courage

The best word for any person who has to fight cancer is COURAGE.  At the Children's Hospital, kids fighting cancer receive courage beads.  Aly has been collecting them since her first day of treatment.  This is her collection, 294 beads.  Aly and I took the time to string them together this past weekend and then I sewed them down into a shadow box frame.  We purchased the big black heart beads to separate the chemo rounds and surgeries and radiation treatment. There were six rounds of chemo, then the brain surgery, then her MRI/Spinal tap, then radiation treatment and finally the surgery to remove her IV port and stomach tube.   Each color bead has a different meaning.  Her journey starts in the middle and circles around to ALY.  If you look closely, right at the beginning of her journey is a "happy birthday" bead.  Not a nice birthday gift!  We are hoping, this year, that her April 11th, Golden Birthday, will be so much better than the last!  To name a few of the beads, the white are her doses of chemo.  The yellow are days in the hospital.  The black are needle pokes.  The white cubes with hearts are trips to the emergency room.  The faces are the two times she lost her hair.  The light green and white are radiation and x-ray/MRI's.  Yes, it has been a courageous battle.  We are so grateful and blessed that Aly is still here with us.
I may have said this before, but kids who fight cancer have a special gift.  They touch the lives of others, somewhat like a rock star.  They make you happy, they make you cry, and they bring a community together.  Yes, definitely like a rock star!