Friday, November 28, 2008

Giving Thanks Doesn't End Here


This is where I get serious and do my best to get in touch with your softer side.......as I take you don't memory lane. My memory lane.

Five years ago, most of us sat down to our usual Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Some of us probably were unfortunate enough to have strep-throat. Some others may have just had surgery or lost a love one. Not everyone had a great day.




This is a picture of my grandson Andrew five years ago, toasting his father, and giving thanks..to be alive. Andrew had just turned three, and was diagnosed with leukemia when he was two. You can read his story here. He didn't even have the "good" leukemia....yes there's a leukemia that they actually call the good one. Try telling that to any parent with a child diagnosed with any leukemia.

Tell that to Marey. Marey's teenage daughter Ali, was also diagnosed with leukemia. Fast forward five years and she is accomplishing so much with her life. You can read her story here.

Over the last five years, I have come to know hundreds of children with cancer. It pretty much became my life. I read Caringbridge Sites every night checking on kids. I can honestly say I have been to more funerals for children in those five years than all the ones for adults in my life.

Marey and Postcard Cindy, (a name she was given by a cancer dad she never met in person), have been holding fundraisers every Christmas season to help two families keep their heads above water while there child goes through bone marrow transplant. Even with the best insurance, some families travel cross Country, incurring housing and living expenses above and beyond the norm to save their child's life.

This year, they are holding a raffle over at Marey's blog,
ELEMENTO-P . Go on over and check out the items being raffled off. There are some beautiful handcrafted items, and I personally made the one blanket which is similar to the ones I deliver to the Peds/Onc ward here in Central Texas for Christmas.

These are the two children Marey and Cindy are helping this year:

Ivan, a 17 year old man whose relapsed leukemia has sent him to transplant. He is at LPCH and is doing well. He is the oldest of 6 children and we would certainly love to help them out this season.

Austin is another relapsed 4 year old leukemia patient. He had 2 years of treatment, relapsed and is now going to transplant. You can read more about him at his site.

If you are still reading this....Thank you. Now go check out Marey's blog, and check back often for new items to be added. I have a link at the top of this page on the left.

10 comments:

Hula Hank said...

My hunch was correct that you are not just a pretty face and long eyelashes!

You have a beautiful soul as well!

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Your softer side is simply beautiful.

I Am Woody said...

Thank you. Sometimes I need a good kick in the pants to realize just how good I have it!

Unknown said...

I am going to go check it out right now! I definitely want to help these kids. So sad. I love your heart.

Busy Bee Suz said...

I am heading over to check this out...So glad your little one is well now....I can't imagine going through all that as such a young person.
I love the luggage pro. Who thinks of these things??

M said...

THANKS! I knew I could count on you to send me some bloggees...espceially ones with BIG hearts....last year the envelopes with one dollar bill were the ones that brought tears to my eyes.

I laughed when I read Hula Hanks comment....but I thought those were eye brows...LOL!

Thanks for spreading the word...more donation pics to go up soon :)
XXOO and a cyber Krispy Kreme to you!

Anonymous said...

I love you Grandma :)


peace
#2

M said...

I just saw your comment about the Paypal link and how you couldn't get it to work on your site...like I said- it took me an hour and a half to get it to work...every time I would publish my post it would add "href=" when I already had that down....and the link is for websites....so I am afraid to edit that post with the new pictures because I will have to do the link all over again. ANYWAYS...thank you a ton! Busy Bee and Life W/Kaishon have donated...I will add their blogs to my Blog Roll. Happy Friday after TG!

Big Hair Envy said...

I currently follow two Caringbridge children to whom I have a personal connection. This post is SO timely. We complain about the silliest things, and we have SO much!

My family (20 in all) crashed my place today for our Thanksgiving celebration. We just take for granted that everyone is healthy....we are blessed.

Katrine said...

I'm so happy Andrew is doing so well! My husband's sister had the "good" leukemia as a child. She just gave birth to her 4th child last month! We have friends who lost their 6 year old son to liver cancer the day after Thanksgiving. It makes you grateful for every day you have with your children and loved ones.