Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2007. We went to Boston for the Thanksgiving day holiday that year to visit with Peter's parents. No matter the weather, Mattie always needed to move around and have outdoor time. So we took him to a local pond and nature trail. Mattie loved the openness, the peace and quiet, and seeing all the birds. 

Quote of the day: My mom has experienced a lot of loss in her life and she told me at one point, there is an empowerment that comes with grief—at some point you find it. It’s very hard but you will find it, and I think at a certain point you can choose to sort of fall from this or you can choose to rise. ~ Lea Michele

After my dad was dropped off at the memory care center, Peter, me and my mom got on the road. We were headed to Children's Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore, MD. It was a 90 minute drive each way, so it was a long day in the car. Thankfully Peter was able to get every item we were donating to the hospital in the car. 

Get a feeling for how stuffed the car was?

This was my seat!

While Peter was driving, I snapped a photo of my view. Peter suggested I take Dramamine before this trip, and it was a great idea. Since I easily get motion sickness in confined spaces, where I can't see out, it could have been a bad trip for me without the med. 

This is a photo of our Cart at the hospital. This Cart makes its way from the outpatient unit to the inpatient unit at the hospital, and supports families caring for children with cancer. We were told that the Cart is so popular that other departments within the hospital want to know how they can get their own Mattie Miracle cart. Great to hear!

We met up with Geannie, who snapped the photo for us. Geannie is our philanthropy contact at the hospital and is very professional to work with! We also got to meet Laura (who heads up the child life program) and Lily (the new Mattie Miracle child life specialist). Both women were appreciative of our work, dedicated to meeting the needs of children and their families, and very easy to chat with. In fact, Laura previously worked at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware. It turns out that she is very familiar with our Psychosocial Standards of Care. As she was working on implementing them at her hospital in Delaware. So when she got to meet us, she was excited to meet the parents behind these evidence Standards of Care.