To say it has been a whirlwind this past few weeks is to put it mildly. The kids have been in their usual “kid schedule” which, of course , means I have been a taxi driver and short order cook, but I am happy to say that our day to day life is quite normal these days … relatively speaking. Tom is working, I am working, kids are in school and we aren’t in the hospital, so all is well.

Our first and biggest news is that Julia has had her monthly visit at the hem/onc clinic and not only did she not pass out with her finger-stick (yea, she still screamed like she was being butchered …. baby steps!) but her blood work came back perfect! We are happy to realize that next month’s visit will be one year off treatment and cancer is still history for her!

In honor of her battle and, God willing, recovery we have started Julia’s Rainbow Fund. We are setting this up so we can assist families that find themselves in the same creaky boat we did and are taking on water too fast to even stay afloat. No family should have to sacrifice their entire way of life or suffer alone in silence because their child has been diagnosed with Pediatric Cancer. Our goals are to Support, Educate and Cure …. there just has to be a better way to treat our babies and we are stepping forward with our community of friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers to make a difference.

Truly, I believe we are all placed on a certain journey in life. Which paths we take on that journey are our choices. I have chosen to NOT put the Cancer world behind us. Our family cannot just move on and turn our backs on those in the trenches. We have been blessed with great support and that combined with extreme luck to this point has made it a necessity (for me)  that we continue on in the fight. I am so proud of my family for agreeing to do this and joining me in giving  back and paying  it forward.

I will post more information about our upcoming fundraisers and donation information as we get our website up and running. We are being “sponsored” by the Carolinas Healthcare Foundation who have already started accepting donations. If anyone feels so inclined to donate before our fundraising efforts officially begin, please feel free!!! You can send a check made out to “Carolinas HealthCare Foundation” to CHF, 1221 E. Morehead, Charlotte, NC, 28204 and simply note “Julia’s Rainbow Fund” in the memo section of the check. I am so over the moon over this and it feels so good to feel so good!!

One of the major efforts we hope to fund is the amazing Oncology Research going on at Levine Children’s Hospital. This week we were fortunate to be involved and included in an extremely important press conference concerning the move to be able to participate in Phase 1 and 2 trials for leukemia and neuroblastoma. This link explains it and shows some brief footage of Julia and I being interviewed … pay no attention to my very bad hair day!

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/22645151/detail.html

It was a crazy morning of interviews and radio shows …. Too much fun passing out pancakes for IHOP’s National Pancake Day for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals but we are all paying the price now. Julia and I have the croupy cough nastiness that is going on and ironically so do each of the Morning DJ’s we spoke to ! Yikes! Sorry Jen and Brotha’ Fred. Guess they won’t forget us anytime soon.

So I tried to catch you up as quickly as possible with the highlights yet I am sorry if this got a bit winded! I will be blogging more frequently to keep in touch so it should be shorter and sweeter (maybe?) from now on!!!

Have a great night and day!

Peace,

Kathy

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