600 Pennies

» Posted by Emily the Mom-cologist on Sep 23, 2013 in Updates | 0 comments

Today is a big signpost in our treatment. This is the exact half-way point. We’ve endured 600 days of chemo. We have 600 more days to go. When I told Ethan today was half way day, he responded with his typical smile and hug. This boy, I tell you, he is so even-keeled. I however am a little more emotional about this day.

It feels big. 600 days is such a huge triumph but then I realize I have the same amount to do and I feel overwhelmed again. 1200 days is such a large chunk of Ethan’s childhood. We are doing our best to redeem this time and embrace life but I just can’t kick the feeling that it should not be this way. We shouldn’t ask children to suffer for so long when we have so much technology and talent at our disposal. We spend more money on potato chips in this country than we do on childhood cancer research and it kills me. Every day I’m painfully aware of how fragile my son’s life is. Every night I give him his dose of chemo and I can’t run away from the bald facts.

And so today I’m going to do something I have never done: I’m going to ask for your money. I want to ask you to donate to childhood cancer research in honor of Ethan. 600 pennies. That’s all I’m asking. I want 600 people to donate 600 pennies in honor of the 600 days we have fought leukemia and the 600 days we have left. $6 says “Yes, I stand with you in the fight for a cure.”

Click here to Donate 600 Pennies

This morning there was a wonderful sermon at church about Jeremiah. These verses in Lamentations 3 sum up how I feel and I hope it blesses you as much as it did me:

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.

31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.