LIAM'S JOURNEY

Christmas Eve has brought a new little baby into the world.  Some very close friends of mine welcomed their beautiful new daughter Isobella this morning at about 7am.  Her big sister had been dropped off at my place shortly after 5am, and we took a wee trip down to the local hospital early this morning to meet the new arrival.  Both Isobella and Mum were very relaxed and all went smoothly.  She is gorgeous and dare I say it she looks just like her Dad.  What a special christmas present for them.

Unfortunately the heavens have opened today and I am wondering when Noah and his ark are going to turn up.  Although it is very welcome for the about to be drought stricken Hawkes Bay, I would rather a bit of sun down this way!  The forecast for tomorrow is a bit of drizzle in the afternoon, but hopefully the weather forecasters are wrong (like they so often are) as the rain may just interupt our very serious badminton tournament that the McGoverins/Battens/Todds/Stevens/Pattersons have taken to having each Christmas day.  Funnily enough the kids are not the ones playing!  It is usually me and my brother against my sister and her partner.  Of course Daniel and I are bound to come up on top again, perhaps we should look into making a bit of a trophy for the winners   All in all it should be a good day and we may even break out the sing star, or maybe not! 

The kids have been very excited, especially Ashleigh as she was treated to a bit of an internet message from Santa all the way from the north pole.  (I had uploaded a photo of her and her name etc onto the site).  The look on her face when she saw her photo and name on the good kids list was priceless, I think she is too scared to misbehave now, its fantastic!  We will leave out a few snacks and beer for Santa tonight, I may as well make the most of it while I still have one that believes.

It has certainly been quite a year for the Todds and our extended family and friends.  I am sure 2009 is going to be my year, I will have all but finished my degree (although I’m not sure I would cope with the culture shock of going back to work – you want me to get out of bed by when??  I think not!), Liam will be coming along in leaps and bounds with every scan coming back clear, all our friends childrens will make great recoveries from their treatments, oh and I will win lotto…

I hope that all of you have a relaxing, fun and special time with your families and friends for Christmas.  Thank you for all your support and wonderful comments over the last 8 months or so, it is only because of you all that we manage to get through these little speed humps in our lives.  Take care and hopefully I will close down the blog next year as I will have nothing to report!!

Lots of love and best wishes for the coming year.

Becs, Jasper, Olivia, Jessica, Amelia, Liam and Ashleigh (and Coco of course!)

Today would have been Matt’s 37th birthday. 

As my good friend Mel has said she always remembers having a conversation with Matt moaning about getting older and he told her that every birthday he reached was a victory and a blessing.  I know he had 34 wonderful years, but he should have been around to celebrate many more and see his beautiful children grow up.  This is not the way life was meant to be and with everything else that has happened over the last year it seems awfully unfair.  I don’t often sit and feel sorry for myself as I know things could be a hell of a lot worse and I am lucky for what I have got but today just seems to be extra hard.

The kids want to take fish and chips up to the cemetery to have with him, so hopefully it doesn’t rain and we don’t get eaten alive by sandflies.  We will also write some messages on helium balloons and let them off as the kids find this a good way that they can talk to Matt. 

8 more sleeps till Santa.

The week has gone by quickly, not too much happening, but Liam and I went to see Charles Davis (surgeon extraordinaire)  today over in Lower Hutt.  He is still pleased with Liam’s progress but thinks there may be a slight infection in the eye which explains the ”gunk”.  Certainly nothing to be concerned about, and I just need to make sure it is clean.  I would expect it to have come from scratching his eye with his grubby 8 year old boy fingernails.  His eye is still too far back (or forward, can’t rememeber) but it can stay that way as it is not causing him any problems.  Charles also mentioned that he had done another very similar surgery last week on a 14 month old who also has a very rare type of tumour.  Hopefully this is just a coincidence and these “rare” tumours are not going to become common.  It really makes you wonder what is going on in the environment….

Only 13 days till Christmas and I must admit I am such a grinch.  The kids love it but ever since losing Matt Christmas has sort of been a bit sour for me.  He used to get quite excited about it all and loved setting up food and beer for Santa (only cause he got to drink and eat it!), putting flour on the floor and making footprints from the fireplace to the tree and leaving raisins on the floor as reindeer poo.  He was always first up in the morning making a great big cooked breakie, and really without him here it is a difficult day.  We are spending it this year at my sisters place and will probably head into Wellington to Steve for the evening stopping in at the Toddies on the way. 

The weather here is absolutely stunning, but it is getting very hot at nights and despite leaving the windows open it is very hard to sleep.  Maybe that is why I am so grumpy at the moment, I won’t be sorry to see the end of 2008, it hasn’t turned out to be such a good year.  Roll on 2009.

Was just reminded of a quote that a friend gave me after Matt passed away

“In life there will always be sunshine and always be rain, you just need to remember to look for rainbows” author unknown.

Perhaps I should stop being so grumpy and look at the good things in my life!

Well better get back to whatever it is I am supposed to be doing!

Becs

p.s. Just in case someone notices I have modified the day numbers by 4 days to bring them in line with the time we have actually been travelling this journey.

The “funrazor” was alot of fun on Thursday night, with thousands of dollars raised throughout the country.  There were many brave souls who loped off their locks and one of the most courageous ones was a young lady who had beautiful black hair halfway down her back and received a number 4 cut.  It was at that point I thought to myself, if she can do it, I’m pretty sure I can do it!

Then over a glass of wine (only one I promise) Shanell, Catherine, Alli and I made our pact to shave our heads at the next years event.  Unfortunately that gives us 365 days to mull it over, and I am finding myself obsessed with trying to figure out what I will look like with a bald head.  I promised Shanell that I would post it on the blog so there was no backing out and she’s put it on hers, so we don’t have much of a choice now.  Its going to cost you all though, for those of you who haven’t seen me for a while I have let all my natural curl come back, and it is below my shoulders now so you can imagine what another years growth is going to be like.  We are hoping to raise at least $50,000 between the four of us, so watch this space as I will start collecting in about 6 months time.

Liam is good, we attended the Wellington Special Kids Christmas party yesterday, and him and Ashleigh received some very cool presents from Santas in his Grotto.  I have been a little bit worried about his eye which is weeping alot and there is a fair bit of redness, but we are seeing the surgeon this Friday so will watch him closely to see if I need to take action before that.  He had a bit of a viral bug during the week as well, but bounced back from that pretty quickly.

Thank you to Jo for posting the link to “Davids blog”, with the little amount of information out there about Liams type of tumour, anything we can lay our hands on is great, and the fact that the treatment that child has been through is so positive is very heartening, and from what I can gather a real breakthrough in the treatment of this type of tumour. 

Thats all from me for now, am off outside to enjoy the sunshine!

ps.  I passed all my second semester exams, am halfway there now!

Just a quick note regarding the “funrazor” which is occuring at 22 locations around the country tomorrow.  This is a major fundraiser for the Child Cancer Foundation.  It involves people “shaving their lids for brave kids”. 

The Wellington event is happening at Midland Park, Lambton Quay at 4.30pm.  Shanell’s family including Jason, Kaleb, Jordan and her Dad Selwyn will have their heads shaved. 

Liam, Ashleigh and I will be there to support (I may get my head shaved next year…) and would love for anyone to come join in the fun. 

You can make a donation via the CCF website, or Shanell’s fundraising page

Becs