I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to write tonight. My husband says he does not have a wife anymore—he has a blogger. He needs me to spend some time with him. I will just say that today we had a great day.
My mom is here, and I know that I made the right decision in making her wait to come out and see us. She is stronger now, and Ronan is stronger as well. Having her here is perfect timing. She gets to see her sweet baby grandchild while he is feeling great. That is exactly what I wanted.
I took Ronan out for the first time in seven weeks. We went to Yogurtland and sat outside with Liam, Quinn, my mom, Gay, Chet, and Cal (Liam and Quinn’s buddies). Ronan was practically glowing. He was so happy to be out and with his brothers and friends. We sat outside on this beautiful AZ night, and the boys played and giggled.
I’m going to talk to the doctors tomorrow about Ronan being around other kids. Taking his childhood away from him is just not fair. He needs to be around other kids. Of course I had out the hand sanitizer every five minutes, but that’s O.K. At least he was out 🙂 It was exactly what he needed.
My friend Charisma got back from Toronto today. She sent me a really beautiful email about her experience, and I wanted to share it. Instead of blogging a bunch tonight, I thought I would share a couple of things. Here is a little bit of what Charisma experienced:
Maya,
I thought this trip to fundraise would be so heartbreaking and sad—which was O.K., I was ready for it. But you’re never ready to see kids fight so hard for their right to live. However, they inspired me so much!
A doctor spoke at the gala dinner last night. He’s a doctor from “SickKids Hospital” in Toronto. He said fundraising equals life. (Whoa!) He also said, “There is a cure.” There are new drugs out there to develop that can trick cancer cells from multiplying by getting the cancer cell to kill itself. Five of his former patients are either in residency, the lab, or med school. By the time these kids finish school, there will be a cure. “This time,” he said, “it’s personal.”
The beauty of the story is kids weren’t surviving before. In the 80s (?) there was a 5 percent survival rate for pediatric cancer patients. Now it’s 80 percent due to funding and awareness. There is HOPE! A little girl shared her story of her survival of cancer. She said when my grandpa was in med school and if I had been diagnosed then, I would have died. But now I live to see another day. (Her grandpa discovered her illness.) So brave! So clear, so inspiring. And she’s not even 13 yet.
I know Ronan will make it! I just am sure of it. He will win, and he will have changed lives by just being him. A fighter! A spunky little man with just the right amount of angel to stare cancer down!
I talk about Ronan to everyone I can. I talk about his bright eyes. I was on the plane home with Robin Antin from the Pussycat Dolls. I told her to tweet about you and send her peeps to your blog. Hopefully she’ll do it. Other pediatric cancer patients are lucky a child with such a face has cancer. Unfortunately or fortunately, he will motivate more people to do more and give more because of his good looks—and that’s O.K. It’s more meaningful to be the poster child for pediatric cancer than the Gap. Yes? (Not that you asked for that, Maya. No one wants their kid to be ill. I hope you can see the silver lining in what I’m trying to articulate, a bit poorly.)
Nonetheless, I read your blog every day, every post. I want to buy a tee! A few! Do you have any left?
That’s all. Love to you!
Charisma
Charisma is inspired and moved and is getting her wake-up call in life. She now knows helping with childhood cancer awareness is something she is going to be part of for the rest of her life. She knows this because she looks at her beautiful little boy, Donovan, and knows it can happen to anyone. There needs to be more funding, more hope, and a cure.
Charisma loves Ronan and loves us and is part of our army of angels. I know she hugs Donovan a little more tightly at night, and I am so glad I can give her that gift. Even through all of my pain, it is worth it to me.
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