Exultant

Last night, Steven and some of his classmates were in a state level competition called Creative Pursuit. They won for their division and Steven was sooooooo excited. On the drive home, he exclaimed, "I am feeling so exultant!"



Then he said, "This is the best day I've had in a long time!"

I was curious--just how happy was this day compared to all the other great days he has had lately? I asked him, "When was the last time you had a day this good?"

He thought about it for a minute and said, "I guess it was Thanksgiving. Oh wait, maybe it was the Messiah sing-in." Since it hasn't even been a week since Thanksgiving and the sing-in happened on Saturday, I guess it hadn't been so long afterall.



If you are around Steven much these days, you will find that he often has red letter days. I don't know if I have just forgotten how he used to be after not feeling well for nine months, or if the cancer experience has changed him. Either way, he seems to enjoy life more than ever. Now, don't get me wrong--he isn't perfect. He has sad and very frustrating moments, too. And even those seem to be lower than before. We all seem to be more sensitive to the joy and sorrow around us.

He has had some other amazing days that haven't made it on the blog lately. For one, he got a package from Make-a-Wish with a key to the wishing place. We aren't sure when he will get to declare his wish, but he is so happy and excited about that.

Another golden day was when a LEGO rep who had heard about Steven brought over a giant Star Wars ship--bigger than any set we have ever owned by far. Talk about a dream come true for him. She also gave him a hefty gift card to Toys-r-Us, and so he got to live his shopping spree dream.



Every day, he wakes up just thrilled to go to school. Excited for recess or chess club, or math quest--just whatever! Now, just think about how excited your kids are for Christmas and add that into the mix right now. We have lots of fun things planned for this season and he is looking forward to it all.

So for all of you who wonder how he is doing--he's is happy and he feels great. He is back, and though still not able to do all the things he used to do, he is "exalutant" about the things he can do.

Walk Day

Sometimes when people ask me what they can do to help, I feel like saying, "Not much unless you have a cure." It sounds so obnoxious, but I guess what I really mean is that so much of what we are dealing with is just part of the package. Don't misunderstand me--no kindness shown to us has gone unappreciated. In fact, people have done little things that come at just the right time and big things that boggle my mind. All of it lifts us, comforts us and even helps us deal with the hard stuff that is inevitable with cancer.

But yesterday, I felt like my request for a cure was answered--at least the next best thing. Over 100 people came to the CureSearch walk to be a part of Team Steven. Our team raised over $3500 and as a whole, the Salt Lake City walk raised over $72,000!

We had a wide representation of supporters on the walk: parents, siblings, cousins, neices and nephews, friends from the boys' current and former schools, friends from church, friends from high school, and even friends we made in Ohio. Of course, that doesn't include those that donated and couldn't make it. On that side we had relatives, neighbors, friends of friends, friends that go back to kindergarten and so on. Rob's company and coworkers were espcially generous. Thank you DIRTT!

I got my wish for Steven to be able to look around and see lots of people there just for him. Thanks to Rob's great sister, Julie, for designing the awesome shirts and her generous neighbor, Kam Weihing, for printing them at cost.

Steven missed the memo that this was a walk and not a race, so he insisted that we push his wheelchair at the very front of the race, behind the banner. Um.. ..we may have had some Team Steven line cutting, too. Sorry fellow cancer cuties!

All in all we had a wonderful time and will have to make this an annual tradition. My only regret from the morning is that I didn't have enough time to visit much with everyone who came. Please know that we love you all and really appreciate your love and support.



P.S. These pictures are public on the web and normally I'm kind of strict about putting pictures of others up without permission. Please let me know if you would like your picture removed--I'm happy to do it.

Some pictures

Here is Steven on Tuesday. He really only smiled for the therapy pets while we were in the hospital. This one is Emily.


Here is Steven with Liberty.


A chemo evening with Cisplatin and Doxyrubicin. Those brown bags hanging are covering the bags of chemo. He basically watched movies for three days straight. He did not feel well.


Steven posing as The Thinker. He's feeling pretty good today.


Here we are off-roading at Wheeler Farm.