HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBEKAH, Christmas Trees and Kory's Foundation Deserves your Holiday Donations

It is amazing and truly a miracle; Rebekah has made it to five years old tomorrow. And for all of you parents who have ever said to (or about) your children "It's a miracle you have survived all these years...", it really is true in Rebekah's case. She is our miracle baby who has, so far, fought against all the odds and is continuing to bless us every day!

Just a little reality check here as the Christmas season stresses fall upon us. A year ago we were sitting in the hospital after 8 plus months of chemotherapy, radiation, tears and the unknown and we still had another month plus of chemotherapy to go before we could even run tests to know if it was doing any good. We honestly did not know whether our little girl was going to be a live another few weeks, months, a year or ??? In some ways we still don't have any assurances, but we have a lot of hope as this little girl has been cancer free now for 10 months or so and THAT is a miracle.

Think about how wonderful your family really is and how delightful it is to have someone around healthy enough to be frustrated with as your tempers get short and you get stressed. Most of all, drop the stress, drop the tempers and take your kids, your spouse and all those around you up in your arms and realize that THEY are the most special gift that you could ever be given this Christmas.

Another thing that has changed so much for us is the answer to "What do you want for Christmas?" or "What should we get Rebekah for her birthday?" It really is a hard question for most of us to answer and that is especially true in our case. We have everything that we really need. We have everything that really matters! As we have had some difficult times with a loss of a job for mommy, daddy having less work time as we went through hospital stay after hospital stay and then medical bills... Now that we have had an opportunity to get somewhat back to "normal" we realize how we ALREADY have way more than we need. THANK YOU for all of you who have supported us through these tough times in so many ways but for now the bills are paid (or at least current until next years medical deductibles hit...), there is food on the table, and we are all together - what more could anyone ask for?

I am glad you asked what more we could ask for! How about sharing some time with us and getting a Christmas tree at the same time? This Saturday, the 9th, we will all be at Grandpa's tree farm south of Hillsboro selling trees from around 9am until mid-afternoon and Rebekah wants to see LOTS of people. Grandpa has said that he will put all the proceeds of the trees from people who come to see Rebekah in her trust (more info on Rebekah's trust here). Grandpa's is about 10-15 minutes from Hillsboro, Beaverton or Tigard/Scholls. Click This Link to find directions on how to get to Grandpa's Tree farm - Adams' Christmas Trees.

And finally, we owe the biggest, largest, most wonderful gratitude to Kory's Foundation, a group that understands more than anyone what we were going through (they lost a child to Ewing's Sarcoma) and the one's that helped us pay bills, make it to the hospital, etc. They allowed us to get through it all and they have been on our minds a lot lately. We have wanted to put up a mention here asking you consider making any of your year financial tax-deductible donations to them for all they have done for us. And then guess what, we got an email from then tonight asking if they could BRING US another Christmas gift... it is us that need to be thanking them and should be giving back to them and yet here they are, still giving.