Many of you became my friends because you were busy helping me root on my BFF’s baby, who was born with cancer. Her first year was spent mostly in the hospital, both during chemotherapy treatment and in the days after chemotherapy when her AP levels would freak out and we’d have to rush her in to be stabilized again.
It was a scary freaking year. We spent a lot of time deliberately looking for joyful things to celebrate, but we really just wanted to cry through a lot of it. Yes, I say “we” like I am one of her parents … I love BFF’s kids just as much as I do my own, and they treat me like a Mom when I’m around. Their father – who trusts NO ONE with his children – trusts me implicitly to care for them when he or BFF cannot be there (and, even when one of them IS but needs help).
Those of you who were there, rooting Baby S along, sending gifts and postcards and emails and blog comments, money for the hospital trips, food, and hospital care packages … thank you. Those of you who prayed, sent out positive thoughts and vibes, meditated, sent along warm thoughts, and sang her praises … thank you. Those of you who read along and cried with us, for us .. thank you. Those of you who were suffering your own scary rides but spared a moment for us, thank you. Thank you all for every little or big contribution you made.
Baby S is now a daredevil little THREE YEAR OLD girl who reminds us more of her older brother than anything, because she’s constantly dirty from running around outside. She’s like Pigpen from Peanuts, she just cannot stay clean. We can bathe her, dress her, and turn around … by the time we finish a full circle, she’s dirty. It is HILARIOUS. BFF is mortified sometimes, because we’ll go out and realize her feet are black or her clothes are dirty or her hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in a decade (though in reality, it is usually multiple times daily). The girl is just a mess.
And we love every stinking dirty millimeter of that mess. She is so full of life and love and energy and happiness and excitement and pure joy. For a little girl who started out life constantly being prodded, unable to spend more than a couple of days OUT of the hospital … she has rebounded perfectly.
She isn’t completely out of the woods – she’s only been cancer-free for two years. But every single day is a gift with ANY child, and especially the ones like Baby S – who started life with seemingly insurmountable odds.
A couple of photos in the last few weeks of Baby S … At Disney World with her siblings this past week, on the back porch with my daughter, in the car on the way to Disney, and posing in the grass at the strawberry fields. Enjoy, rejoice, and remember: positive energy from you helped to create these beautiful moments.
