A little sadness

With no family close to us here in Arizona, I have really come to rely on my friends. I've become really good friends with a couple girls here in the neighborhood who are like my extended family. One of these girls has a little boy who has been battling neuroblastoma (a particularly viscous type of cancer that strikes young children) and is in remission. The worst part about this cancer is that there hasn't yet been a case of a child who has relapsed and survived. We continue to pray for Brody and that he will keep getting better. We've seen him go from a healthy little boy to a very sick little boy and on his way back again. Today he brought a smile to my face because I walked Charlie over to their house and made him giggle because he loves my dog. Through what this family has been through, they have met others who are going through the same things and they have become good friends with another family in Arizona who have a six year old girl. She is one month ahead of Brody in diagnosis, and one year after her transplant surgery, she relapsed. This last weekend they went in for routine scans to re-stage her because they had done surgery and thought they removed all of the cancer and found that she had a bunch of spots on her liver and one on her lungs. Since this is likely her last Christmas, my friends wanted to put together a care package to send to the family. I thought back to when Jordan was in the hospital and how boring it was to sit there for hours on end. This family also has three other children who are all younger than the girl who is sick and I'm sure it's rough on the family to keep them occupied while they're there. So I bought a plastic box with a handle and then filled it with quiet games and books that they can carry along with them. I also decorated the side a little with a little sign that says "quiet box". It wasn't anything spectacular, so I didn't take pictures of it or anything. But, I also wanted to include a couple other things just for this little girl. So I put in a journal that I had made awhile back and then I spent my day off today making a picture frame for her. I was even able to go to her family's website and pull a picture of her to put in the frame so they didn't get an empty frame. My hope is that this will bring a smile to her face. Both of these children I've talked about have websites set up through Caring Bridge and their parents update them and add pictures. For anyone that's interested, Brody's website is: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brodyfowler The little girl who is sick is named Layla and her website is: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/laylablakeley
You can also leave their families messages of support for the health of their children on these sites.