Fun is Good

Dear Friends,

We have had a week of calm.  It was as if we had our old life back for a few days.  It felt good to be crazy and running late and packing lunches for 3 kids and soccer practice and piano lessons and school meetings...just the "normal" chaos of life.

We started the week last Sunday with a very fun family outing on Mother's Day to Great America for the Courageous Kids Day, sponsored by the American Cancer Society.  We had a blast.  The kids were all so excited....especially when they saw that there were virtually no lines since not many mothers consider going to a theme park as one of their top choices for Mother's Day activities.  The park was open to the public, but most of the crowds were kids with bright red hats on them stating they were a Courageous Kid.

There were many other bald heads, kids in wheelchairs, kids with surgical masks, kids with scars and kids resting in the shade with their proud parents.  One mom's shirt read, "I had never met a real hero until my son became one."  We had a teenage girl ask us in line if Emma was a Courageous Kid.  We answered yes and she openly asked, "What kind of cancer do you have?  How long have you been in treatment?"  and "I had a brain tumor and now I'm just fine. It was when I was seven and now I'm 18!"  Kids that have gone through this kind of challenge in their lives are open in sharing their stories, proud of their accomplishment of making it through, and seem to be stronger because of it.  They are bonded together with perfect strangers because they have all experienced the fight of their life. It was encouraging and touching to be there.

Emma then went to the hospital on Monday for outpatient chemotherapy and a spinal tap.  She has only one more spinal tap to go in her treatment protocol and we are looking forward to putting those behind us.  The next four days she took oral Prednisone and Chemotherapy at home, but amazingly felt great and attended school for the rest of the week.  This is the first time she'd been back to school so regularly since her diagnosis.  It was so great to see her skipping up the sidewalk to school in a different cute hat every day.  The little victories are worth celebrating and we are so happy when she gets to participate in life like she used to. 

We are in the midst of a soccer weekend for Joseph who has three games in two days.  We plan to attend church tomorrow as a family for the first time in weeks and we are so excited.  We are also finally celebrating Jon's birthday tomorrow (which was April 21) at my mom's along with Uncle Robb as the birthdays recently have gotten a little lost in the shuffle.  We are having fun with our normal days and activities.  As my friend Jen texted me the other day, when she found out that we were headed to Great America.....Fun Is Good!  I totally agree.

-Rebecca