Girl of the Year

So life here has been pretty busy. I mentioned a while back about Abbey being the girl of the year for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society's biggest fundraising event called Man & Woman of the Year. The 9 candidates have been very hard at work as they are all campaigning and doing fundraisers to raise funds and awareness for blood cancers. Abbey's sweet little smile and her courageous story have been used countless times over these past 9 weeks to motivate people to contribute to this cause.

We have had the opportunity to go to several events and meet so many wonderful people. We have taken Abbey to all but 1 event (which was a casino night that went till 2am) and the response that we get from people when they have the chance to meet her never gets old. She looks like the picture of health and her beautiful blonde hair and precious little face is enough to get people to want to be a part of this cause. 40 years ago, people who were diagnosed with leukemia barely had a chance of beating it, usually dying within months of being diagnosed. Yet today there have been so many advancements in treatment that parents are getting to spend lifetimes with our precious children. Research has come so far and to be able to stand hand in hand with Abbey as we share our story has been amazing.

Words cannot express our gratitude for all that goes into this and for the time and energy that goes into each of the candidates fundraisers. We were told yesterday that over $100,000 has already been raised!

The final event is quickly approaching. It is May 20th at a hotel in Downtown Cleveland and there we will find out which candidate will be named Man or Woman of the Year. It sounds like a very exciting night with a live and silent auction, live band, food stations, slideshow of Abbey & Eric (boy of the year), and more :). Us and the Reisings (Eric's family) will again share our journeys with the crowd (they are expecting about 400 people to be there) and we are very much looking forward to the evening.

For more information about the final event, go to http://www.mwoy.org/noh/localchapter/finale

And a few more things :)...

For some reason the comments on my last post were erased. We have no idea what happened, but it must have been some sort of glitch with blogger. We see your comments through email so were able to see them all before they were erased. Sorry about that and thanks for continuing to follow and comment :)!

Also, wanted to let you all know that Abbey had her monthly clinic visit this past Friday. Everything looked perfect :)!!! Her blood looked great and her body is quickly getting back to normal after coming off treatment 4 months ago. They were very pleased with how she looked and it felt awesome to once again hear that she is doing beautifully!

And Tuesday we will be welcoming my in-laws for a week :)! We are all so excited to have them here and are looking forward to our time with them!

Well, I think that's about it! I will add a couple random pictures to give you all something to look at. Have a great week :)!

Jim has been teaching Abbey to ride her bike with no training wheels. She's doing great and is very close :)!

We got a new swingset! Friends of ours were getting rid of it and they gave us an amazing deal on it (that's an understatement!). The kids have been loving it and are out there every chance they get! It has been raining A TON here so they have spent so many days looking at it out the window. We are getting a nice day here and there and on those days we are outside from sun up to sun down!

The kids have been making lots of forts to keep busy inside!

And of course Jim always helps on rainy days with wrestling, tickling and throwing the kids around :)!

And Caleb just being cute :) - carrying around a weed.

Thanks for checking in :)! I'll be sure to get lots of pictures this Friday to share from the Grand Finale Event!