Benefit Dance Festivities

We had a relatively normal Saturday. Josh had a t-ball game and a play date. I mowed the lawn while Rick did some web design. Katie enjoyed a walk to the pharmacy for ice cream. If Katie had hair, innocent bystanders would not know that we are living with cancer. We had a very typical day--a very good day by our standards. They are days, when Katie feels good, that we almost forget how sick she is and will be this summer.

There are a lot of people working very hard to help us live a relatively normal life: t-ball coaches who forgive us for missing games, friends who leave eggs and cookies and casseroles on the porch, and people who have smoothed the way for us at Lake Region, allowing us to keep the jobs we like so much. People direct conversation away from cancer sometimes so we can take a break from it, or they tell us stories of survivorship that encourage us to just keep moving.

For many families fighting cancer there is one overriding source of panic: money. We have been especially fortunate in this regard. Our friends, relative and neighbors have worked together to ensure that we don't have to think about money. We have enough in our own accounts to cover t-ball fees and to pay for ice cream. Thanks to all of you, we can also afford the "behind the scenes" costs of Katie's care: gas, parking, pharmacy bills, odd food requests and occasional treats or adventures that keep the kids positive. We don't mind the extra time and energy that Katie's care requires. We can do laundry. We can read stories. In some ways, this experience has reorganized our priorities. Thanks to you, we can afford to focus on simply raising our kids.

We want to extend a special thanks to Roxanna Prue and to her crew, who hosted a Benefit Dance and Raffle for Katie last night. Thanks to local businesses that donated raffle prizes and auction items. Thanks to the band, Prue's Blues, for traveling to Vermont and for putting on quite a show. The success of this event effectively guarantees that we won't have to think about money as Katie continues in treatment for two more years. We can worry about, snuggle with and simply enjoy Katie and Joshua. We can parent our kids. There is just no way of conveying just how grateful we are.

On a funny note, I asked Katie about the dance this morning. "Dance, dance, boogie!" she yelled, breaking into her very own dance party. The kids are tired today. They had a good time running, dancing and playing with an ever evolving herd of kids. I couldn't stop watching Katie. It did my heart good to watch her having fun. Katie couldn't walk six weeks ago--she didn't have the strength--but she danced for hours last night. She played musical chairs with the big kids. She played "London Bridge." She made me dance even when there wasn't any music. She had fun--regular, healthy, normal kid fun. She smiled, and laughed and sassed her way through the evening. She is bald, of course, and we have to tailor pants to fit her skimpy little frame, but she wasn't a cancer patient last night. She was a kid who just happens to have cancer, a life-threatening illness that she will beat, one day at a time, with a lot of help from her friends and family.