Merry Christmas Everybody! We wish you joy, health and happiness today and always.
Amelia is looking forward to “that guy” coming to our house. She won’t call him Santa. She just says, “That guy is coming.” She just can’t wait to find the Dora dollhouse she’s been dreaming about.
Now let me try and get you up to date with our world…

We had a delightful trip to Disney World in November, courtesy of Make-A-Wish and Give Kid’s the World www.gktw.org. We were able to see Mickey and Pooh and all of the princesses that Amelia wanted to meet. The kids called Amelia our “Easy-Pass.” They were quick to realize that we were getting very special treatment and didn’t have to wait long for anything. We rode more rides in a day than we ever thought we could, and had the greatest seats in the house for the Lion King performance. We left the parks every day completely exhausted only to find something terrific going on in the village of Give Kid’s the World. Parties, performances, horseback riding, swimming, special character visits, late night visits to the ice cream palace and in-house pizza deliveries were waiting for us daily. The days were long but fun and full of wonder. A couple of times I thought Mom and Dad were about to drop when Amelia would come to the rescue by falling asleep which would allow them to sit for a while with a cup of coffee and revive themselves. It was a privilege to have them join us.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Amelia had her MIBG scan and an MRI which both showed no evidence of disease. When you have a large deductible on your health insurance plan it doesn’t matter that you have had little time to prepare for Christmas. You just want to save a little money for the following year.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield has been incredibly difficult with paying our claims lately. Amelia’s oncologist offered to speak with them personally and had worked magic for us. Claims are finally being paid for stuff we had done two years ago! I still wish they would offer to pay for the pain and suffering they have caused me. Every day I receive a letter of denial. I have to ignore it knowing full well they will eventually pay the claim. You get the idea.
Today I am just trying to get this onto our site so that you have an idea of what we’ve been up to. I know I had more to say but this is all you get for now. I’d tell you about the little guy that we met about a year ago in the oncology clinic at Hopkins and lives just a town away but you can check his website for yourself. www.gavinstormthomas.com I’d tell you how great is having Amelia start pre-school if I were not suffering with the shingles that I caught from her Varicella vaccination. I had no idea it could be so painful. The fact that they are covering the left side of my face and eyelid and causing amazingly wild head and ear pain is enough to take the joy out of my little girl’s first days of school. Luckily the Drs. said the kids should not be affected by my outbreak since they have all had the vaccine. I just need to stay away from the rest of the world. Ugh! I thought this was going to be a quiet and relaxing week…
Thanks for being patient with my updates. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Thanks for your friendship. Happy 2006! Oh, and a thousand thanks to all of you who so graciously donated your holiday lunches to lunch for life! You brought me joy!