Awesome Day

Whew!  Yesterday we had a full yet wonderful day!  Mike and Kyle were in Pulaski playing AAU hoops, but David and I had a full day of fun.  We were extremely exhausted after our big day at UVA Friday, but we had a blast living it up this weekend.  

My pictures are out of order, but last night at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion David got an opportunity to sing with James Rogers.  He is famous because of his long career at  Dollywood but he is now retired which allows him the chance to travel around to perform.  David is a part of a children's choir that got to sing with him last night during his show.   After the show David met James Rogers and not only took this picture with him but invited him to our house for a sleepover:)

 

The children signed Silent Night and it was beautiful!!!  David has been attending choir practice after school with Matt and Ashley so I had not seen any of it so I was so surprised with the performance. 

Our sweet little Rudolph!  Challenger the Eagle did a flyover in the Lincoln and that was very special because Challenger came to visit David last spring while he was going through chemo.  The flyover was super cool!

Not only did we attend the concert, but we also attended the Thomas Musser Mr. Strong Walk in Rural Retreat to honor sweet Thomas who lost his battle with leukemia two years ago.  His parents, Ed and Lisa have been such an encourager to us since David was diagnosed.  They are a faithful and amazing christian family who encourage us in our walk and in our battle with childhood cancer.  I think it is simply amazing that they continue to give back to St. Jude by having this event each year to coincide with the race in Memphis to benefit St. Jude.

The weather was beautiful for this 5K and I was very emotional getting ready thinking about the fact that David was attending this year.  Last year he had just had his first chemo and huge surgery so my parents sat with him while we attended this event.  David felt so good that he was a little bit of a stinker yesterday and I got my exercise keeping up with him.  David really enjoyed playing with  Thomas' brothers, and he has now decided that he is moving to Rural Retreat and he is going to be an indian that wears black and orange.  I had to drag him to the car he had such fun!

David was being silly and missed the start of the kids race.  He was devastated but sweet Tristan took him and played football with him.  When it was time to eat, David took Tristan by the hand and insisted that he eat with him. 

David started the race by yelling, ready set go, but these awesome guys led the pack of the race.  The guy in the center wearing the St. Jude shirt is a current patient of St. Jude named Colby.  The cute smiley guys on each side of him are Thomas' brothers.  They were so sweet to David and if David had his way he would change his last name to Musser and move in with them. 

David with sweet Jack and Mason Pugh. 

There were signs and statistics all over the station about childhood cancer and this one makes me sick.  Why do the children not deserve more of the cancer research funding???  Even though David did not receive treatment at St. Jude, the research that St. Jude does is shared freely with doctors all over and David's UVA doctors have consulted St. Jude about his chemo dosage so we are so thankful for St. Jude.

Here is David with one of the main organizers, Susan Spraker.  He did not want to miss his chance to start the race, so he stuck to her side like glue!  Great job on such a wonderful event!!!



I am ending this long blog post with an amazing video taken last night. James Rogers sang a song called Thank  God for Kids and the children were on stage with him during this song.  James Rogers tries really hard to get David's attention and David is clueless-it is hilarious!!!! 

You will also notice that there is a video running on the screen during the song showing children. Ashley and Sally Moorer had a surprise for me that David made it into the video!!!  You can hear me gasp when David's pictures come on this big screen and then you see David realize it is him and he reacts.  Precious!!!  Thank you to everyone who had a hand in this amazing night. 

We are exhausted tonight.  But exhausted in a wonderful way from some amazing events this weekend.  This afternoon after church my friend Tonya and I put on a baby shower for our  friend Suzanne that is due with a little girl next month.  Mike and Kyle spent 14 hours yesterday in a basketball gym playing AAU hoops.  Our teams did well and came home with a second place medal.  They also fit in a swim meet this morning. 

Bedtime will be amazingly early around this household tonight.  We will go to bed with grateful hearts but tired bodies-sounds like a pretty awesome weekend!