Thursday, September 17, 2015

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken on March 18, 2009. Mattie was out of the hospital between treatments and we received special box seats to see the circus. I have to admit this was Mattie's first time visiting the circus. Of course seeing them removed from the chaos of the crowds was perfect for Mattie, since he did not like crowds even before cancer. Mattie's big buddy Brandon (a cancer survivor at that time), was also at the circus and Mattie enjoyed connecting with him and purchasing all these fun circus items to make the experience memorable. These two items (the sword and the twirling elephant) still sit in Mattie's room today. 


Quote of the day: An important way to cope with grief is having an outlet, be it interpersonal, be it artistic, that will allow you to not have to contain your grief, but will give you an opportunity to express it, to externalize it to some degree. ~ R. Benyamin Cirlin

It is day 4 (out of 12) of the WTOP Click-For-A-Cause Contest. As of today we have received 362 votes.

Thank you for voting! WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP sharing this post and encouraging those you know to vote. We can't do this WITHOUT YOU!

Thank you for helping us with this Mattie Miracle, and by voting you are showing your support for our passion to help children with cancer and their families!

To vote, go to:

http://wtop.com/contests/click-for-a-cause-voting/?char=m

After Peter painted his two big toes GOLD, for the "Be Bold, Go Gold Challenge," I decided to paint my nails gold today. We are going to a Gold Event tonight, and we were asked to wear GOLD. So this is one of my colorful contributions, as well as other items I will be wearing. 

We were invited to a Golden Toast event tonight in honor of Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the co-chairs of the Childhood Cancer Caucus. We were told to dress in GOLD for the event. It is hard to tell, but my sweater has gold sequins in it.

At the event, Peter snapped a photo of me with Lee Marchiano and Kathleen Ruddy. We met Lee in March with her daughter, Melinda, who is a cancer survivor at the Institute of Medicine's workshop. Though Lee lives in California, we have been in communication ever since. I am reading her daughter's book about her cancer journey, and I am very impressed with her candor and psychosocial journey. 
As for Kathleen Ruddy, Peter and I met her in September of 2014. Kathleen is the CEO of St. Baldrick's. Which is a very large childhood cancer non-profit dedicated to funding the most promising research to find cures for kids with cancer. 

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) posed for a photo with Peter and me. Rep. Speier has always been supportive of Mattie Miracle's mission and was at our symposium on Capitol Hill in 2012, when we launched our vision for a national psychosocial standard of care. We enjoyed our conversation tonight with the Congresswoman, because we feel she understands loss very well and were very appreciative of the fact that she understands the challenges of what we do each day in Mattie's memory.