Thaddeus Newsbreak

My plan for this blog is to give me a place to share my MANY thoughts (mostly to give my Facebook friends a break). I obviously am in a stage of life where the fact that Thaddeus (my son 8) has Acute T Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia consumes many of my waking moments. Through this leukemia battle we have strived to maintain as normal a life as possible for him, our other children, and ourselves. I'd like to daily share a "Thaddeus Newsbreak" to not only keep his "fans" up to date but also to serve as a way for us to document his journey. We hope someday to be able to give hope to other kids who are newly diagnosed with leukemia. When Thaddy got his diagnosis we spent many a hospital night laying awake searching the internet for a shred of hope. Was this the end of life as we knew it? Was Thaddy ever going to be like he was October 21st; the day before his diagnosis? Overwhelmingly the answer seemed to be no. We read horror stories of treatment and side effects (and let me tell you they are no joke!) and mostly of what kids and families have lost because you lose A LOT. I did not find TOO many cases of kids continuing to do gymnastics (but there were a few) or hockey (again some) but NONE that played tackle football or wrestled. Well Thaddy WILL be doing these things and I want some little super star football players parents to be able to find him and SEE him doing these things when their child gets diagnosed. I want them to know it does not HAVE to be their story that at 7 so many doors are forever closed because childhood cancer sneaks in unwanted. Do NOT get me wrong...the "cancer life" is full of things that are NO good...but we do not get a choice in the matter. The only choice we have is to rise up to the occasion and fight this battle. Everyday FIGHTING to find joy in the journey. To not just get by, but to THRIVE. Treatment is 3.5 years.. that is a long time. So in this little corner of the internet I will share what MY baby and family are doing to not let him be a "cancer kid" but to be Thaddeus that is a quarterback for the Red Eagles, a number one ranked wrestler, a rock climber, a gymnast, a ballet dancer...and he happens to have leukemia. It is not WHO he is, it is something he has. I do not want to look back and see we lost HIM in this. God created him to be SO very special and it is my job and HONOR to protect that and to help him reach ALL his goals in SPITE of this diagnosis. So this is entry one...yesterday he turned 8. He got to celebrate with the football players from the NUMBER ONE ranked school in the nation Bishop Gorman. He played around the world with a super stud quarterback (Tate Martell: remember the name you will be seeing a lot more of him in the upcoming years...), kickball with the varsity line, tetherball with the star running back...it was amazing and it all started with ONE text. A text from the team mom who heard from a friend, who heard from a friend on FB that Thaddy was not going to be able to have his birthday party due to low blood counts. The boys passed the text around and showed up at our house on their own because they wanted our baby boys birthday to be special. Which it was...very. He has Tate's phone number now (and was invited to call him anytime!), invitations to come for team practice, games, special events... what leukemia tried to rob him of (a birthday) God intervened and used the community to make his day BETTER than we could have imagined. That is what we have learned these past eight months...to let go, and let God. He will always do it better than our wildest dreams.