have problems, they have them within three to six months,” Cardon said. “(But) there’s no way you can say it’s anything short of awesome being out of that infernal chemotherapy wing. It was a big step for us.”

While baby Elisabeth is still weak and can’t stand on her own yet, she’s started laughing and smiling again, and tries to tickle her dad every chance she gets.

The line in her chest connected to heart artery needs to stay in until the family gets the results of Elisabeth’s first MRI on Tuesday, but if the MRI comes back clear, she should have it removed next week, Brittany said.  

The scars from Elisabeth Ellis’ brain surgeries.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but for heaven’s sake, the worst part is over and that feels amazing,” Cardon said.

Elisabeth will need MRIs every three months over the next year to make sure the cancer isn’t coming back, and then every six months for the next three years after that. Then after five years of being considered “NED,” or having no evidence of disease, Elisabeth will need an MRI once a year until she’s 17 years old.

Related: Surgery To Remove Baby Elisabeth Ellis’ Brain Tumor A Success, Three Rounds Of Chemo To Go

“They call it scanxiety… It’s always in the back of my mind, I’ve got another scan coming up,” Cardon said. “But if you can make it through chemotherapy like we did and you can make it through those first two scans without any problems, the odds are drastically in your favor.”

“It’s stressful trying to find a new normal, because it’s never going to be normal,” Brittany added. “You just have to find a new normal.”

Looking back over the last seven months, Cardon noted he felt “strangely honored” to have been able to associate with so many heroes from the pediatric cancer community, including the children themselves, their parents and the medical team that works tirelessly to save their lives.

“I am nothing but amazed by the doctors and the parents and the nurses and the children… There’s not a non-hero among them,” he said. “And to anybody else out there that might be going through something remotely similar, Benjamin Franklin said, ‘If you ever get to the end of your rope, just tie a knot and hold on.’”

To support baby Elisabeth Ellis and her family, click here to donate to the GoFundMe page.

All photos and video courtesy of Brittany and Cardon Ellis.