Dance Marathon

What a wonderful day we had Saturday at UVA!  We attended the 16th annual Dance Marathon to raise money for The Children's Hospital! 

First off thank you to the Dance Marathon committee!   Thank you for all the time and work you put into the Dance Marathon this year that raised over $70,000 for kids like our David who received chemo and radiation at UVA Children's Hospital.  I know your plate is full with classes and preparing for your future.  You carved out time to not only raise valuable funds, but you gave us a day of fun that we will never forget. 

Thank you for playing with our children yesterday and letting them have a day of fun away from clinic and the hospital.  Thank you for welcoming our children with love and a kind smile whether they had hair or not. 

Thank you to the clinic staff for coming out with your families to have fun.  After your child has been through the nightmare of cancer treatment you become part of our family.  You really are lifesavers to us and you know first hand what we have been through.  You held our hands as you shared the cancer diagnosis with us, thank you for also jumping, bouncing, and playing with us.  You are a special group of doctors and nurses and we all thank God for you.  You are our heroes. 

Thank you Josh and Ryan for passionately raising money and awareness for UVA Children's Hospital.  Your work is way more than a job to you both and thank you on behalf of the all the miracle children for what you do.  David adores you both!

Thank you UVA football team for being so sweet and kind to David and all the other children.  These kids look up to you and thank you for spending a Saturday with some amazing kids.  Whether you win or lose this upcoming season, you were all winners yesterday with these kids. 

Thank you Dance Marathon crowd for letting our kids shine yesterday.  They have all been through their own special kind of medical nightmare, and yesterday you let them be the stars that they are to us, their parents.  We are so proud of our kids and what they have been through and yesterday you celebrated all their progress with fun and smiles.  Lets hope next year David is not quite as "shy"  :)

Thank you to all the special athletes that came yesterday.  David thoroughly enjoyed socializing with the football team and he even played a little game  called "how many football players can I stuff in the bounce house" that was really fun.  Thank you for getting in there and bouncing with David. 

Thank you to Krissy Pitts, a fellow cancer Mom to sweet Anna, who choreographed and taught the families, doctors, nurses, and kids a special "flash mob" dance that we surprised the Dance Marathon students with.  I am feeling pretty confident that we totally rocked it. 

Thank you Dr. Belyea for your continued care and compassion.  Not only do you and your wife have the CUTEST twin boys, but you are a fabulous physician.  You patiently answer all my "what if" questions and it truly stressed you Friday night to call me with those iffy labs.  Your heart is gold Dr. B and we are so thankful for you and all the doctors that care for our kids. 

 

Thank you UVA football quarterback, David Watford, for allowing David to school you in some hoops and for letting him coach you on how to win next year.  Here he is giving you a lecture on how to score touchdowns.  We will be cheering you on next season just as loudly as you cheered for our kids yesterday. 

Thank you Ryan Lightner for coming up with this hilarious and fabulous idea for David's introduction.  Each miracle child was introduced and David did the "Lebron James dusting" with powder when he came on stage.  It was hilarious and what a fabulous idea:)

Overall it was a fabulous day of fun and memories for our kids!  We will definitely be back next year!

Clinic news

We let the roads thaw out a little and when the sunshine came out we hit the road to UVA. Mike and Kyle stayed back so Pops joined us on this road trip.  We took Valentine cookies to clinic to share with the staff because we love them all so much.

When we got to clinic I mentioned to Margie the nurse practitioner and Dr. Belyea that Dave mentions being tired often.  Because David received a lot of chemo and one that is known to cause heart problems, they decided to do an echocardiogram to check his heart.  We had to "encourage" David to get that echo and a trip to the toy box did the trick.  When his beautiful heart came on the screen he said "where is God because he is in my heart," I just about cried right then. This kid may have a significant cognitive disability but that is so sweet and smart that he knows that God is in his heart and looked for him on that echo monitor :)

After lots of socializing and craziness by David, we drew labs and then headed to Dave's favorite Cville eatery- Cici's pizza.  While eating Dr B called and shared that his labs were off today.  His creatinine which shows if his remaining kidney is happy and functioning, was way high today.  His potassium, sodium, and BUN were also elevated.  Of course I am nervous and my brain goes straight to kidney failure.

Dr Belyea told me not to worry that it truly could be a lab fluke.  He is also conscientious enough to reach out to our local pediatrician to make a plan to redo labs locally next week.  This is where our faith comes in.  It is so easy to go into panic mode.  He has had a lot of toxic chemo that can hurt organs, but I just have to stop and remember.  God has walked with us each step of this journey, and he is too faithful to walk away now.  We will just wait in faith until labs can be rechecked Monday.  We would be appreciative of prayers that today was just a fluke and that his labs are holding steady.

We are staying here overnight and waiting to have fun tomorrow with the clinic staff and other families at the Dance Marathon!!  We love this event so much and clinic staff and families have been practicing a flash mob dance.  We are going to totally rock it tomorrow! Thank you dear friends for your prayers and love.

God's Word

Sometimes life throws us a curveball that we never saw coming.  Maybe it is a child with a disability like us, or maybe it is cancer, divorce, bankrupcy, or betrayal.  Some circumstances on this side of heaven just do not make sense.  We all have experienced those times in our lives when the world stands still and we are in utter shock.  This week our sweet community lost another dear person in a very tragic way leaving many in shock and bewilderment. 

I believe that our God has a perfect plan for each of our lives.  As a mere human on this side of heaven I do admit that tragic deaths, childhood cancer, and sudden illnesses make absolutely no sense.  I am no theologian and I do not even try to understand why tragedy strikes.  I do believe firmly in a Sovereign God and we as a family witnessed his presence and his mercy during the nightmare of David's treatment. 

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

During David's treatment this verse from Corinthians encouraged me on those awful days.  We do not know why things happen, but His word tells us that His grace is sufficient for us.  During those times we are weak and begging God for mercy, His strength is shown.  I saw it over and over at UVA and I continue to see it to this day.  When we are weak, He is strong. 

When I was at UVA I always got a little sad on Sunday mornings because I missed being at church in the presence of God and in fellowship with friends.   I missed the uplifting music and hearing God's word preached.  I guess on Sundays mornings I was always just alittle homesick for sweet Smyth County.  This week the technology is up and running where you can listen online to the previous week's sermon.  I had to unexpectedly miss this past Sunday because Hope was not well, and this morning bright and early I got to sit down and listen to the sermon.  When Jonathan preached this sermon Sunday morning he had no idea that this community would lose someone in such a tragic way later that day. 

If you need twenty minutes of encouragement from God's word, I strongly urge you to click on the link below and hear a powerful sermon  on a popular myth that we often hear- "God does not give you more than you can handle."  You are always welcome to visit church in person, but if you do not live locally and need some positive and life-changing encouragement from God's word, join us electronically!  You can listen here.