It’s all a blur

Holy COW!!

I had this whole post in my head about our crazy busy weekend, but it all just got bumped out because of the amazing news I just got. WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!

Can you tell how excited I am? In fact, I’m trying to type so fast that I am making miserable amount of typos and I’m so thankful for spellcheck.

Ok, we had a great weekend. We went to a fashion show put on to benefit the [url=http://www.childrenscancercenter.org]Children’s Cancer Cente[/url]r, some of our sweet friends from the center got to get dressed up and strut their stuff for the runway. It was precious and wonderful.

After that I got to take my kids to meet Brittany Snow. She’s an actress and she’s one of the stars of the movie Hairspray that I’ve talked so much about. She happens to be a Tampa native and a neighbor of our dear friends the Bertochs. Kay has been working hard to find a time when Brittany could come meet some of the kids and hopefully find it in her heart to become involved with the Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Peyton was walking down the sidewalk towards the party and she saw Brittany and took off running. She sprinted the whole way there and then just stopped a few inches from her and looked up at her with adoration beaming from every pore. It was so sweet. The kids got to sing karaoke (Nathaniel was a HOOT!), they got the chance to meet Brittany and get autographs and pictures with her. There were lots of our friends there, it was not just my kids. It was tremendous to see these kids starstruck by a celebrity who came just to meet them. Brittany and her family were so wonderfully kind and patient and Peyton stalked her the entire afternoon.

The love of Peyton’s life…Cody Bertoch

Today we went to a Spring Festival put on the CCC, full of food, fun and games. The kids had a blast and it was another great chance to spend time with our friends.

I had so much more to blather on about all of that, but truly, in light of the news I just got, that’s the best you’re going to get. I’m posting pictures though!

Here’s the news.

Oprah has a new show on Sunday nights called “The Big Give”. She gives 10 people money and then gives them a person they’re supposed to help They have to produce a life changing “give” in the short time they have. It’s an amazing effort to show what people can do with the right inspiration and the means to do it can make happen. I mean, people, this is OPRAH!!

I just found out from Mary Ann, the executive director of the Children’s Cancer Center, and one of my favorite people in the whole world, that Oprah’s team has chosen the Children’s Cancer Center to be one of their 10 nationwide charities that their going to highlight.

OK

Really?

Yes! YES! Really!!!

That is tremendous!!! They are going to get amazing exposure for the center, it is going to raise awareness for childhood cancer as whole and I just pray pray pray that Oprah is going to blown away by what the CCC does and gives them the full force of her support. How could she not be? I would love to see the CCC spread out into a nationwide organization, able to offer the programs and support to oncology families everywhere. It is so needed, it has been crucial in giving us the tools to cope with Peyton’s cancer.

This organization has been a miracle in our lives. I talk to other cancer parents across the country and they all tell me how they have nothing like what we have here. They don’t have the support of a CCC-type organization, therefore they don’t have the close relationships with the other oncology families like we have here. I mean, we are a family. I don’t mean in some quaint and light way, we are tight. When one of us hurts, we all hurt and we run to support each other. I know some who read our site think that it’s just me, but its so not. It’s easy to reach out and help when you love someone so much.

I can’t explain how happy I am that if we had to get cancer, we got it while we lived here. God had a very special plan for us in having us here to go through this journey. The families we have met, the relationships we have built, the learning experience this has been is overwhelming. We have been blessed beyond compare by the gifts of the CCC, the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, the Brad Richards foundation, All Children’s Hospital, our church and our kids’ school.

I’m off to sleep off the crazy weekend, the emotional week it has been and to prepare for the week ahead.

Please keep those prayers going for Mathew Gliddon, the Potterbaum family, for Kaylie Gunn and for all the families sleeping tonight under a cloud of cancer. They need your prayers.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa