Thank You Maddie

I have to tell you about this sweet girl named Maddie that our family just had the honor of meeting last night.  She is 11 years old, in the 5th grade and she has a heart for children with cancer.  She has grown her hair out three times, so she could donate it to 'locks of love' and after doing that she told her mom that she wanted to do something more.... something bigger for someone battling this disease.  

A little background on how we met Maddie.  My sister, Stacey is a dance teacher at Center Stage Dance Studio and teaches Maddie.  When Maddie heard about Abbey, she started thinking of a way she could help our family.  She rounded up some of her friends and on Valentines Day evening, Maddie and her friends (and her parents) spent the evening at the dance studio and told parents from the studio that they could drop their kids off there for the night to be babysat.  Maddie and her friends spent the night babysitting for free and at the end of the night they asked parents for donations for our family.  

We were so amazed by the generous amount of money that they raised for us and are so thankful that a young girl would have such a generous heart to do this for us.  We are also so thankful that so many people made donations for us.  Maddie and her mom, along with my sister came to our house last night to present us with the gift.  It was so nice to meet her and for the kids to get to spend a little time with her.  The kids colored this picture for her earlier in the day and were excited to give it to her when she got here.  

Over these last 4 1/2 months, we have had several groups of people do fund raisers or donations for us which I want to mention in this post also.  We never got the privledge of meeting many of them, but their generosity also was very appreciated and we are grateful for each person, both kid and adult that has helped us in this way.  From cheerleading squads, to groups in high schools, to police departments, to a hair salon, to people that we don't even know from across the country, we have seen an amazing outpouring of love for us with donations and we are thankful.  

We have had many people ask us about our insurance and what will be coming out of our pocket for Abbey's 2 1/2 year treatments.  We are very grateful that Jim has wonderful insurance through his job and almost everything is covered in full.  We do have to pay a co-pay for medications and getting to and from the hospital, and also if we go through the ER, there's a co-pay, but other than that all the other procedures and treatments are covered.  The money that we have been given has been mostly put aside, but some used so far for co-pays and travel expenses.  We are also looking into the possibility of getting a high tech air/surface purifier for our home.  With the money that one high school group gave us a while back, we got the ducts cleaned in our home. Thank you Maddie for your generosity and everyone else who has blessed us in this way!  We pray that God will bless you all richly as you've blessed us :)