The most wonderful time of the year

Christmas in New York truly is magical, even under our circumstances. Today, we spent the morning hanging out at the Ronald McDonald House, just enjoying the activities that they had going on. Around one, I skipped out, hailed a cab, and went over to pick up Liz so we could do a little holiday shopping. I had yet to get Wood a thing and talk about waiting until the last minute. Today really was the only free day I’ve had alone to do his shopping. Liz and I walked the streets of New York for 5 hours straight. It was busy, chaotic, and so much fun. We had the best time together and I feel so lucky to have her in my life. She is such an amazing young lady and truly is like a sister to me. The streets and shops were full of people everywhere and I could practically feel the city buzzing with the excitement of the holidays. I loved every second of being right in the middle of it. Today, I enjoyed a day of escaping our reality for a few hours…. even though Liz and I talked about Ronan a lot, we spent most of our day just enjoying our surroundings. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve day. Tonight, everyone came over to the Ronald McDonald House and we hung out. Ronan had a couple of meltdowns… he’s tired tonight; but happy. Liam and Quinn have been great and we have really been enjoying them. They love staying here with us. RMH does such an amazing job of having fun activities for the kids to do and everyday there is something going on. We feel so blessed to be staying here for such a long amount of time. It is a very safe, fun, positive, environment. I just know Quinn and Liam are going to look back at this Christmas and remember it as being a fun time, full of lots of laughter and love.

I wonder what you are all up to. I wonder if Christmas means more to you this year? It does to me. All I want for Christmas is for my family to be healed, my friendships to be stronger, and to have Ronan healthy. It was so hard for me to see his tumor on the scan yesterday. It made everything so real and seeing the very first scan, when the tumor was everywhere, took my breath away. It was so huge before. I just don’t know how that thing was growing in my baby and we had no idea. His stomach did not protrude at all…. he acted and felt fine. The doctors could not even feel it when they pressed on his stomach, yet it was everywhere. Such a scary thing. It it wouldn’t have been for his little left eye, we would have never known what was going on. I am thankful every single day that it metastasized up into the orbit of his eye… otherwise whose knows when or if we would have caught this.

Tonight, Karen, Olivia, and Liz went to church here at 11 p.m. I wanted to go with them, but felt like I needed to be with my boys. Karen said she was going to pray extra hard for Ronan, for me. What a beautiful gift they have given me this Christmas. I couldn’t ask for more. The thought of all 3 of those beautiful souls, sitting in a church in NYC, praying for us brings tears to my eyes. It’s one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given. I know he is going to be healed, I know he is going to grow up and be the most amazing man, there are too many people thinking and praying for it to go any other way. Too much love surrounds this little boy of ours.

This Christmas, I would like to say thank you to all of you and leave you with a little toast. To all of my family, friends, strangers, near and far…… thank you for thinking of Ronan and following his journey and believing in him. A toast to all of you. Cheers!

To Nearest

To Dearest

To The Truest

To The One’s Who’ve Been There

To The One’s Who Who’ll Be There

To Dropping Everything

To Honesty

To NO Judgements

To No Doubts

To Loyalty

To Trust

To Humbleness

To Knowing What Matters Most

To Having Our Back

To Asking For Nothing In Return

To Accepting

To Loving

To Kindness

To Living Your LIfe Full of Being Selfless

To All Of You, Who Know This Is True, And Know It Is Your Soul We See Shining Through.

Happiest Holidays!!!!!!