After six grueling months of fighting for her life against a rare cancerous brain tumor, the end is finally in sight for one-year-old Elisabeth Ellis and her family.

The inspiring little girl has shown her strength time and time again as she underwent two brain surgeries and five rounds of intensive chemotherapy to eradicate her tumor, and was resting at her home in Santa Clarita Monday before her final round is set to begin later this month.

Baby Elisabeth Ellis gives her mom a kiss.

“For me, it’s like a marathon,” said Brittany Ellis, baby Elisabeth’s mom. “We’ve ran so many miles, but there’s always the last final mile where your leg starts to cramp and you get so tired. But you’re like, I’ve come so far — I just have this little bit left.”

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

Elisabeth’s dad, Cardon Ellis, agreed, adding that everyone he knows that has run a marathon talks about “hitting that wall” right before the end, but that the finish line is just too close to quit.

“To deny that we have hit that wall would be a lie, but that’s also juxtaposed with this excitement and this enthusiasm,” he said. “We are almost done.”

The final three rounds of Elisabeth’s chemotherapy treatment have been centered around stem cell rescue, which Cardon previously described as essentially bringing her an inch from death and then using healthy stem cells to bring her back.

A smile from baby Elisabeth Ellis.

“It’s high-dose chemotherapy, so it’s definitely a now-or-never approach — they can’t go back and do this again,” Cardon explained. “So they try and do the most possible while they can to get the cancer cells out of her body.”

On a lighter note, Cardon noted that the stem cell infusions have actually brought some laughter into the situation because of their tendency to bring with them a lingering smell of cream corn.

“The preservative that keeps the stem cells viable gets exuded through her breath and her sweat, and she smells like cream corn for a day or two,” he said. “It’s hilarious.”

Because only some people are able to smell it, the nurses in Elisabeth’s ward at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have been lining up in her room to see if they have the right gene.

“They bring all the nursing students in when she’s doing the stem cell rescue to smell her to find out which nurses can smell it and which ones can’t,” Cardon explained with a laugh. “We get like 10 nurses in our room (at a time).”

While Cardon noted his daughter’s fourth round of chemo — the first she underwent since a successful brain surgery in June — was mostly “uneventful,” her most recent round had the Ellis family facing a new problem.

Baby Elisabeth rests with her dad.

“She got addicted a little bit to the painkillers,” Cardon said. “She was having some withdrawals and whatnot, but we got that under control.”

Brittany described her baby girl as “super strong,” recalling one particular nurse who felt compelled to tell her and her husband just how special Elisabeth is.

Related: Baby Elisabeth Ellis Finishes Second Round Of Chemo, Dad Invents Chemo ‘Comfort Cart’ (VIDEO)

“He said … ‘I hope you understand that she is truly unique,’” Cardon said. “‘I love being her nurse and she’s awesome.’ So that was good to hear as a parent.”

Over the last six months, the Santa Clarita community has rallied around the Ellis family in support, offering up kind words, prayers and even more than $78,000 in donations through a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend.

“We thank the community, they’ve been super supportive,” Cardon said. “We’ve felt the prayers, we’ve felt the support, we’ve gotten the emails, we’ve gotten the calls. Keep it coming. We love that — it’s good not to be forgotten, and we’re staying positive.”

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

All photos courtesy of Cardon Ellis.