A Miracle at Disneyland

Naomi enjoyed a fun and full weekend! My sister, in her ingenuity, structured a plan to get 3 foster children (our little "sisters"), herself, her children and our mother a much needed mini-vacation. Given economic realities, in order to fund the trip, nothing short of a miracle was needed. Well, as we all know through Naomi's amazing healing journey, miracles do happen, and apparently in abundance. Thanks to an angel (who wishes to remain anonymous), not only was everyone able to travel to Los Angeles safely, but everyone attended Stevie Wonder's House Full of Toys Concert (the kids were especially excited to see the Jonas Brothers), and then the next morning visit Disneyland (the first time for the foster girls). A series of events led to serendipity of the highest order, and it was a beautiful weekend. Check out these happy faces:

Naomi feels better

LIVESTRONG!

Naomi was selected to participate in Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE event in San Jose. Naomi was one of several childhood cancer survivors being taking around the event course in pedi-cabs. These kids are the stars of the show. They have endured pain and faced mortality in ways that would give the toughest adults pause. Naomi requested that her big brother, 8 year old Jeremiah, and I, her Auntie, ride with her. We jumped and were chauffeured by our gracious pedi-cab rider, Rene. At the children’s request, Rene put on the speed and pedaled as fast as she could! It was a lovely day!

Naomi, Jeremiah and Rene:









You can see video of the pedi-cab ride here:

Starting line for LIVESTRONG San Jose 2009



During LIVESTRONG San Jose 2009


Approaching the finish line for LIVESTRONG San Jose 2009


Finish line for LIVESTRONG San Jose 2009




Today was Naomi’s bi-monthly oncology appointment. Everything went great! She's a healthy kid!

Naomi with her Nurse Practitioner:

Running and running

The kids participated in a timed race:

Naomi ran 13 laps in 10 min, Jeremiah ran 11 laps in 11 minutes.

Brown belt in the family!

I do apologize for not keeping up Naomi's blog on a regular basis. The good news is, she's doing great! So well, that we've all (well, at least me) fallen into a pattern of living the normal mundanity of everyday life, healthy children, work that's ever more consistent despite the economy, pleasing weather, shelter, food, all of the bare necessities of life. In other words, things are good...and so the blog suffers. Better that than the stressful impetus to write daily!

In the past few months, Naomi has passed her martial arts exam to receive her brown belt (at 6 years old!!)! Her big brother, Jeremiah, received his black belt (at 8 years old!!), but his mother has yet to email me a photo of him in his uniform...hint, hint...

We're all immensely proud of these tenacious, energetic, brilliant, beautiful children. : >




Blessings to you all!

Naomi the SuperStar!

My adorable niece Naomi is being featured in advertisements for the Keaton Raphael Memorial Foundation. Check out her beautiful photos on their website:

Keaton Raphael Memorial Foundation

We're all so proud of our little star!