Superheroes

 We got to go watch Maggie run in one of her Cross Country meets.

Here she is, close to the finish line!

 Where Josh was observing from...

 And Anthony and Andy

 I just took a picture of the tree that we need to cut down soon.

I love this tree.

The trunk is at least as wide as a clothes washer and a half.

And the roots destroy our sewer line, causing flooding about once a year.

But, I still love the tree.

It'll be sad to see it go.

Hopefully within the next year, and hopefully before it ends up on the house!

 I was getting ready to paint the inside of the front door (chocolate color, as shown on previous post).

I had to peel our original "S" off.

It's been there a few years.

 Now, I gotta find a new "S."

 Each week, Lilly has a volleyball game at her school, so Anthony and I get to watch and cheer her team on.

He loves watching and cheers for ALL the girls (even the opponents).

He really likes to grab their hands and pull them close for a hug.

:)

 Lilly and her friend, Xandra, in action.

 We went to Blue Spoon Yogurt in East Wenatchee, to help raise money for a girl who needs a double transplant.

This is from that first cross country meet that Maggie was in.

Kelly's team was there that day to compete, as well.

It was Kelly's birthday, so she had Anthony hold her b-day balloon and her crown from her teammates.

Volleyball, blocks, paint, and Starbucks

Lilly got home from a volleyball game one night and posed with Anthony.

*Lilly's doing great this season!*

 For preschool, Anthony gets extra points if he reads for 20 minutes each day.  

Shame on me for not reading to him much before!

I've always worked or volunteered in libraries!

So, we started reading each day, going through 3-5 books each time.

The stack of books each week is about 1 1/2 feet tall.

Anthony LOVES it!

One evening he cuddled right up to me and started reading his book without me.

 Maggie had fun with Anthony's blocks.

 Daniel is a certified Starbucks barista.

He's liking it, I think.

 We went ice skating, and Anthony had fun watching.

Between watching his movie though.

I couldn't believe how well I was skating (not falling down and not having to be holding on to the edge), and on the last half of my last lap of the night, I did a knee-plant and splits enough to make my hip hurt seriously for a few days.

 We got our family pictures done on canvas and didn't think they'd look good with our old paint.

So, I got some chocolatey paint and re-did our fireplace wall.

And the inside of our front door.

End of summer

 September was an AWFUL month that I never want to experience something similar ever again.

One day was going particularly badly.

Daniel showed up at our house one day in shock.

He had been riding his bike and got hit by a car.

Yes, he was wearing a helmet.

He was scratched up in several places, a couple of which were bad, but I'm not showing pictures of them.

After calling 911 and giving a report, it turns out the person who hit him had also called and said some bicyclist hit her car, causing a bunch of damage.

The officer told Daniel he was at fault because he was riding his bike on the sidewalk (on a very busy street), and going the wrong direction.

Even though the driver turned into a business parking lot, hitting him, Daniel was at fault because he was not riding his bike in the road in the correct direction like a motorist should.

While Daniel was on the phone with the officer, Kelly called and needed me to pick her up from Cross Country.

She sprained her ankle really badly again.

I had to drive through a park, on the running trail, to get to her, so her teammates could help her hop to the car.

**I originally had a much longer post, then realized I had already posted 90% of it a few weeks ago.**

Sweet 17!!

Kelly turned 17!

She got to go cheer on her teammates during their cross-country meet, and so wore her tutu.

 So excited!

Andy made her great layer cake.  :)

Letter to a friend

Dear Friend of a Friend,

This weekend, you received news that you never would have imagined hearing.  Your son has cancer.  My heart aches for you, your son, your family, your community, and your friends to come.  You see, I've been down that road, and am traveling still.  Yes, we are out of the woods for now, but as you will soon learn, there is no guarantee or chance to feel safe from those words again.

So many emotions race through my mind when I hear of friends of friends in your situation.  Even when it's a child in the community that we have no connection to, I feel an unbearable urge to get to know that family, share my knowledge of the life they're being thrust into, and follow that child's/family's journey.

Welcome to the club:

• where you'll know exactly which cancer research fundraisers will have your support (not the ones that only donate pennies out of each dollar fundraised toward childhood cancer research)
• where you'll stop caring about womens' breasts, preferring instead a gold ribbon
• where the several cases of childhood cancer that you've heard about in the past few years in your community must be an outbreak beforehand, but after thinking about it, not an outbreak, just a NORMAL reality
• where you will have instant family worldwide, but especially the ones you meet on the floor (cancer unit), in clinic, or at the Ronald McDonald House
• where you are thrilled that your other child's scary symptoms are JUST epilepsy because that can be controlled by medicine (unlike some brain tumors)
• where your cancer patient's previous open-heart surgery feels like it was NOTHING because it threaten their life in nearly the same way--for so long, and to such extremes
• when you write letters to your friend's friend because you heard that their son/daughter was diagnosed with one of the most life-changing diagnoses possible
• where every other fresh childhood cancer diagnosis hits just as hard and makes you physically ill because you KNOW just how hard of a journey that entire family will be embarking on
• where you throw away all sense of pride and have to accept help
• where "getting to visit home" for a weekend is a HUGE joy
• where you learn to really appreciate friends who don't ask, they just see a need and take care of it (dinner, gas cards, grocery cards, fast food cards, entertainment for you and for your patient, babysitting, visits to see how you are, cards or letters, donations to help out)
• where you truly come to appreciate just how many people and organizations are out there to help people just like you and your son, to make life just a tiny bit more bearable
• where you won't be able to focus on only one charity again (research, Ronald McDonald House, Make-A-Wish, patient inability to pay fund)
• where you truly will become a MOMCOLOGIST, which is to say that you will know as much or MORE about your child's cancer than your oncologist, pediatrician, nurses, etc.
• where, within a short time, you will have enough training on patient care, you'll feel you could be a nurse.  And if you're already a nurse, you'll feel qualified to work on a cancer unit.
• where you'll end up with PTSD from the diagnosis and all the stress that accompanies it
• where your thoughts will end up just as scattered as the topics listed here

There are some things that are silver linings to this ugly reality:

• your new, instant family that isn't related by blood
• empathy you will develop for others
• a new appreciation for life and all it has to offer
• a new appreciation for your patient
• the chance to see the wonderfulness and kindness of others
• more knowledge (not the kind you EVER wanted, but it may be useful in other situations someday)
• a new appreciation for having your family all TOGETHER

This isn't a long list of what to be thankful for.  There are many others, but it is so hard to find them when overwhelmed with cancer.  Just make sure to find one thing to be thankful for each day, and your journey will be a tiny bit more pleasant.

I am so sorry to welcome you to this exclusive club.  But, know that you are welcomed with open arms, ready to help you, pray for/with you, and we will all be there for you.

Sincerely, 

Sarah

p.s. Make sure you don't forget to do special things with your non-cancer children!  They need support and love too!

First Day of School (My baby has overcome so much to get here!)

Anthony is 5 now, and because he is DONE with chemotherapy and the immune-suppressing related medications, he is able to go to school!

Although kindergarten age, Anthony gets to go to preschool this year, so he can learn about classroom life, learn some basics, and be around other children who are at his current level.

This means we're in a whole new game with Anthony now.

First we had to keep him alive.

Now we need to make sure he thrives.

It's also more complicated now.

Every cancer family worries about relapse in the future.

Anthony's chances of that are extremely small, but it's always in the back of my mind.

Now that he's in school, he'd be missing out on even more in life if he ever needed to be back at the hospital.

We'll just enjoy this.

It's also fitting that Anthony is getting a new start in life with school on his "gotcha day."

We "got" Anthony on September 11, five years ago!

So Anthony is the poster child for foster care awareness, adoption awareness, Down syndrome awareness, congenital heart defect awareness, and childhood cancer awareness.

What we're aware of, is Anthony's perfect spirit and how happy he makes EVERYONE who meets him.

 Looking at his shadow

 The sun is so bright!  But, the bacon's yummy!

 Enough with smiling, gotta get this thing off!

 Ok, now it's off.  Time to go do stuff before the bus comes.

 He was stacking these.

 And of course had to do a couple puzzles.

Anthony is really good at doing puzzles.  :)

 On the bus!

The afternoon bus drivers did not have the same bus, with seat belts or car seats.

They understood why I was so nervous about him escaping...

Childhood Cancer Awareness Swag

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

GOLD ribbon, people!

A great blog post about how you can help is HERE.

For our overwhelmed-lately family, our main action to support childhood cancer victims was to donate a bunch of change to the Ronald McDonald House Charities box at our local McDonalds.

A huge number of families dealing with childhood cancer must stay at this home away from home for long periods of time during treatment.

We stayed at ours for 14 months.

We love RMH!

Will you donate some change or more next time you're in the drive up?