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 11, 2020

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 -- Mattie died 541 weeks ago today. 

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2008. That afternoon, Mattie came home from school and wanted more outdoor time. So we took his kite into our commons area and Mattie was learning how to fly it on his own. It is a sight I always loved seeing. Our commons area had just the right amount of wind to make it possible and our commons area was walled off from the street, so I never had to worry that Mattie was going to run into cars or bicycles.  

Quote of the day: Being able to communicate with coworkers via email and text messaging have turned our homes, the local coffee house, or virtually any place into an office space. ~ Gerald Corey


Like any licensed professional, we all have to do continuing education requirements to keep up to date in our field and to maintain our license. One of the professional organizations I am a member of provides one free CEU a month. It truly is a great perk and one that I am now taking advantage of. Every two years, I have to renew my license and as such I have to document 40 hours of continuing education. So think about it this way, if my professional association gives me access to one hour free a month, times that by 24 months (2 years), and more than half my requirements can be achieved without paying out of pocket (other than for my association membership of course). 

This months freebie is a one credit on ethics. So I thought this was going to cover specifics about our ethical guidelines or even decision making models when confronted with ethical dilemmas. Nope! To me surprise, the chapter I am required to read is focused on self care. Certainly it makes intuitive sense that if a mental health provider isn't caring for him or her, this will spill over into our work and our work relationships. When this happens issues with boundaries may arise and therefore can compromise our judgment and decision making. Truly that makes sense, but I never sat down long enough to think about it. 

Mainly because, all of us are moving and being pulled in twenty different directions in any given day. Trying to balance work and home life can feel next to impossible. The chapter does a lovely job discussing the challenges of working from home. With there being NO boundary at all. That work and home become synonymous with each other. I absolutely agree and I feel this way all the time. But it was nice to actually read about it and to hear that others too find this a significant problem. So significant that if not addressed properly, this can lead to burnout (which can be very easy to do, when running a non-profit without help). 

In fact, one particular line in this chapter caught my attention.... "her high degree of empathy and compassion for others resulted in losing herself in those relationships." How many of us can relate to this? I know I can whole heartily and trying to figure out how to keep my empathetic and kind nature, without being frazzled at the same time is important. Because I do think it is easier to give than to receive for many reasons, yet we do need to do both to survive and thrive. Any case, today's lesson was very interesting and one I wasn't expecting, as I was initially focused on the mechanics of ethics, and not truly taking a step back and connecting the dots between one's personal life influencing the professional one. 


Establishing Personal and Professional Boundaries (the chapter):

https://books.google.com/books?id=cZBDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT198&lpg=PT198&dq=chapter+6+establishing+personal+and+professional+boundaries&source=bl&ots=94qgeKnZ2x&sig=ACfU3U0TAUFcvT1p6A5eLl2L_35a8IL9IA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHlp-f8MrnAhVjlnIEHec5ANcQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=chapter%206%20establishing%20personal%20and%20professional%20boundaries&f=false

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