Monday, August 23, 2021

Monday, August 23, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie was a month into treatment and his friend Alex, from preschool, came over for a playdate. They were running in our commons area. Behind them was JP, our neighbor who recently died in February of 2020. It is hard to believe both Mattie and JP are gone. But I will never forget our commons area. It was a wonderful space for a child, and though it was outside, it is actually on the third floor of our building, so getting to this area from the street is challenging. I may be in the heart of the city, but I always felt safe here and I will miss our commons space and the sights and sounds of the city. Mattie learned to walk, run, bicycle ride, fly a kite, and drive Speedy Red in this space. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 37,935,277
• Number of people who died from the virus: 629,390

I had a conference call today with Thrivent, the company sponsoring the Take the Plunge Challenge. I learned that 62 organizations applied and Mattie Miracle was one of five selected to compete on September 9th. The competition is held live on Zoom. We get to present for four minutes, and then take questions from the sharks and audience for an additional four minutes. After all five organizations present, the audience then votes from their computers or other devices. So in essence the MORE Mattie Miracle supporters who tune in and vote, the more likely we may qualify to win the grand prize of $10,000. Please Register for the Zoom event, it is free, and we NEED your vote.  I will be advertising this event everyday starting September 1. 

Take the Plunge: Can you swim with the sharks?

Thursday, September 9 at 8:00 PM EDT

Register Here: bit.ly/TakeThePlunge-MMCF

We Need Your Vote … We Are Taking The Plunge!

Another full day of sorting, organizing and packing. Not to mention running to the house. Thankfully Peter spent the day there, as we had a team of electricians there all day and they return tomorrow. 

Meanwhile I cleaned out my filing cabinet today. I kept most of my Mattie documents but threw away other things, like course evaluations that no longer mean anything to me. It was like it was me in another life. Any case, the document you see here was actually a report highlighting Mattie's results of his intelligence test. He was required to take such a test to get into his private school. I am NOT a big standardized test fan. Mainly because I don't think they truly evaluate a person and the student and life long learner that he/she can be. When I took Mattie to meet with the psychologist, I did not prep him. I did not even let him know that this was a requirement for his school. I basically said he was going to meet with a nice woman, who was going to ask him questions and play mind games with him. By this point Mattie was used to going to a physical and occupational therapist. So sitting and working with women was something he knew how to do very well. It was through this testing that we learned that Mattie scored in the "very superior" range compared to other children his age. To me this explained a lot about him, his personality, and his strong willed nature. 

My first sonogram of Mattie. I remember taking these photos into my child development class and sharing them with my students. I was actually pregnant at the same time as 9/11 (2001). I associate my pregnancy and our national tragedy together. 

This was a story Mattie created in the hospital with Liz, one of the volunteer community artists. Liz loved Mattie and admired his creativity. That day, they created the story of Hairy Harry. 

Hairy Harry is a puppy that I love, whose fur smells like wet dog. His favourite thing is playing with me. We would go to the park, and I would throw the frisbee like a big red pizza, and he would jump to catch it, like a shooting star, for wishes!

Story by Mattie 8/12/09 (by that point we knew Mattie's cancer was terminal--- yet he was still creating!!!!)

Mattie's immunization record. 

Mattie took a swimming class in the summer of 2007. His teacher's name was Margaret. Though it was a group class, Margaret did a great job at working with all the children and though Mattie was cautious, he learned the basics from her. 

I kept this congratulations letter from Mattie's school!

It was quite a day! At 7pm, Peter helped me load the car and we went back out to the house. Desperate times call for a Blizzard at Dairy Queen! 

The state of affairs today! We had three trucks in our driveway, all dealing with our electrical issues. They return tomorrow!