Mattie Miracle Walk 2023 was a $131,249 success!

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

February 22, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 -- Mattie died 76 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2003. We took Mattie to a fall festival in Leesburg, VA, and as you can see he was fascinated by the miniature pumpkins. Mattie loved pumpkins! Actually everything about pumpkins.... from their color, their texture, and most definitely their taste. In fact, before I had Mattie, I disliked anything pumpkin flavored. However, after making pies, muffins, cookies, and soups from the insides of Mattie's pumpkins, I began to love the taste as much as he did. Somehow pumpkins will always remind me of Mattie.


Quote of the day: Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates. ~ Samuel Johnson



I began my morning with a phone call. It was our friend Maria who is our leasing manager in our complex. We have known Maria for over 15 years, so she knew me before I was pregnant, and she most certainly watched Mattie grow over the years. Maria is an avid blog reader, and knew that we have been cleaning out our home for about a month now. On the phone, she asked if she could come up and see me because she had a gift to give me. I most certainly wasn't expecting that!!!! When Maria came over, I invited her to sit in the kitchen with me. The kitchen has become my new favorite place to sit. It is small but cozy, and Maria was my first guest to sit there with me since Peter got me the new table this weekend. As I opened her gift, I was so thrilled to see this beautiful red glass hummingbird feeder. I took a picture of this lovely gift for you to see. We had many hummingbird sightings in the summer of 2010, and now Maria is helping me to capture those special moments this summer right by my kitchen window. It will make sitting in the kitchen even more meaningful. One of the wonderful things I am looking forward to in the spring is to sit in the kitchen with the window open and to be able to listen to Mattie's fountains outside on our deck. Now I will have the fountains to listen to and the hummingbird feeder to watch. Needless to say Maria's visit and gift truly started my day off on the right foot. Here is what Maria's note said, "I wanted to thank you for continuing to write in your blog, for sharing so many adorable photos, happy memories, and to for sharing your knowledge in grief counseling. It is an enormous task going through each closet and room, and donating items to Goodwill, and I am so happy of your accomplishments. Today is Tuesday, and I am hoping to bring some happiness to your day. I bought a hummingbird feeder for you. It is the neatest thing. I thought a good place for it would be outside your kitchen window. It is pretty amazing once it is up. Be patient, and soon you will have a new friend to watch. I think Mattie would have gotten a kick out of it too. I chose red, for passion and love, which you have demonstrated everyday in your blog."
 
This afternoon, Peter and I headed over to the offices of Mercury, LLC (a high stakes public strategy firm). We are working with Brett Thompson, Managing Director, at Mercury, on developing a legislative agenda for the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation. I am not sure how we were lucky enough to get connected with Brett, but we are so grateful he is willing to share his time, expertise, and resources with us. Traveling around on the Hill can be challenging and tiring even on the best of days. I have certainly done this numerous times as a mental health advocate, but never advocating for something that was so near and dear to me. That actually makes the experience very different. However, Brett has a very charming, calming, natural, and competent demeanor that really made the hours walking and talking much easier. It is not easy to reiterate your personal story four times in a row. I noticed one thing about myself today. After about the second time telling the story, I was mentally tired. That has never happened to me before on the Hill, and the only thing I can attribute this to is the sheer fact that we personally battled cancer and lost the battle and lost our child! I was impressed with Peter's passion, his explanation of things, and Brett's help and guidance as we were discussing the legislative process and next steps in the meetings. 
 
Our mission today was to introduce congressional staffers to our Foundation and to bring to their attention the psychological and social needs of children with cancer and their families. We told our story, we gave examples, we discussed the current legislation out there, and then we proposed their collaboration with us as we advocate for the inclusion of language for psychosocial awareness, education, and support in pediatric cancer care legislation. All FOUR offices were very interested in our discussions and

we look forward to our continued dialogue and discussions.
So I am happy to report that today was a success. We successfully reached out and made connections with legislators and what struck me immediately was each staff person we talked to was somehow personally touched by cancer. Which may explain their passion to work on health care legislation. One staffer emailed me us later in the day and commented to us that she knows today had to be hard for us, to relive our story countless times. A very sensitive and perceptive comment! Each staffer took their time to listen to us, provide thoughtful commentary, and to ask questions. In addition, they all had insights into our next steps and how they could be of help to us. So from our perspective, it couldn't have been a more positive first visit! Below you will find some pictures that Brett kindly took of us throughout our travels today! Brett knows I am a BIG picture person and that I never travel anywhere without my camera!

Peter and I with
Laura Bunten  at Congressman Michael McCaul's (R-TX) office



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peter and I with Ray Thorn at Congressman Chris Van Hollen's (D-MD) office



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Peter and I with Josh Teitelbaum at Congressman Steve Israel's (D-NY) office



Peter and I with Erin Ryan at Congresswoman Jackie Speier's (D-CA) office

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