It was nice to be able to spend a few days at our home in New Jersey and to catch our breathe after the hectic weeks leading up to the holiday. Liam just finished his 5th round of 3f8 antibodies and Gretchen and I had been burning the candle at both ends readying the cookie event for the Band of Parents. Thanksgiving is the day when everyone is supposed to reflect on all of the things they are thankful for in their lives. Just as we sat down to dinner it became immediately apparent just how hard this very moment, of this very holiday, was going to be for Gretchen and I. The time when someone would normally say a prayer and thank god for each other, all we have, our health, and for friends and family. Today we just looked into each others eyes and no words needed to be spoken, no words could be spoken. I just looked at her and said...I know...I know...as tears began to stream down each of our cheeks. In an instant anything that needed to be said was said. We are thankful beyond words for how Liam has progressed since diagnosed in February. We are forever thankful for all of you who have cheered Liam on and been there for us for nearly a year now. We are thankful for the dedicated team of doctors and researchers who fight this beast each and everyday. We are thankful for Ella who brings us endless joy and if not for her adoring love this past year, it surely would have been much darker for Liam, Gretchen, and I. We are thankful to have each other to lean on during what is undoubtably one of the toughest tests of physical and mental strength a parent or couple can be forced to endure. We know our lives will never be the same and we will never be able to fully return to the way it was. We are not the same people. We will live with a constant fear of losing our son; of wondering will it come back? We have watched as other parents have lost a child, as lovely children with full heads of new hair, just settling back into the proper world of a being a kid, only to relapse and be brutally yanked back to the world of pain, medicines, hospitals, confusion, and fear. We are thankful for sure but I would not be honest if I did not tell you that we won't be satisfied nor will we rest until we are certain our son is safe and has beaten this unwelcome cancer. We will fight until all children fighting neuroblastoma have a better chance of winning than they do today. You can help. By clicking the following link now http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org and buying our cookies as gifts this holiday season. We begin baking with an army of 200 volunteers this Saturday and we need your orders. All of you who have followed and been a part of this painful journey can help Liam right now by supporting our efforts to further the development of the next generation antibody treatment. Liam will reject the current mouse based antibody at some point in the future. Without a new humanized version, the treatment options available if he were to relapse as more than half do, are virtually non-existent. Your cookie purchase will directly impact the development of a new treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and it could directly benefit your Brave Prince Liam if he were ever to need it. It is one thing to live with fear and yet another to give into it. Help us fight for Liam and his neuroblastoma brothers and sisters. http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/
