55 Days to go..

So much has been happening while we get ready for our drive.

Pat was suppose to have his first maintenance chemo treatment last week (this marks a milestone for us away from 3 days a week chemo to only having 1 chemo treatment a month!) but it was postponed until Tuesday 3/13 because his blood counts weren't good enough. He has been feeling really good and had a great weekend at his dad's house playing with friends. He loves to be with his friends and had a rough time this week worrying about how he would make friends at school next year when he is able to return. He was on Hospital Homebound this year while he got his chemo treatments so he doesn't really know many people around our new house. Pat is scared that his hair won't grow back from chemo and radiation and that the kids will think he is weird. It breaks my heart to hear how scared he is about this when he handled having Cancer and chemo treatments like he could take on the world! I try to tell him how amazing he is and how being different in some ways in what makes us each special. In fact, his hair (or lack of it) is the inspiration for a book he and I are writing called WHERE'S MY HAIR? We noticed how young children 5 - 7 years old are curious about his hair and matter of factly ask him where it is. Older children just stare at him or point and giggle which makes him really sad. We decided that if we could write a book for children which talks about our differences (bald from illness, in a wheelchair, blind or deaf, different skin colors or hair and eyes...) then more children would understand it and not have to stare. Kids have to understand that it is these differences like Pat being bald, or his little brother Tucker, having red hair and freckles (which has caused many a tearful night as well) that make us special.

Pat and I did 2 interviews this week. 1 for a segment in a feature documentary coming out this summer and 1 for a tv news interview that will air next week. Pat is so well spoken and nonchalant about his illness and his drive and I tend to be a blubbering mess when it comes time to talk about the "tough stuff". I mentioned in my first post about how Pat believes that this illness will teach him a lesson and I think this drive is his lesson on the gift he has to help others. Pat's smile or attitude makes others feel good and want to get involved and help. I think he has a gift in connecting to other people and want to make sure that we do everything we can to use his gift well. I tend to cry when speaking about Pat (especially on camera :) ) but know that other people need to hear his message as he really brings light to so many!

This week we got 1 new National Sponsor in Technomarine (thanks to Pat's dads girlfriend Jessica!) and 1 new local Sponsor in Miami which is the PBA or Police Benevolent Association. We also received some other donations and chocolate sale money so we are ever so slowly reaching our goal. We still have local sponsorships for sale in 25 of the cities we are visiting so my next task is trying to publicize those opportunities. Do you know how difficult it is to fax press releases to 30 city newspapers? Pretty time consuming:)

55 Days to go $65,000 to raise