Tag: laughing

Learning how to live, half alive

Ronan. My heart is still heavy. My mind is still a mess. I didn’t cry today though. I have no doubt that my pillow will be soaked tonight when all is quiet and the memories of you trickle in. Night time is hard. I fall asleep and wish for you to wake me up with one of your famous, “Good morning, Mom!” You were always so excited for our days. Back when you were healthy I would pretend I was still asleep just so I could listen to you run to my room after you had woken up to give me a kiss and tell me good morning. It was one of my favorite things in the world. You would never want to get in bed with me and cuddle; instead you would demand that I get up to make your breakfast and wake up your brothers for school. I was always happy to do this for you. Everyday with you was the best day of my life. I can’t believe I will never have that again. I would give anything for you, Ronan. I remember how when I would take you out, how many people would stop me to tell me you were the most beautiful boy they had ever seen. I used to joke with Tricia that I felt like I was with a celebrity when I was with you. We called you our mini Brad Pitt baby. You had an impact on everyone even before you were sick just because of the beauty that people saw from the outside. They didn’t even know the beauty you possessed on the inside. I still can’t believe you aren’t mine anymore. I still don’t understand why you had to leave. I asked Dr. Maze if he thought that you heard me as I was talking to you before you went… those last few minutes when I told you it was time to go. When I told you to come with me, because we were getting out of this place. He says he thinks you did, as many people say a persons hearing is the last thing to go. I wish I would have said more to you. I wish I could have told you everything I was feeling in my heart but that would have been impossible. I know you know how much I love you. I will never get over the fact that I alone couldn’t save you. I’ll always think that I let you down because I couldn’t fix you. I know there was nothing I could do as your disease was so uncontrollable but that guilt will never go away. I am so, so, sorry Ronan. I would have traded my life a million times over for yours. I think about this every single day.

I’m not sure what just happened…. except for while I am writing to you I am of course listing to Pandora. I have it on the Coldplay playlist. Right when the tears where pouring down my cheeks, this random song came on. One I have never heard before but here are the lyrics…….

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I’m come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

Whatever. I’m still too mad to think this is anything. But I will say that the piano playing this song was pretty. I miss you so much. I know I tell you this all of the time, but I will miss you for the rest of my life. I worry so much about you. I still cannot believe you are safe and happy without us. How could that be possible? I know I took better care of you then anyone. You deserve to be with me still. Your daddy watches me and the way I sit and am still with my thoughts. He knows I am tortured. I actually said to him that we made a mistake with your treatment. We should have done this, we should have done that, we should have been more aggressive. I know I am wrong about this. Nobody knew what was to come. Your daddy talked to all the best doctors and they all agreed with what we were doing. I told your daddy we should have had you scanned after every round of chemo. Nobody would have done this for us. But this is the only way we would have known that everything was spreading so rapidly. The day of your last scans, at Sloan…. Dr. Kushner’s face will haunt me for the rest of my life. He knew you were going to die. He couldn’t even look at me, Ro. Walking out of Sloan, they all knew you were going to die. But I wish they could have told me, instead of avoiding me and my tears. I don’t think badly of Dr. Kushner at all. If I saw him today, I would give him a great big hug and thank him for all he is doing to try to figure out this disease. I guess I’m just having a hard time because I feel like I didn’t get closure with him. I feel like he owed you more than the send off he gave us. But I also get that he is a man. A brilliant man and an amazing doctor. And I am sure he feels like he failed us and that is a hard pill to swallow. I get all that. But I also get that you deserved more, little man. Because you are going to change the world of this disease and I know someday he will be telling you thank you, Ronan. I will make sure of this. You will not be forgotten by him. And someday, I hope to replace a new image of him in my head from the awful one I am left with. I don’t want to carry that around with me forever.

I drew your name in the sand tonight while I was on my run. I went for a run on the beach in the dark. It is the only way I like to run now. In the dark, alone, where I don’t have to look at anyone in the eyes and I don’t have to see all the happiness surrounding me. All of that stings so badly. I don’t know if that pain will ever go away. We used to be that family. The perfect family that had it all. We had it all because of you. Now we are all so wounded, so empty. Although I did hear your brothers laughing today. I played with them all morning. I tried to stay focused on them, but my mind kept wandering back to how different everything would be about our day if you had been with us. Nothing about our day would have been the same; you changed everything.

G’nite my little man. Everyone is asleep now. Quinn is right next to me, all cuddled up with your blanket, GiGi. I’m going to cuddle up to him now. See you in my dreams, baby doll. I love you.

xoxo

Happy Easter Ro baby

Oh Ro baby. Happy Easter. I’m not going to lie. It was a hard day today. At one point, I did not think I was going to be able to get out of bed. I wanted to spend the day hiding under my covers. It took me a few hours once I woke up, to get things started for the day. I was barely functioning. We planned on going over to Woody’s Uncle Larry’s house where all the cousins were going to be. In my head, I kept thinking, how am I going to face everyone? I’m way too sad. But I knew how much my twins were looking forward to it and I knew it would be good to be surrounded by our loving family. Woody and I got the boys ready and dressed and then got ready ourselves. Out the door we went and I turned my frown upside down; as best I could.

The day was spent watching the boys playing, laughing, running, swimming, and enjoying their cousins. Ronan even got a little wet and ran around as much as he could but stayed by my side most of the time. It was good to be with family on such a special day. There was a sadness in the air, but it was overcome by the beauty and strength of Ronan. I refused to let cancer ruin our beautiful day. Ronan was happy, smiling, and laughing while throwing water balloons at his cousins. Today, cancer did not win. Today, we held our heads high and enjoyed his little life to the fullest.

Ronan was ready to go after a couple of hours so Woody and I took him home while the twins stayed behind to play the rest of the day away. We came home and Woody ran out to do some things which left me here alone with Ronan for what I thought was going to be some quiet time. No quiet time allowed as I was told by him. He was all ready for a Star Wars battle so that is what we did. Fernanda stopped by to drop off some of her amazing confetti filled easter eggs which Ronan smashed over my head. She had her Brando with her and I wanted to just eat him up. Cutest thing ever. He was dressed in a tee-shirt, his skinny jeans, and cowboy boots. She has the most beautiful children and I was so happy they stopped by for a few minutes.

After Fernanda stopped by, I had texted Gay  earlier to tell her Ronan was really wanting to see Cal. She then came by about an hour later with her boys, Cal and Chet. Ronan was over the moon. They played and Gay helped me get a lot of the little things around the house put away. I am so thankful for my wonderful friends and the way they are handling all of this. They all refuse to give up and are more than rising to the occasion. I will never stop being blown away by all of their support and love. We are so blessed to be going through all of this with the most amazing people by our side.

I am finding laughter in the stupidest things these past few days. Not much is making me laugh anymore and laughing is one of my favorite things in the world. Woody has put on our “South Park,” DVDs. So stupid, vulgar, and immature…. but I have been dying laughing at them. Trey Parker and Matt Stone = Freaking geniuses. I am such a sucker for some dirty, foul-mouthed humor. Works every time. Even in my numb, fogged induced state of mind.

Tonight, we did normal family things. I got to tuck my Liam and Quinn in to bed which is such a precious gift to me now. I spent today washing all of their sheets and duvet covers. Felt so good to do something normal. I love laundry and I could never get tired of doing it. It is my favorite normal chore in the world.

I thought about a lot of you today, even the people I don’t know. I imagined your faces that I have made up in my head and wondered what you were doing on this day. I imagined a lot of your kids dressed up in their Easter best, a lot of you at church, and all of you watching your kids with your love for them pouring out of your hearts because you know how blessed you are to have them and I know how even more thankful you are for their health. Thinking of you all made me happy and warmed my heart. I hope I get to meet you all someday. I would like to give you a smile and a hug and thank you for supporting our family, whom you don’t even know. I am so thankful for all of you as well.

Tonight, after all of my babies are asleep I am going to go and kiss my husband and thank him for being the best man in the world and tell him how proud I am to be his wife. He deserves to hear this everyday. He is simply the most amazing man living on this planet. I will always think I am the luckiest girl alive that the stars aligned and we met when we did. I’ll never forget our first date and how I just knew he was the one. 11 years later and here we stand, going through the hardest thing of our lives, but we are going through it together, not apart. As much as I would like to put up my walls and as much as I try, Woody always finds a way to knock them down and I let him back in. He is the best thing that has ever been mine, that Wooddawg of mine. Mine forever. No matter what we have to go through. We will never let go of each other.

Sweet dreams to you all. I hope you had a beautiful day with your beautiful friends and family. I love you all so very much.

xoxo

This is from my sissy, Liz, tonight. I love you so much, Liz. This is just what I needed to hear.

Easter represents rebirth and new beginnings..how appropriate. Love you and your family with all my heart. And remember, we don’t call Ronan a rockstar for nothing!! 🙂 xoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo

Dear Dr. Kushner-

You want me to give up on this? You gave up so easily but I will never. Did you forget the most important factor in your decision making? Him. He is not like other little boys. He is our miracle, our Rockstar, our gift. This is not over and it breaks my heart that you stopped believing. Miracles do happen; everyday.

Fondly,

Maya Thompson

Happy Friday!

My Grandpa Jack passed away Tuesday night and I don’t even have the tears to cry about it. He was my favorite Grandpa and I always looked forward to seeing him whenever we went back to Washington. I would take the boys every summer to his house and we would sit and talk to him. When we were there last August, I took Liam and Quinn to visit him in his new nursing home and he didn’t even know who I was. That made me very sad, but now that he is gone, I just feel numb. I am in so much pain from what Ronan is going though, that anything else that comes my way, doesn’t hurt at all. I know if it were not what I am going through right now, I would be crying non-stop and on the first flight to sit with my Dad and Aunt Sheri and the rest of the family at his funeral. I don’t have it in me to be there with them, or to leave Ronan. So to all of my family reading this, please know that I wish I could be there and I love each and everyone of you. RIP Grandpa Jack, so happy you get to be with Grandma Bonnie now.

So, last night I saw via Facebook that my little cousin, Shannon, had a modeling gig going on pretty close to my house. She models for a lot of different things, but the event last night was for a company called “Bella Legs.” You can check out the website here: http://www.bellalegs.com. My cousin, Shannon, has the best legs in the world and is a perfect model for this company. I really wanted to get out and support her so I called up a couple of girlfriends and asked very last minute, if they wanted to go out with me. My two friends, Lindsey and Jocelyn, dropped everything to take me out. You have no idea how much that meant to me. We got to the event and I got to spend some much needed time with Shannon and her Dad, Roy, who I am very close to. It felt so good. Throw in a few Coors Lights, girlfriends, and family…… best night in a very long time. I got to have a nice long talk with Roy, which is always so good for me. He loves me so much and vise versa. We talked about my Grandpa, my Dad, and about Ronan. He knows Ronan is going to be o.k. and kept reassuring me of it. I know this too but it is always nice to be reassured. I ended up meeting the owner of Bella Legs and she couldn’t have been sweeter. I asked her if she ever did charity events and she said absolutely. Cancer, has unfortunately been a part of her life. I gave her my info and she said she would love to put together something for Ronan. I am so excited for this plan to come into action. Two of my favorite things, fashion and Ronan:) After Roy and Shannon left, I got in my girl time with Joss and Linds. Those two make my heart sing and being with them is always a blast. I so needed a night out to relax and little and have some heart to hearts with my friends. It was a night full of fun and beauty.

Ronan is back to being his normal, happy, hyper, self. He has been running around all day and I couldn’t even get him to nap today. I went to Liam and Quinn’s school for their Thanksgiving Day feast. I was so happy to be able to go. It was a little overwhelming… I still don’t do well in big social situations. I found myself taking a lot of deep breaths and trying to focus on my sweet little guys. They were so happy to have me at their school. I don’t get to spend much time there:(

Tomorrow, we go into PCH for a check of Ronan’s kidneys, which is just a precaution. Then we will have his blood levels and ANC counts checked. I can tell his immune system is spiking up just due to the way he looks and is acting. We have to make sure they are high enough to start chemo on Monday though. Here we go again! Trying to mentally prepare for next week in the hospital. I can do this…. if I survived last week, I can survive the week ahead.

Gosh! This post has taken me forever to write! I started it on Wednesday and kept getting sidetracked. Just a combo of being busy and tired. Today, we went to PCH to get Ronan’s labs done. We also had to go over to Nucular Medicine to have a 5 hour GFR test done. It is basically a test that measures Ronan’s kidney function. It is standard protocol when going through chemo. It was a long day though. Ronan’s platelets were very low, so we got a transfusion while we were there. If they don’t come up by Monday, we will have to postpone our chemo week. I think he will end up being o.k. We go to the clinic Monday at 9 a.m. to have his levels checked and if all is well, we will check right into the hospital for our week of chemo. Ronan and I left the house at 7:30 this morning and did not get home until 4. He has been running around all evening, playing with his brothers. His home is his favorite place in the world… I am so happy we get to spend the weekend here.

Happy Friday night to you all. I hope you have a beautiful weekend. xoxo

A breath of fresh air

I spent today enjoying everything to the fullest. Woody and I made a big breakfast together for the boys, Mimi and Papa; who came over to take Liam and Quinn to get their flu shots. I ran some errands alone which was nice. I then met Woody over at The Village to watch Liam and Quinn’s basketball game which was the highlight of my week. Danielle, her amazing boyfriend, Dave, and Trish came to watch as well. It was such a great game and I found myself laughing and cheering the entire time. The twins played awesome… it was like a switch flipped and all of a sudden they get it. They were hustling up and down the court, throwing great passes, guarding their guys, they each made a basket and played with the most heart that I have ever seen them play with. I was grinning ear to ear watching them and seeing how much fun they were having. The most beautiful sight that I have seen in a long time. I loved sitting with my sweet friends too and hearing them laugh and cheer right a long with me. Liam and Quinn were so excited to have an audience<3 I wish I would have recorded it all but it will forever be engrained in my brain. There is nothing like watching your kids flourish at something they love. My heart is sooooo happy today. I feel like a whole new person…. well, maybe more like the older version of myself;  someone that I love and miss so very much.

After the basketball game, Trish and I went to Chestnut Lane for some lunch and girl talk. There is nothing like time with my bestie. It was nice to catch her up on some things that have been going on and to get to talk about our Marisa who just had her sweet baby boy, Max. I am so excited to see her and meet the newest little member of our inner circle. I am going to try to go to the hospital tomorrow to check in on them and to give Marisa the big hug that I have been saving for her. I’ve been missing her so much. Trish and I ran a couple of errands over at the mall and then we parted ways. It felt good to be out today, with her by my side. I even managed not to be bothered by being out in public. I am feeling stronger than I have in a very long time. I’m chalking it up to a very big weight being lifted off of my shoulders and the fact that Woody and I have really been enjoying each other lately. I have been missing spending time with him, doing all the little things that we used to do. Even just cooking breakfast together this morning was so therapeutic.

Tonight Mimi, Woody, and I all made a big turkey dinner together at our house. The boys played board games with Papa while we got everything ready. Ronan was pretty tired but ran around the entire night. He didn’t nap today so he finally fell asleep around 8. His energy amazes me. He had a few tantrums today…. I hate seeing him so angry. I know that anger is usually a secondary emotion so I am wondering what the first one is that he is feeling…. could be fear, or even pain. I hope he is not hurting physically and that is what is causing him to be so mad. I ask him all the time if he is hurting and he always tells me no. He has such a high tolerance for pain though so I can’t always trust what he says. I just pray that his little body is not hurting… that would break my heart. He is going through enough with everything and if he is feeling any of this, well, I don’t even have words to express how that would make me feel. All I can do is pray, watch him, and take the best care of him that I possibly can.

I am going to curl up with Woody and watch Saturday Night Live in a bit. Auntie Karen’s close friends daughter, Emma Stone, is hosting tonight. (GO EMMA!!!)You all should watch if you stay up that late. She is such a talented little thing and I love watching her in movies. She was amazing in “Zombieland.” One of my favorites:)

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend full of love and thankfulness. It is easy to get caught up in things that are not worth our time or energy, but it is even easier to just let some things go and live a life full of being true to ourselves. I know days like today are not going to come along very often for me for a while. I am going to have more bad days than good; which is a huge reason why I will forever cherish and remember today. The feeling of complete happiness is so easily taken for granted, but so easy to achieve when you know what really matters most in life.