Time for that Monthly, well Month and ½ update. Everything around here is going well, just like everyone else when spring comes so does being very busy. The last month we have experienced some great times.
I guess the first highlight was going to watch Diego Live with Mitch Reed’s family. Destiny really loves getting together and playing with their kids. Cam is the same age that Chance was so it is good for her; sometimes it just makes me think of how good it would be to still have him here. They play really well together, a lot like a brother or sister; you know the kind of beating on each other that only a brother and a sister can do.
The next week we started water lessons for Destiny. This has been a lot of fun as well, but the class is not exactly what we thought it was going to be. The beginners class just gets them used to the water, well she is a big water bug, but at least we get to go play at the pool a couple of times a week.
We have a busy couple of months ahead, a couple of meetings with Relay for Life. A trip to see Joel Osteen at Greensboro on April the 18th. A fundraiser for Karle Nichols at our church on April the 19th. April the 19th is also Desirae’s birthday. Our good friends Pat and Bradley Vaughn are expecting a baby towards the end of the month, so we are praying for all good things there. We do have one prayer request and that is for Emily Hollis, her website is http://www.emilyhollis.info/aboutme.htm. Her family was at Duke the same time as us and I know in the last few days of Chance’s fight her mom was very supportive. We had spoken a couple of times before that, and Chance and her had played together some. Any how her tumor has progressed and she is going through some really tough days, so if you could just drop her and her family a note just saying that you are praying and thinking about them, I know that they would really appreciate it.
I guess the last story is the Friday before Easter we had collected Easter baskets to take down to the children. Several people in Floyd stepped up to the plate again for this. We ended up getting 93 Easter Baskets to take down to Duke. This was the first time we had been back since July 6. We had so many that we had to take to vehicles. Desirae, Destiny, my mom, Desirae’s Dad, and I all went. The car seemed to drive itself, so many memories of different locations. From the good memories, to the gas station where we found out that the cancer had progressed, a lot of things we glad that we remember, but once again there are several we would like to forget. We met our favorite nurse, Bridget, it was her off day, but she took time to go with us over to the hospital. The first stop was taking the tram over to Radiation that we had done so many times, especially on weekends when no one was there. We saw Eileen, one of his nurses and two of the radiation doctors that he loved to play jokes on. After leaving there we took our walk that we did twice each week back over to the tram to take it back to the clinic, where we went up and visited the nurses that had taken care of us day in and day out. Let me tell you a story of how small a world this is. I was talking to one of our nurses and she said that she was at a party with a friend a few months ago. Her friend was friends with the person that was throwing the party. She told me that she began speaking with a friendly random lady. The more she talked; she found out that this lady was a nurse as well in Denver, Co. She was at the party with her boyfriend who was with another friend. She told her that she was a nurse at Duke; the lady said that he boyfriend had a cousin that had a son at Duke. Come to find out, the lady was my cousin’s girlfriend and they just happen to be in that weekend from Denver and were at the same party in Raleigh, NC. Small World! Well after spending time with them we went over to see Dr G., Chance’s doctor and a couple of the child specialist. All of them were so nice, and it was really good to see them all. They just kept saying I wished we could have done more, but that is one thing that no one can say they didn’t do. Everyone did all that they could do from Chance to everyone praying for us, we did everything that we could do, it just wasn’t meant to be, this was God’s will. Next we went up to the floor to hand out the baskets, we ran into several nurses up there that we had spent some of our life with. One in particular that we saw was Mrs. Charlotte, she was there for us through the rough days, and she will never know how much see meant to us. This was probably the hardest part of the day, especially as I walked by the room which was the last one he was ever in. This was a very tough, but a very special day for us. Like I said before Floyd and surround communities step up again by making the day special for kids at Duke and making it easier for our return back. The last stop we made was back to radiation, we had missed one nurse that we wanted to see, as I peeked around the corner she waved, but she had no clue who I was. It had been over a year and I had lost my hair, but after seeing Desirae, she came over and we had a great reunion. Everyone all day was so excited to see Destiny. Before we left we had to see Dr. Grant (the Pizza Doctor), Chance loved this guy. He was our surgeon and the one who had to tell us that there wasn’t anymore that they could do. I will never forget this man as long as I live, how can we say someone that had to tell us that information would hold a special place in our heart, that is weird, but we cherish him and his friendship. He came out of OR, just to sit down and talk to us for about twenty minutes. As we sit there, he just kept saying how Chance had touched him and several of the nurses that he had talked to, this made our trip easier, why because they hadn’t forgot him, his love and personality still is living on, not just in our lives, but in theirs. As we sat there, Chance had a anesteologist that he love, Dr. Ames, he just happened to be working with Dr. Grant that day, we got a chance to tell him how much he meant to us and to Chance. God worked in a great way that day, the Friday before Easter and we got to see just about everyone, well worth the trip, but it wasn’t over.
If you have kept up with us you would remember how much Chance loved Red Robin. Well we had a special waitress at Red Robin in Durham, so I called to see if she was working, she was so we headed that way. When we got there we asked to sit at her booth, the same one as always in the corner that was where we always sit. We didn’t tell her nothing, as soon as she spotted us; she yelled all the way across the restaurant, she was so excited to see us. This was a good time; I can remember when she brought the Robin out special just for Chance. Also, she wrote a story about Chance and it was one of the top stories for Red Robin in 2007.
Well this has ran pretty long, so I won’t keep you any longer. We still struggle everyday, but with God the struggle isn’t as bad, with the promise to see him again makes it a lot better. We miss him so much, it is still hard to believe how long it has been, but it just seems like forever since we have seen him, but it is OK. We still want to THANK everyone for all that you have done and continue to do. I go back and read my updates from last year and I can re-live them so easy, but I read the well-wishes and I still feel the support and love, till next time THANK YOU!
Brian, Desirae, Destiny, and (Angel Chance) |
