Sunday, September 5, 2021

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2002. Only days after Mattie was born. At that point, I think Mattie looked much more like Peter. His eyes were blue (like all babies) and his hair was much blonder as a baby. The one thing we learned about Mattie early on was that he was born ON. Sleep did not come naturally to him, and it took us months to teach him how to do it!

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

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 39,936,101
• Number of people who died from the virus:  648,436

We thank Thrivent for selecting Mattie Miracle to Take The Plunge on September 9th. We need the support of our Foundation friends. It is free and easy! Please register for the LIVE Zoom event held on September 9th from 8-9pmEDT. You will hear five short non-profit presentations and then you will VOTE on the spot. Your VOTE determines the winner as the non-profit with the most votes wins $10,000. We want to create a psychosocial referral and resource program to help families coping with childhood cancer find the mental health resources they need in the community. We will match families to providers and pay for up to six therapy sessions. 

Register Today @ bit.ly/TakeThePlunge-MMCF 

Another non-stop work day. I may be unpacking for weeks. The problem is I don't know where to put things. As strange at it sounds, I loved the closets in our townhouse. Here, I have no idea where to put Foundation items, memorabilia, and office supplies. I have even told Peter that we have to build out the closets and even create a new closet space altogether. For now, lots of things will remain in organized piles in the basement, until they have a home. Thankfully the basement is dry and in good shape. That is only because we worked for hours to remove every drop of water from the storms of Hurricane Ida. However, what I haven't reported is that half of the house continues to have electrical issues. The outlets aren't working. For now, we have extension chords from outlets that do work, to areas of the house in which we need electricity. It is a true show here. The electrician team (and we need a team here!) are coming back on Tuesday to figure this out!

Given that Peter is traveling on Mattie's anniversary, we went to visit is memorial tree today. Some of you may recall that we planted four trees at Mattie's school in his memory. The intention was to have ONLY one tree, but the first one planted in 2010 died altogether and then trees 2-3, had issues. So this is memorial tree #4, it is a very healthy white swamp oak. We put ribbons around the trees today and hung heart shaped ornaments for Mattie. 

A close up of some of the ornaments on the tree. 

Lots of butterfly ornaments!

The tree was filled with ladybugs today! I viewed that as a meaningful sign!

The acorns on the tree are beautiful! Their caps are much bigger than your typical oak, they are fringe like.  

This is memorial tree #3, a yellow wood tree. It stands not far from tree #4. This tree got hit in a storm and literally looked cut in two. Over time it has repaired itself. 

This is memorial tree #2, also a yellow wood tree. It stands on the site where the first oak tree was planted in 2010. I call this tree Charlie Brown, as it always looks somewhat fragile and about to fall apart. Nonetheless, I put ribbons on all of Mattie's trees, and I refer to this area on the lower school playground as Mattie's grove. 

Though tree #4 was planted in 2018, the original plaque from the tree planted in 2010, stands besides the new tree.