Heroes and Halos

This is National Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Ian, along with the rest of us, spent today at an event that was held for children and their families that are/were battling cancer (heroes) or have lost their fight with it (halos). It was out in Linwood Kansas on a huge farm (it is pretty close to Lawrence where KU is). As I was explaining what were going to do today to Ian, I began to rattle off some names of his friends from the clinic who may be there. I no sooner said, "Patrick may be there" when Ian excitedly piped up and asked, "Will SpongeBob be there too?" Evidently, he doesn't remember Patrick from the clinic as much as I thought he would. It was so hilarious. (Yes I let my kids watch SpongeBob. I will gladly accept my mother of the year award now).

As we began driving out to Eureka, Emma noticed a license plate that said Minnesota on it. She said, "I wonder if they drink a lot of soda in Minnesota?" So between she and Ian, we had some pretty good laughs on the drive up.

We arrived to a farm that was in a remote, peaceful setting. There were tons of lush trees covering the majority of the property; it felt like you were entering the woods more than a farm. The farmhouse was an adorable cobblestone house covered in vines and ivy that sat easily on at least 100 acres of forest.

We found the registration tent where we were all given name tags and gold ribbons. Ian was given a goodie bag with a frisbee, kite, Royals baseball tickets, and many other things. He was asked to sign a big banner that was presented later.

After that, we were free to explore. The first stop for the kiddos was Pony Rides. Ian got to ride on a pony named Spider and he was really excited about it. After that, we made our way over to the 3 firetrucks and the police car. Ian got to sit in both the firetrucks and police car and speak into the radio. He said, "Come out with your hands up!"

There was a path that lead down into a grove of trees into a clearing. As we reached the clearing, we could see that there were 5 treehouses built into the next grove. Each one was different from the other, but they all had beds, as well as swamp coolers. One even had a t.v. in it. The kids thought they were so awesome and Mike and I would have to agree that they were.

Next we headed to the big barn for lunch. The local High School has a culinary arts program so about 10 of the students were there with food they had made. Afterwards, there was a ceremony with a few speakers. One was a young boy maybe 12 or so who told about his journey and survival with cancer. Next was a mother who lost her daughter to cancer and has actively set up lemonade stands to help raise money for cancer research. You may have heard of Alex's lemonade stands and if you haven't, now maybe you'll notice them. The banner that Ian had signed earlier was held up and they began reading the heroes names for them to go up in front so all could see them. Mike explained to Ian that he would need to go up there when they said his name and he nervously looked at me and said, "But I don't know what I am supposed to say." I guess since we had just heard 2 speakers, that he was going to be speaker number 3. Needless to say, he was pretty relieved to learn that all he had to do was stand there.

Tears filled my eyes as they had the families stand who had Halos (children that lost their battle with cancer). One families son passed as recently as last March. I can't even imagine how hard it must be for those families, but they are actively doing what they can to raise money for research so that other children in the future may stand a chance. It made me think of one of my Mom's most favorite quotes (now my favorite):
Two men looked through prison bars;
One saw mud; the other stars.
These are families that instead of wallowing in the mud, are looking to the stars and finding light in even their darkest moments. They are truly inspirational to me.

Several Carnival games were set up and I have to say, they gave out the best prizes of any Carnival I have ever seen. The kids were loving it and they completely scored some good stuff. They will never be able to go to another Carnival again for anything else will seem second rate in comparison.

We took a few turns on the paddleboats and then decided to call it a day.

I am so touched at how many people contributed to make this event so special and wonderful for Cancer patients and their families. I think it needs to be called Heroes, Halos, and Angels.