I will be visiting and meeting Ethan Smith and Eli Horn at MSK this week! They will be there for treatment and scans; I’ll be there visiting friends. I’ll be sure to post pictures of our meeting!

Can you believe it??? We beat the $2,000 goal! A HUGE thanks to all my sponsors, especially Ron ($250) and Joseph B ($150)!! You are ALL amazing!

I especially want to thank the parents. You navigative through the world of NB everyday. Thank you for letting me be apart of that life, if even for a few weeks.

Love, Nikki

Today at 4:30 pm, Katie Krize went home to heaven. While she is now mercifully at peace, I ask that you send your prayers to her amazing family during their time of grief.

I am so proud of the effort we made together! These 79 children, and many more who weren’t featured, deserve to have a chance at a full life. Together, through blogging, donating, spreading the word, and becoming a unit, we were able to raise $1,807 so far for Band of Parents! One is a check for $100 that is getting mailed to BOP and $7 a coworker gave me in cash to send.

FYI: There is a space where it looks like I fell asleep and didn’t post for 1/2 an hour. I actually did wake up to post, but was too tired to actually push the “publish” button. Heh. If you read on, you’ll see that I found it later and published it then.

I’m leaving the donation site “up” through this Thursday, July 31. Please encourage anyone who has donated yet to do so. Even $5 is helpful! It all adds up to a cure for these amazings kids! Click HERE to donate or copy and paste ( http://www.change.org/myfundraising/BoPBlogathon ) in an email to friends and family!

I’d like to highlight a few items that came my way during this year’s thon:

1. AJ’s dad brought this petition to my attention. It’s to help raise awareness about the need for research for childhood cancers. His son AJ went to heaven in January of this year at the age of 14. Please stop by and sign it!
2. Somehow (via AJ’s Dad) our fundraiser was mentioned here by a funny gal named Gisele.

I’d like to send a shout out to the following people for iming with me during the ‘thon!

1. Barb, Daniel Cooper’s mom
2. Ellen, Sean Hanson’s mom (she was up in the wee hours with me). She runs a website called “The Lonliest Hour” which gives information on what to do and what to expect when your child is diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.
3. Kylie my awesome Aussie friend & friend of Tam
4. Joseph, Jackson Boyd’s dad
5. Jeff of IRBlogging
6. Lindsey my awesome thon monitor!
7. Karen H-J mother of Kate
8. Bunni, whom I blogged about and who was also blogging for Band of Parents.
9. My friend Lisa who popped on to say hi.
10. JK for letting me borrow his laptop.
11. Katie Krize’s amazing mother, Michele. PLEASE pray for Katie! She needs prayers of comfort and peace. Her family needs prayers of strength!

The amazing Katie Krize

THANK YOU to all my sponsors! You are all listed in the sidebar! YOU made this blogathon successful! I couldn’t have done it without all of you!!

Kids, Parents, Sponsors: If you would like a Blogathon magnet as a souvenir, please email me with your address to pookielocks at yahoo dot. com with the subject line “Blogathon”.

MSK - August 13 - 26 — I will be in NYC that week and I’d love to meet anyone who will be there! Please email me if you will so that I can make sure we meet up!

Hugs and see you all next year!

Nikki

First, I want to thank everyone for their support! Also, a reminder: I will be in NYC the 2nd week in August. I’d love to visit anyone in Msk!

Sean and his siblings

I’d really like to thank all the families, sponsors, friends who kept me awake, etc for helping make this experience memorable. I met A TON of amazing people online in the past 24 hours that I would never had met otherwise. What a great time! You’ll definitely be hearing from me next year everyone!!!! Please feel free to leave as many happy comments in the posts as you’d like! I will definitely be reading when I wake up!!!!!

Before I head off to la-la land, I’d like to post the follwing items.

The following is my gift to all of the mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends of these beautiful children.

Angel Christi holding a butterfly!

THE CHOSEN MOTHERS

By Erma Bombeck

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures, and a couple by habit. Did you ever wonder how mothers of children with life threatening illnesses are chosen?

Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting His instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.
“Armstrong, Beth, son, patron saint Matthew. Forrest, Marjorie, daughter, patron saint Cecilia. Rutledge, Carrie, twins, patron saint Gerard.”

Finally, He passes a name to an angel and says, “Give her a child with cancer.”
The angel is curious. “Why this one God? She’s so happy.”

“Exactly” smiles God, “Could I give a child with cancer a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel.”

“But, does she have patience?” asks the angel.

“I don’t want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair.
Once the shock and resentment wears off, she will handle it.”

“I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I’m going to give her has it’s own world. She has to make it live in her world and that’s not going to be easy.”

“But, Lord, I don’t think she believes in you.” No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness.”

The angel gasps -”Selfishness? Is that a virtue?”

God nods. “If she can’t separate herself from the child occasionally, she’ll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take anything her child does for granted. She will never consider a single step ordinary. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see…ignorance, cruelty, prejudice…and allow her to rise above them.” She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing My work as surely as if she is here by My side.”

“And what about her patron Saint?” asks the angel. His pen poised in mid-air. God smiles, “A mirror will suffice.”

And this is something for the parents, friends, family of our Angels, as given to me by Angela, mother of Angel Naomi.

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back,
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
Or you can be full of love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow because of yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she’d want, smile, open your eyes, love
and go on.

by Vanessa Smith

Angel by Christi Thomas

Before you go, please take a moment to watch Christi in action in her very own “movie“!

**Thank you for allowing me into your lives, if only for a short time.

Love, Nikki

whoa am I tired .. .

nOW i HAVE abba IN MY HEAD,

Now it’s the Mister Rogers theme song that’s in my head. Oh well. 2 hrs to go!

That’s what they say in Robin Hood — the Disney verison — or something similar. Man — my mind is gone. I’m too old to stay up all night!!

I could really used some coffee right about now!

Oh, and I have the “Growing Pains” theme song in my head. Um,why????? See you in 1/2!

I’m exhausted. How ’bout you?