Today is Lily’s eighth birthday! My goodness, where has the time gone? I remember so well the day she was born. Early this morning, I drove over to her house and tied balloons to the mailbox, along with a card for her to find when she woke up. I started doing that a few years ago, and now the girls look for their balloons each year on their birthdays. They both love it.

Lily, the day she got her head shaved

Lily blowing out the candle on her birthday cupcake

Yesterday, on my way back to TN from visiting my mother in Georgia, I stopped at the pet adoption center in Murfreesboro where I met Lily and Sophie and Larisa. There they bought their new dog, Rosie, a chihuahua. Rosie will be Lily’s and Sophie’s dog – it’s the only thing Lily really wanted for her birthday. Rosie will be good for Lily. Since Lily has to spend so much time at home, she’ll be there to train Rosie and be with her. Rosie is full-grown, but she is small – about 9 pounds, I believe. Rosie will join her new canine siblings, Bogey and Maggie.

For her birthday gift from us, Ron and I got her a camera. A very nice camera, I might add. She has had a “children’s camera” before. However, this one isn’t one made for children. She’ll be able to take photos and edit them on her computer. She has a creative eye for photography, and it is a good hobby for her to develop while she is at home so much.

Lily has faced more challenges in the past few months than any of us could have imagined. She has handled the enormous curve ball of leukemia with grace, humor and kindness. I love her more than I could ever express.

Happy Birthday, my precious, precious Lily.

Today is Sunshine’s 6th birthday. Early this morning I tied a bouquet of balloons on their mailbox. Larisa said she was awakened by the sound of the alarm beep – indicating someone had opened an outside door. It was Sophie – heading out to get her balloon bouquet.

Sophie has such a unique personality. She is definitely her own person with a loving nature and a strong will. She is quite an athlete. She often makes multiple goals in her soccer games.

Sophie going ALL OUT playing soccer, Spring 2009

She’s an athlete, but she is also a girly-girl. She loves everything pink – and loves to have her nails painted. When she wants to be, she is the most dainty girl imaginable. WHEN she wants to be.

Sophie may be an all-out athlete, but she is also a girl girl!

So she has her athletic side, her girly-girl side, and she also has her tender and loving side. She is an expert cuddler, and has the sweetest smile in the world. Since her big sister, Lily, was diagnosed with lleukemia a few months ago, Sophie has shown maturity beyond her years in handling the challenges associated with Lily’s diagnosis. Her love for her sister is obvious to everyone.

Sophie shows her tender side by reading a book to Lily – soon after Lily was diagnosed with leukemia

Happy birthday, my precious Sophie.

Today is my mother’s birthday. My mother is a blogger – Ruthlace is a wonderful blog in which she writes often of growing up in the 1920’s and 1930’s. She writes about her experiences during the Great Depression and during World War II, her years as a young wife and mother, as a preacher’s wife, and the mother of seven children. I’ve learned so much from reading her blog.

I’ve written about my mother’s birthday on previous years. The first year I had this blog, I wrote a rather detailed post for her birthday. One year I wrote eighty-three things about my mother. I won’t give away her age, but this year I could have written eight-six things about her. Here are some photos from previous birthday posts:

This next photo is of my mother as a young woman.

And this next photo was taken a few years ago – my mother with my siblings and me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER!p>

Calling all bloggers! We need to reach more people to help spread the word about the need to fund research on childhood cancer. This is very personal to me. Lily is my precious 7-year old granddaughter that I love more than anything in the world. My heart is broken at what she is going through – what so many children are going through. As a nation, we HAVE to make finding a cure for childhood cancer a priority. We HAVE to protect our most vulnerable – our children!

Here is a button you are welcome to use. Put it in your sidebar and link it the http://lilysgarden.org. Write a post about Lily’s Garden.

I also invite you to join the “Lily’s Garden” cause on Facebook – and invite all your readers to do the same.

Doesn’t it warm your heart that part of Obama’s economic “stimulus” package includes $75 million for smoking cessation research?

I’m still looking to see how much is being given to fund CHILDHOOD CANCER RESEARCH.

So while we have thousands of children suffering through painful and grueling treatment for cancer, we are spending tax money on things such as:

$75 million for smoking cessation research

Amtrak gets $1 billion (Amtrak hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years!)

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

$650 million (in addition to the billions already doled out) for digital TV conversion coupons.

$600 million for the federal government to BUY NEW CARS!

$7 BILLION to “modernize” federal buildings and facilities.

$150 for the Smithsonian. I’m wondering how that will stimulate the economy?

I think President Obama and every single United States Senator and Representative should be required to spend a day with a child who is battling childhood cancer.

There’s Lily – who two month ago was running and playing with her friends. Then she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on December 1, 2008. Now she spends her days going to physical thereapy because she has trouble walking – will likely need leg braces soon. She can’t run or skip – not because she doesn’t want to. She is physically unable to.

She actually is cancer-free right now. However, in order to KEEP her cancer-free, she must continue to endure chemotherapy for more than two more years. And the poisonous chemotherapy is what is causing these horrible side effects. We are POISONING our children because we HAVE to in order to give them a chance at living. There has to be a more humane way to successfully treat cancer in children.

These are our CHILDREN. Our FUTURE. They never smoked a cigarette. They don’t want a new car. They could care less if our federal buildings are “modernized.” All they want is to be able to live a “normal” life – to go to school, to be with their friends, to ride a bike, to run and skip. It is a national disgrace that we are not POURING federal funds into finding a cure for childhood cancers.

It’s true that you can tell a lot about a civilization by the way it treats its most vulnerable members. And our federal government is abysmally failing the test of being “civilized.”

Visit Lily’s Garden.

So today RT and I ate at a small local restaurant after church, and I gave the cashier one of Lily’s wristbands and told her that Lily had been diagnosed with leukemia last month. She then proceeded to tell us a story that she felt would “give us hope.”

The story was that when she was four years old (probably about 40 years ago – she looked to be in her 40’s), she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her parents cried and prayed to God and then got angry. They told God that he had promised he wouldn’t give them anything they couldn’t handle, and they told Him that they couldn’t handle having a child with leukemia. So two weeks later, they went back to the doctor who discovered that it wasn’t leukemia after all – it was mono and the flu (or some two illnesses – can’t remember exactly) at the same time that ended up having the same symptoms as leukemia. Poof! no leukemia.

Okay, folks. Would THAT story give anyone HOPE? So she’s basically saying that perhaps if Larisa and Steven had prayed to God and said they couldn’t handle this, then God would’ve said, “Oops, I’m sorry. I picked the wrong child to give leukemia to. Let me look around for someone who can handle it.” What a stupid thing for someone to say.

I think of the absolute hell that Larisa and Steve and Lily and Sophie are going through – along with the absolute hell that so many other families are going through as their children battle cancer – and then to have some moron say “my parents told God they couldn’t handle leukemia, and guess what? He took the leukemia away” – it’s just so incredible insensitive and stupid. As though ANY parent wouldn’t do anything in their power to take this awful disease for their child. To even imply that praying was all that was necessary to get rid of the disease. It’s not a story of hope, but rather of an incompetent doctor and idiot parents.

Then after we got our lunch and went to our table, one of the cooks came out to tell us this long, long story about some child she knew who had a brain tumor and yada, yada, yada – all the while we’re sitting there – food in front of us – waiting for her to shut up and leave so we can eat our lunch.

I’m sure I will be told that we just have to be more forgiving and accepting of people. People don’t know what to say and so they sometimes say things that are less than sensitive. True, true, true. I was very polite to both women. They both wanted to wear Lily’s bracelets, and they both said they’d pray for Lily every day. And I truly appreciate their prayers – and the sentiments behind the sharing of their stories.

Still, I won’t be returning to that particular restaurant – and I still believe that the first lady’s comments rank at the top of the “stupidest thing anyone’s ever said to someone with a child battling cancer” list.

Lily actually went to school for two hours yesterday! We did not think she’d be able to return to school at all this school year. She was thrilled, and she loved it. She starts a more intense phase of chemo in less than two weeks. So the school visit was something the doctors suggested she do in order to have as much normalcy as possible before she has to be restricted again.

Who would’ve ever thought a couple months ago that going to school for a couple of hours would be such a monumental treat?

Lily’s Garden is my granddaughter’s website. We’re working to get the word to as many people as possible that childhood cancer research is majorly underfunded, and that has to change.

I challenge any politician to go to a children’s cancer ward of a hospital. Spend some time there. Talk with the parents. Talk with the children. Then go back to your law- and policy-making business and DO something to change things. There is a cure somewhere. There is a prevention somewhere. We just have to raise enough money to provide the research necessary to find them.

Just spend a small fraction of what you’re dishing out to poorly managed companies, or what you’re giving to ANIMAL DISEASE research, or what’s being spent on conservation, and that should do the trick. It truly is a national disgrace that we spend so little to save our most important national resource – our children.

Okay, I NEVER send or forward those “send to ten friends” type emails, and this post is NOT one of them. This is a personal request.

Since my 7-year old granddaughter, Lily, was diagnosed with Pre-B ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) on December 1, 2008, our family has been reading a lot about childhood cancer and the research into finding cures. There’s not much funding for childhood cancer research.

Each school day, 46 children (two classrooms full!) are diagnosed with some form of cancer. In the past three days TWO children whose cancer journeys I’ve been following have died. A two year old named Kayla, and a 5-year old named Addison. Addison had the same kind of leukemia as Lily – had a positive prognosis, but then caught a bug and she couldn’t overcome it. Addison is the one that when Lily was first diagnosed, the doctor told my daughter they needed to get to know her because she was doing so well and would provide such encouragement for them. And then just a few weeks later, she is gone.

Finding a cure for childhood cancer is a life-or-death issue. Just take a brief trip to a children’s oncology hall at a hospital, and your own life will never be the same. These children can’t advocate for themselves because they’re literally fighting for their lives. It is up to us to be their advocates. So you can start by doing the following:

(1) Go to this web address: Citizen’s Briefing Book
(2) In the search box, type “childhood cancer”
(3) Click on the top item “Increased Funding for Childhood Cancer” (The one that was posted at 4:02 P.M.)
(4) Click on the “Vote UP” button. If you don’t already have an account, you will have to create an account. However, it’s free, and it’s quick – and the effort is worth it.
(5) You can read the letter along with the comments. You can log in or create an account if you would like to leave your own comment.

IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO FUND RESEARCH TO FIND A CURE FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER.

The purpose of the “Citizen’s Briefing Book” in the link above is to bring attention to President Elect Obama so that he will hopefully make childhood cancer research a priority. Each small effort helps. Take a few minutes out of your busy day to make a difference for these wonderful children whose futures are in jeopardy.

Lily’s story was on Townhall.com on Monday. Here’s the link: Learning About Leukemia

Here is Lily’s website. Come visit, read her story, make a donation and offer some support: Lily’s Garden

It was just a few weeks ago – probably mid to late November that I was driving along and thinking about my family and about how nothing really bad had ever happened to me or my immediate family. My father died in 1986. It was definitely bad and I miss him every day of my life. However, he’d had a couple heart attacks before his death, and had had bypass heart surgery. So, although his death was sudden, at age 67 and after his heart history, it wasn’t completely unexpected. And it was 22 years ago. Since then I’ve had 22 years of pretty smooth sailing in terms of really bad things. Yes, there have been a couple other hard and heart-breaking times during those 22 years. However, nothing life-threatening.

The thought I had that day as I drove along is that my luck in life was bound to change – and that every day I lived I came closer to the time of that change. Yes, I was being morbid – but I frequently am. So that’s nothing new. Also, Lily had been experiencing pains in her back and in her legs. Her description of the pain reminded me of a friend of mine years ago whose son was later diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. His primary symptoms were excruciating pain in his legs. So, yes, the thought of cancer crossed my mind more than once before Lily’s diagnosis. Her paleness, the bruises, the pains. However, as is our nature, we push those thoughts away. It couldn’t be cancer. I was just being paranoid. She just had the flu or a nasty lingering infection. After all, she’d been to the pediatrician several times, and nothing serious had been found.

So, I wondered those few weeks ago, what would be the first really bad thing to happen to our family. The thought must have made an impression on me at the time because I know exactly where I was when I thought about it – the road and the exact location on that road. I thought at the time that it would probably be the death of either myself or one of my siblings. Several of us have had some minor health problems – not life-threatening, but not a walk in the park either. We’re all in our fifties or sixties – most of us are overweight and don’t exercise enough. The law of averages is not on our side.

Then December 1, 2008 arrived, and Lily was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and the first really bad thing to happen to me in 22 years arrived. I look at the main photo of Lily on her CaringBridge site, and I remember that I took that picture. It was in the fall – mid October, I believe, and we had gone to Pinkerton Park in Franklin for a picnic – PaPa, Lily, Sophie and me. I had taken my camera and I took lots of pictures that day. I wonder now if the leukemia was already in her at that time. It very well could have been – or perhaps that was one of her last pre-leukemia days. Her serious symptoms started about a month later, and she was diagnosed about 6 weeks after that photo was taken. What caused her cells to suddenly stop maturing properly. What was the catalyst that caused the leukemia to begin? Those answers we’ll never know.

There are defining dates in each person’s life. There are many happy dates, of course, but there are also those dates when something life-changingly bad happend. For me there are two dates that will be forever etched in my mind: December 3, 1986 when my father died, and December 1, 2008 when Lily was diagnosed with ALL.