C is for Cancer

Carina and Hannah have been lucky enough to stay at Christopher's Haven while in Boston. An incredible man and cancer survivor himself created Christopher's Haven to provide apartments in a high rise across the street from the hospital for families to stay in while receiving proton therapy. Our second night in Boston I laid awake on the pull out sofa bed. I couldn't stop thinking about all the other families that had literally slept where I was sleeping. What happened to them? Where were they now? How was their kid doing? How did they do it? How are we going to do it?

Hannah is oh so close to being finished with radiation. They have already booked their flight home for next Wednesday. This could be the end of treatment completely. It is for right now anyway and hopefully forever. I'm not brave enough to even begin discussing things going back to normal or saying she is cancer free. All I'll share is that since we've been in game mode since October I'm afraid to stop bracing for impact. What if I let my guard down and something happens? I can't get rocked like that again. But at the same time we all have to start going back to living again. These are questions and fears for the therapist...and God. I have a feeling there may not be answers though. For now I can celebrate Hannah and how far she's come and how wonderful she is doing. I will be grateful for today.

T.G.I.T.F (Thank God it's Toy Friday!)
Check out this spread for the young patients to choose from.

Hannah choosing a toy for baby Callie. There's a toy room for siblings too!

The sewing angel Karen helping Hannah make a pillowcase. Her Boston accent added to her heavenliness.

This is the bell patients ring after their treatment is complete. Carina says she cries every time she is present for a ringing. Next Wednesday Hannah will get to ring the bell after 32 treatments and Carina and Jason will cry.

A Great Big PS!- (added Feb 4th) Here's the picture of Hannah ringing the bell and showing her countdown chart completed!

Gas on a Plane

It's 11:57pm and I just sat in my bed after a long, long day of travel. Ugh, good to be home. This is going to be a worthless post, but part of the agreement this year.

On the flight to and from Boston I was suffering from some highly offensive gas. But if you've ever seen Seth Rogen's stand up bit on "Funny People", you know that on an airplane you can get away with loud flatulence. He tells a great story of sitting next to a woman asking about her grandchildren while just ripping away. The woman sits oblivious to his offenses because the engine noise drowns it out. This was me. A chai tea before a 5:30am departure on an empty stomach equals rumblings as does pre-flight McDonald's on the way home. I apologize to all folks present near 25 C and the surrounding areas. It was me. I'm sorry.

Cannolis and Dominos

We had a pretty low key day today (which when you're in the middle of radiation, low-key is good). A friend of my dad's sent us on a tour of the Perkins School for the Blind. The school began in 1829 and built the Watertown campus in 1912. The staff to student ratio is 1.5 to 1 (yes that's more teachers than students). The 40-acre campus is as gorgeous as the program is impressive boasting students like Helen Keller as well as her teacher Anne Sullivan.

We had dinner on the North end, home to great Italian restaurants and pastry shops. We brought home some cannoli's and gelato, then had a little photo session during Disney princess dominos.

P is for Penguin

We spent most of the day at the aquarium. It was magical. So magical that Daniel and I stayed for an additional hour after Carina and Hannah headed home for nap time. We totally geeked out at all the creatures, but penguins were by far the crowd favorite. We went over to Newbury where Daniel talked shop with a gal from one of the boutiques. Hide and seek to wrap up the evening again.

Sea Turtle (Myrtle not featured here is the 75 year old, 567 lb. sea turtle star of the aquarium.)Sting Ray

B is for Boston

Daniel and I are visiting my sister Carina and my niece Hannah in Boston while Hannah finishes up her radiation treatments here. I was able to get my crab leg fix already on the first night. We hopped on yelp.com to find an all-you-can-eat seafood house and an hour later the all-you-care-to-crack marathon ensued.

Daniel's bib didn't last past the picture. Note the enthusiasm.

Food is love I agree.

Waiting for the bus (which then turned into the train...long story). Surprisingly the balloon survived the whole trip home.

After dinner we stopped by the bookstore at Daniel's request to which Hannah asked, "Why Daniel wanna go to the bookstore? Cause he thinks books are awesome?" He does and they are.

We finished the night with 3 rounds of hide and seek (plus one more at Hannah's insistence). The sweetest moment came when she and I hid together while Daniel counted to eleven. She was yelling, "Let's hide in the bathroom, let's hide in the bathroom!", without any regard to the fact that Daniel was seated 6 feet away on the couch. Daniel approached the bathroom door with a teasing, "Are they in the closet? Are they in the bedroom? Where are they?", to which Hannah corrected him each time, "No! We're in the bathroom! We're IN THE BATHROOM!" She thought herself pretty clever by locking the door, so even though our location was revealed, we couldn't be "got". Daniel one-upped us though by utilizing the light switch for the bathroom which is inconveniently located outside the bathroom. He hit the lights and we surrendered in the darkness.

Sweet memories in a gorgeous city.

You Know You're Pretty When...

You know you're pretty when instead of bringing in a picture of a celebrity to their hairstylist, people bring in a picture of you when getting their hair cut.

I brought in a picture of my friend Abbie at my hair appointment today. She's a part-time model, but a full-time babe.

Photo from Standard Style's Fall magazine

She would hate that I'm doing this post. She used to live in Kansas City before relocating to Springfield. We used to have weekly game nights. We used to text each other commentaries during the commercial breaks of The Bachelor. I miss her. Having Abbie as a friend is like having your own real life My Size Barbie to play with.

Disclaimer: If anyone remembers that movie with Tyra Banks where she plays a doll that becomes human, trust me the real life Abbie doll would be nothing like that. I'm pretty sure the Tyra doll marries Lindsey Lohan's dad in the movie and the Abbie doll would never pull something like that with my dad. Weird.

Role Models

Over the course of doing Young Life I have run into kids who remind me of old friends. This has only happened a handful of times, but each time has proved very significant. For example in 2001 I was on Summer Staff at Sharp Top after my freshman year of college. I had just completed my first year of leading Young Life and had met Jeff City 14 year old Bailey Wilson. My Summer Staff coordinator that summer at Sharp Top was Ann Gregory from Houston and she instantly reminded me of Bailey. As I spent the month with Ann and got to know her very well, I couldn't shake the resemblance to Bailey. Ann is amazing. During our last week working at camp together I shared with her that I had a Young Life kid back home who reminded me of her and how seeing Ann living out her faith so well gave me a picture of who Bailey could become and what her life could look like if Jesus were a part of it. Watching Ann was like looking into the future I wanted for Bailey.

I ran into Ann this summer at Windy Gap. I hadn't seen her since that summer at Sharp Top 8 years ago! As proof of how incredible she is, she actually remembered me after all those years and greeted me excitedly. I shared with her the story about Bailey again and was able to report that Bailey did end up meeting Jesus and that we had attended her wedding just a few weeks earlier that summer. Ann inspired my hope for Bailey and that hope was fulfilled.

Daniel and I have a kid at West right now who reminds us of our good friend Matt Roach. We've known Matt since high school, led Young Life with him at Jeff City, and still maintain a friendship with him. Everyone who knows Matt loves Matt. He is defined by his enthusiasm for life and passion for Jesus. Matt was at our leadership retreat this weekend and we got a chance to pray with him last night. As we were praying Daniel and I were both moved to tears as we began praying for our friend at West who has so much of Matt's heart and spirit. Just like Bailey, we prayed that our friend would come to know how loved he is by God and that his life would be changed by that love. And then Matt prayed for our friend. It was a profound experience to listen to Matt pray for this kid who is just a stranger to him, but like him in so many ways.

I'm so grateful that God has sent examples like Ann and Matt to encourage me and Daniel as we try to lead lost kids. It can be hard to envision some kids ever accepting the love of Christ. Faith is believing in what is unseen, but sometimes God helps me along by giving me pictures of what could be. Watching Matt this weekend and praying alongside him, helped us to overflow with hope for what could be in the life of our new high school friend who we love and who God loves even more. I was able to tell Ann this summer that Bailey met Jesus. Ironically Matt prayed that by this time next year, Daniel would be able to share with him that this kid had indeed met Christ. I look forward to that day where we can share the good news.

Matt and his babe of a wife Carly.