School Visit Day

The day was finally upon us. Karen Stormer, our nurse and chief educator from Children's, came out to Ally's school to talk about leukemia with the whole first grade. She is another one of those special people that makes me feel really at ease. I guess our whole team does really. To me, they are superheros..saving my little girls life. I put them up on the highest pedestal that there is. There were a few others in there...school nurses, her teacher for next year, principal, librarian, etc. She showed the Charlie Brown video. The kids would laugh hysterically at Snoopy but would then get pretty quiet when they talked about the disease. Ally was sitting in a chair and all the other kids were around her. I kept seeing them turn around to look at her, pat her, one girl was even resting her chin on Ally's leg. She sat there looking super strong. She never even flinches. The video can be a bit of a tearjerker, but luckily the lights were out and I tried to disguise my face.

She showed the kids a doll that had a port in it. She could peel back the skin on this doll and and show exactly what lies beneath Ally's chest. (Which reminds me that I still have more to post on our initial days.) The kids had a lot of questions. Most of them were very specific to Ally losing her hair. I think they also grasped the fact that Ally can get sick very easily right now, and if they are sick they should not play with her. Karen said one thing that pretty much felt like another stomach punch for me. She said "boys and girls, Ally will probably be the only person that you ever know that has leukemia because it is extremely rare." Well that just hit home. Jerad turned to me and said...Yea, it is like we won the reverse lottery. For the bad.

Ally got up and showed everyone her bead necklace. I will show this here on another day, but she earns beads for every procedure type thing that she has done. She stood in front of everyone and with her little voice said all the beads....these are my chemos beads, these are for pokes, these are for blood bags, this one is for surgery, etc. I looked back to the adults in the room and noticed a lot of tears. It is tough to hear a child talk about such adult-like and serious things. After this was done, the kids from her class did a play for her! I guess they had been "meeting" at the playground and writing the play in her honor. All on their own. About 10 kids got up and performed it right in front of the whole room. It didn't have anything to do with Ally...it was actually about Ninjas...but at the end they all said in unison "We hope you get better Ally"

They proceeded to give her a sunshine basket with all sorts of things the kids had brought in for her. Not gifts, per se, but things of their own that they wanted to give her. She got some special rocks, seashells, a handmade doll, a "be strong" bracelet, and one sweet boy wrote her an entire book with pictures. They also made a huge poster for her room...taller than her...with paper balloons. Each child wrote a note on a balloon and at the bottom it said "we lift you up". They also cut out little paper dolls of themselves. Then they were all taped together holding hands. They told her to put it by her bed and they would all be watching over her and hugging her. These kids are close knit, I tell ya. Karen, the nurse, told me that she has done this presentation over 100 times. She said she had NEVER seen a class so caring or do so many wonderful things at the end.

Then, to top it all off, all the kids from her class prayed for her. They each laid a hand on her and then as they said a prayer for her, they sat down. Until they all had said something. Mrs LeVesseur, Ally's teacher and my friend, brought a children's pastor in who helped too. She did specific prayers for Jerad, myself, and Ally. I was blown away by all of this. Who says you are not supposed to have prayer in public schools? I think when leukemia is there, that rule should be thrown out the window. And it was.

We rested during the afternoon, because we had another big event tonight. Evan had his first ever baseball game..on the Synergy team! This is something that Ally can go to, because it is outside we don't have to worry about germs. He got three hits, which was awesome for him. I think he is the youngest player on the team, too. Most kids are five or six, but we thought he could handle it. I was proud of my boy. He has taken a backseat lately, but tonight it was his turn to shine. It was fun for me too because quite honestly, I am getting very sick and tired of staying inside my house...MY BUBBLE, I call it. I get really cooped up and makes me crabby. My sweet friend Nicki came over and just hung out with me this afternoon. It makes the bubble so much more bearable to have someone in it with me!

First run!