Brooke Goes To Orlando

LONG OVERDUE UPDATE:

Hello Everyone! So sorry for not updating for so long! Since I last updated with the fabulous news of No Evidence of Disease on May 12th we have been keeping busy.

Saturday May 15th we walked 3 miles for Courageous Christopher 5K Run/Walk & Stroller Strut. We had a great time for a great cause! May 22nd we finally got to meet Wayne Bailey (the boy from Brooke’s school who was also diagnosed with NB) and his mom Heather at a fundraiser for Wayne. Brooke has also started playing T-ball at the YMCA with her buddy Greyson and went to her first birthday party in 1 ½ years to celebrated friends Jordan and Jackson’s birthdays on May 23rd.

May 24th – May 30th we were so blessed to travel to Orlando, FL for Brooke’s Make A Wish trip. Since Brooke doesn’t have any siblings, Make A Wish even let Grammy and Nana join us! A limo picked us up at our home and took us to the Philly airport. We stayed at the most amazing place called Give Kids The World. GKTW is an entire village for “Wish” kids. We stayed in a 2BR villa and Brooke was spoiled daily with gifts, carousel rides, ice cream, character visits from all the theme parks, horseback riding and so much more. They provided us with tickets to Disney, Universal & Seaworld (as well as many other local attractions but we only had 5 full days to play) and we were able to get moved to the front of the line for all the rides and for meeting the characters (PRICELESS)!!!! Our good friend Merritt joined us 2 of the days we went to Disney parks and another night for dinner at Downtown Disney. Merritt’s brother Joe met us out 2 nights for dinner as well. One of the many highlights was Brooke getting to participate in the Lion King show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (thanks to Merritt’s friend from church who is one of the stars) and then having a meet and greet with the cast afterwards!

Another highlight was getting to feed the dolphins at SeaWorld. One of the dolphin trainers stayed with Brooke and had some of the dolphins do tricks for her! Brooke was also so excited to give Curious George a huge hug at Universal Studios and also back at GKTW! The week went by way to quickly and we would have loved another few days to be able to enjoy more of the activities at the GKTW village. We spent every day (all day) at the parks! We had to leave early on Sunday morning for the airport and once again had a limo ride back home from the Philly airport. We cannot thank Make A Wish and Give Kids The World enough for making Brooke’s dreams come true! It was truly a magical week!

For more info on either organization:
http://www.midatlantic.wish.org/
http://www.gktw.org/

June 6th we headed to CHOP for Beyond Cancer (a fun day of rides, games, crafts & food for former and current oncology kids) something other than a doctor appt for a change! We got to see old friends Malcolm & Catherine and new friend Noah as well as some of the staff (and best of all Miss Sarah)! Malcolm spoke at the start of the event about the foundation he started called Make Some Noise: Cure Kids Cancer http://www.makenoise4kids.org/ which has raised over $180,000 for pediatric cancer research and awareness since January! I asked Brooke on the way home if she had a good time and she said, “yes it was a lot of fun. Do you think they will ask me to say a few words next year?” Shocked I asked her if she would want to and she replied, “Yes. I would like to talk to everyone about my cancer.” Seriously she is 5 years old!!!

Aunt Johanna surprised me and Brooke with tickets to the James Taylor/Carole King concert in Philly on June 10th. So we headed back up to NJ for Brooke’s first concert (other than seeing Hi-5 at Sesame Place 3 summers ago)! We partied at Uncle Johnny and Aunt Johanna’s house with Uncle Bruce and Aunt Cheryl (who were also going to the concert) before heading to the show. Brooke did great for the first half but fell asleep during the first song after intermission and was out cold the rest of the show. My girl can sleep through anything since spending the past 1 ½ years in a hospital! Thanks Johanna for such a great night!

June 12th, Brooke and Bailey were asked to lead the “Bark for Life” dog walk to benefit the American Cancer Society! Brooke even got up in front of everyone and spoke about her relationship with Bailey and how she helped her through her battle with cancer! Kellie had come with us to help me pull Brooke in the wagon while I walked Bailey and we were both just shocked at how well she did!

Well, I think I’ve about covered it all! Oh, wait, Brooke wants me to make sure I tell everyone she has her first loose tooth! Thanks for your prayers for Brooke and our family and please pray for all the other little warriors still fighting the beast!

God Bless,
Amy