Thank yous and such

First of all, everyone keeps asking me and yes Ally did wake up last night. But not as much. She got up at 12, 3 and 6 with stomach pains. She does not eat in the middle of the night anymore because she has been off of that steriod for a week now. But she does wake up in pain, albeit not as much as the night before, and I feel really really helpless. There is not much I can do. I usually give her a Kids Tums and scratch her back. I am not sure what Jerad does, but he is up with her a lot too. It is not a good situation when your child is in pain and you really don't even have anything to tell her to fix it. And it is not like having the flu, etc where you can say it will be better in a week. I hate it for her. We are going back to the hospital tomorrow for Ally's chemo treatment, and we are definitely going to be talking to the doctors about this one.

We spent the day doing...you guessed it...more crafts. The old standbys...potholders and necklaces, but also some new ones. Her friend Chloe came over and taught her how to make pom-poms and God's eyes. Maybe I should start up some sort of craft camp with Ally as the teacher? I was very happy when my neighbor Brooke called and invited her to have lunch with the neighbor girls on their front porch. She went over for almost an hour and a half all by herself. Oh, and they made some crafts too. I just thought it was good to get her out of here and it was her first time to be "away" from us since this all started. We finished up the day with a nail painting party...the girls are practicing painting different objects on their nails (watermelons, cupcakes etc) and the boys even wanted their nails done too. I couldn't help but take a picture of Carly all cuddled up watching Teletubbies with Larry. That is Larry...the purveyor of the Ally's Army bracelets and also Miss Carly's godfather.

I have been wanting to find a way to thank all of you for the hundreds of gifts sent for our little girl. I just can't even express my gratefulness adequately here or anywhere else. There are all kinds of people from all facets of our life, many of whom don't even KNOW her, who are sending her packages. It is completely overwhelming. Work friends, old high school friends, college friends, friends of other family members, neighbors, teachers, coaches, church groups, friends of friends, parents of friends...the list goes on and on and on. Some of these people we haven't talked to in 15 years! It is amazing that one little girl and her fight against something horrible can bring people together. I started thinking that we should all live our lives everyday as if we were in the midst of a crisis. I have never felt more love and loyalty in my entire life. So, no thank you notes will be written by our girl (or the mom) but please know that I am eternally grateful. A million thank yous.....

For example, just today she had her new favorite lunch, Chicken pot pie courtesy of Donna Stegmeier. She had literally just finished her last bite of oatmeal and said "mom can I have another one of those good pot pies??" We had dinner courtesy of the Humphreys. Yum. Her soccer buddy, Caden, stopped by with a Build a Bear. Nicki and Suzanne both went out and bought her more potholder yarns. Her Aunt Tara's friend, Michele, who I may have met once, mailed a package. Our architect, Jason's son, made her nice card. A man that works with our friend Bob at UD (who we don't know!) made us chocolate chip cookies. How lucky we are. Every day, all day, we are overwhelmed. Completely overwhelmed. Here is a picture that I took about two weeks ago.....of all the stuff that she had received at that point. (We have easily doubled or tripled this and need to dedicate an entire room in our house to this.)

Thank you friends.

"We are most alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." --Thornton Wilder