The best day ever!

Today one of our hospital buddies, Kaleb Phillips, had a fundraiser at Airsoft Battlegrounds. Some of the activities and attractions at the event included face painting, jumping castles, airsoft battles,  various karate demonstrations, photo booths and food vendors.

From all of the conversations leading up to today I knew that William was excited; however, I did not expect the amount of energy that came exploding out of his little body! From the time we arrived at 11am until the time we left at 3pm, William was constantly running around, participating in all the events and having an absolute blast.

William officially finished chemo on Thursday night and knowing that his platelets have not yet been affected, Randell and I decided that it would be okay for him to participate in the Airsoft games. For those of you that do not know, Airsoft is a team sport similar to paintball where replica firearms shoot plastic BB rounds. The location we were at today was an indoor arena specially designed for the game. William did two rounds and had an amazing time.  Yes, it does hurt. Yes, William was shot. Yes, William has bruises. Yes, William had a lot of fun!

Somehow even after almost a full hour of running around playing airsoft games, William still had enough energy to bounce around on a jumping castle, participate in jousting games and get his face painted.

Here are some of the photos from today............

 

William and Kaleb!

Kaleb is 7 and he is fighting his second battle with Rhabdomyosarcoma.

While we were driving home this afternoon William exclaimed that he had the best day ever!  The comment and the memories we have from today is the reason why we keep fighting. The laughter, giggles, smirks and smiles is the emotional fuel that we all needed to refill our emotional gas tanks!

It is sometimes necessary for me to function with my emotional fuel gage on empty so I am grateful for today's refueling because not only did it fill me up, it provided me with some reserves ;) I read something the other day that stuck with me "You don't know how strong you can be, until being strong is your only option"  The strength I have is not always shown or expressed in ways that are appreciated by everyone and this leads me to something that I need to say ----------

Even though this blog was intended to communicate William's medical treatment and updates, it has become so much more. The blog has been a journal of my thoughts, fears hopes and dreams. It has been a memoir of events, both happy and sad. It has been a medical journal for treatment options, and it has been a dictionary of explanations and terminology. What this blog was never intended for was the use of a weapon or a tool to be used against me or my boys.

Lately, I feel like there may people out there that criticize and judge me. Some criticism has to do with William's medical treatments, some of it has to do with my relationship with Randell, and some of the criticism even surrounds my intentions with this blog. Sometimes the criticism is valid and I will do my best to correct the error. Yes, there are a whole lot of raw emotions and feelings floating around and it is sometimes easy to loose sight of love, compassion and forgiveness. What I am trying to say is that during the last 10 months I have been consumed with William's diagnoses and somehow, without my intention to do so, I have neglected important relationships.  I don't want to make excuses for the lack of contact, the missing connection or the missed opportunities, what I want is my apology to be heard and for all the anger to just go away!  I am exhausted and I struggle for the energy to defend my family, my relationships and my decisions. My apology is sincere and I hope everyone accepts it.

Keep on Keepin on. Live Strong in God's love!