Finger play

Today we take a deep breath and start planning for another insanely busy weekend, which winds straight into a packed week.

Tonight we went to the Children’s Cancer Center for our Family Night meeting. Because it was our holiday meeting we enjoyed a fantastic meal of turkey, dressing and all that good stuff that plays along. In fact, the meal was so good that I really felt that we should have been slunked down on a couch somewhere, watching football and dozing in a puddle of drool. Tryptophan rocks! We had the chance to see our wonderful friends as well as meet some new families. Sadly to say, there are more new families all the time and it’s a chance for us to reach out and get to know them and share some of the encouragement that has gotten us through. Two of the families have daughters Peyton’s age and are diagnosed with ALL Leukemia, so we are able to connect with them in a unique way. Peyton spent the better part of the night playing with Presley and showing her the ropes of the Center. It was pretty neat to watch her interact with a new child in a “hey, let me show you this, and explain that, and let’s do this” kind of way. It feels like we’re teaching her something awesome about helping others.

What a weekend we have. Last weekend was the Fisherman’s Ball and the Blue and White. This weekend we have a night at a hockey game where Tampa really rallies around the cancer community. Every cancer organization reaches out to bring families from all over the area, both pediatric and adult cancers and makes it a really special night. Our sweet friend Nikki Hawkins will be singing the national anthem to start off the game, so that’s an extra special bonus!!

On Saturday Rachael is going off with her friend Alyssa to see a play of Alice in Wonderland. Then we are off that night to the Brandon Foundation Evening of Hope. The Brandon Foundation is the group that has been such a tremendous help to our family this year, they were able to help when our washing machine died, fixed numerous issues around our house and replaced our deck. Whooo hooooo! This is one of their bigger fundraisers to benefit their Angels Among Us program. The AAU program is where they hook up businesses that want to help with families who need it. I can’t wait for the chance to thank so many who have been instrumental in helping us through this ordeal.

Our school is out for the entire week of Thanksgiving as well as the Monday after. Looong break! So, after Peyton’s PT appointment to get fitted for her orthotic foot braces, we are heading out of town for the week. My sister Angela and her family are going to be at my mom’s over in Daytona and we will get to spend a lot of precious time with them. They live in South Carolina so our visits are few and far between and I’m so looking forward to this time with them. I have 4 nieces that I rarely get to see. The move to Atlanta will also be bringing us within a few hours of where they live, so I know that this is going to be a great opportunity to really get to know them and for our kids to actually be a family.

This is a big thing for us, this week away from home. It’ll really be the longest time we’ve spent away from home, we’ve done the occasional weekend thing, but we’re going to be gone for a whole week. I’m trying not to get worried about the “what if” of being so far from our hospital and everything, but the worries still linger. Life seems to get back to some normalcy and then we plan something like this and I realize how hard it is to go on a trip that will take us out of our safety net and I get a little anxious. But it will be fun and I’m going to try to ignore the worries and just enjoy the family time.

OHHHH, I can’t forget this!!

Nathaniel had an adventure tonight at the Center. One of the moms comes to me and leans over and whispers, “Your son has his finger stuck in a chair”.

Excuse me? My son? My 9-year-old-much-too-old-for-this-sort-of-thing son has his what where?

So, I go over to surely disprove this!

Yeah…no….he did. Apparently he’d been sitting there for some time with his finger stuck in a whole in the seat of the plastic seats….all the way to the second knuckle of his finger. I give it a tug. He howls. I pull a little harder, he howls louder.

Oh, it’s in there good. Plus, we have an audience! Those compassionate and caring parents and Center staff are standing there behind me…snickering.

We poured water on his finger and I gave it a good yank.

“Ow! OW! OWWWW!”

“Well, why did you stick it in there in the first place?”

“I don’t know.”

“You stick your finger in a hole in a chair and you don’t know why?”

“No, and then I couldn’t get it out, mom.”

“Obviously.”

It took a large quantity of soap, some heartless ignoring of his pleas to stop yanking on his finger before he finally popped free. His finger was so tightly stuck that the tip had turned purple and I knew I had to get it out of there, even at the expense of yanking it out of socket or breaking it. I know….I’m cruel!

After getting cleaned up, a hug and a check to make sure the finger is A-ok, he says, “Well, I won’t do that again.”

And this is my honor student.

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
–Anissa