Eat More Chicken!

For the past 9 months, I had been looking for a part-time job without success and I now see that it is a good thing that I didn't find work so that I can be home or in the hospital with Jake.  Randy is in college full-time pursuing a teaching degree while running a small business in the evenings.  Needless to say, we had a tight budget to match our tight schedule even before the "C" word came into our lives.  When Randy decided to go back to school we thought long and hard about the decision, and it wasn't one we made lightly.  Ultimately, getting his degree was the right choice for us and I, for one, have never looked back.  It was a risk to make that decision and we thought that everything would be fine as long as nothing major came along.  No one ever thinks the worst will happen to them.  If you had told me 4 years ago when I found out I was having another baby boy that at age 3 he would be going through the hardest thing he would or should ever have to face, I would never have believed it.  Who thinks, "cancer can happen to my family, let alone my child?"  Sometimes it still feels like a dream.  I remember walking through the hospital after Jake's MRI and seeing a young couple pulling a bald toddler in a wagon ahead of us.  It brought tears to my eyes and I wondered if they ever thought, "How did we get here?  When did this become our lives?"  I find myself now wondering the same things about our family.  Now we are the ones walking the halls, avoiding eye contact so as to not see the looks of pity on the faces of passerby's.  I only do that when it's been a tough day at the hospital.  Most of the time I smile and then smile at Jake and then the strangers smile too.  Maybe they think that if I can still smile then things will be alright.  Hair or not, IV pole or not, he is a handsome little boy and he's ours.  He behaves like a 3-year-old and in many ways he is lucky.  He gets to be naive to his condition.  He has not the capacity to understand other people's projections of emotion.  He doesn't know when he's being stared at or how serious his disease is.  Thank God for those things.

A little while back, we went to Well Fargo where Randy used to work and opened up an account in Jake's name.  We had been receiving requests for information on where people could send donations, and realizing that we were going to need the help we went ahead and opened an account.  Randy's friend, Pam, told us that day that she had already talked with Chick-Fil-A, Monroe, about doing a fundraiser night for our family.  We were astonished that she was working on this for us.  It is really hard to accept that we are "those" people.  It's our faces on the donation jar and we do need the help.  She then teamed up with Jake's teacher, Lisa, and the two of them worked tirelessly to get the word out about this event.  In addition to that, Elaine Dillon, Susan Phillips, Christina Barnett, and Joy Chambers worked so hard at making and putting out fliers to share Jake's story as well.  (One of which I saw in the Wal-mart parking lot yesterday.  I apologize to the random woman who witnessed me finding the flier and subsequently losing it.)  The combination of all of these people (plus many more, no doubt) made our fundraiser night a huge success.  We arrived a little after 6pm, which is par for the course for the Russell family to be fashionably late.  Unbelievably, there was a huge fire truck in the parking lot, with its ladder extended high in the air.  On it was a poster that read, "Come Help Jake."  My best friend, Brittany, and her family arrived close to the same time and said to her husband, "Kait is going to freak when she sees the fire truck." She was right, but I held it together with the exception of some shaky hands.The firemen let Ethan and Jake climb into the seat and ring the bell, and they were both grinning ear to ear.   

The restaurant was packed with people, there was not a table left open, and the drive thru line was wrapped around the building.  Christina went to order her family's food and said "We're eating for Jake," and the cashier said, "Everyone here is!"  We saw a lot of faces that we knew, some we recognized, and even more that we didn't know.  And, let me repeat, they were all there for Jake!  We are so proud that our son has touched so many hearts, and we are also proud to live in a community that is so compassionate and giving.  I am learning a lot of things as we go through this, one of which is that I will be more generous in the future, and I will teach the kids to be the same way, whether with money, with time, or with both.  I have to be honest, I was very nervous about going to Chick-Fil-A and it being awkward to talk to people about Jake, but it was quite the opposite.  We enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.  We were definitely overwhelmed by the enormity of our support, but it was really comforting at the same time. 

There is no doubt about it, Jake has been dealt a crummy hand.  In fact, everyone who loves Jake and is in pain because of it, has been dealt this crummy hand.  Randy and I are not alone in our pain, but most importantly, we are not alone in our joy.   We will never be able to thank all of you enough for supporting us.

 

Thank you Chick-Fil-A!