December 31, 2008

My last post of the year...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

May 2009 be happy and healthy for all of you.

With love,
the Prokops (still cold in Indiana)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! We are safe and sound at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Indiana. We were one of the lucky travelers that made it in and didn't end up spending the night in an airport somewhere. The girls were very excited to make it here yesterday, even though a bit sleepy (we left the house at 4am.) Poor Hannah was throwing up on the side of the very cold road at 4:30am, I told her she was melting the snow! How's that for Christmas spirit?

No pictures, can't load them here, but we all had a great time opening our family gifts last night, then Santa's stockings this morning. We are here with my sister and her family too, which is a lot of fun for Colby and Hannah.

Christmas is such a special time, always time for reflection on what the season is all about. Please say a few extra prayers for our friends Diego (who died yesterday on Christmas eve) Diego and Coleman colemanscott who is not doing well at all. Cancer never stops.

Love to you all from Indiana. I'll leave you with Mimi's (Julian's Mama) Christmas video, watch for Colby and Hannah. Thanks Mimi, it's great!

MIMI'S CHRISTMAS VIDEO

Kim

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Is anyone watching this St. Jude's special tonight on tv? Hannah and I were working on a video she is making to put on YouTube, and this show came on. It's a paid special to raise money for St. Jude's, they are highlighting families whose children have cancer. and are treated at St. Jude's. I'm waiting to see a child I know. It's interesting to hear Hannah's perspective on the show. Her first comment was "St. Jude's isn't the only hospital you can go to you know."

It's not an easy show for me to watch. I know what it feels like to be there. But I don't know. This little boy has a brain tumor-ATRT, an incurable brain tumor, he died 6 months after the filming of the show. Hannah just said "oh, he died? But he was so little and so cute. That is so sad." Doesn't matter how cute or little he was, we just don't have a cure yet. Someday I hope we will, but until then, we will keep funding organizations like CureSearch and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

And, Hannah and our family will keep on with Cans for Cancer. I just updated the figures for Cans for Cancer. We have raised nearly $14,000, and donated over $11,000 to help kids suffering with cancer. Next year our focus will be on setting up Cans for Cancer as a non profit foundation, and growing our efforts to raise more money. On Friday, Nancy Krakowka, one of the teachers in charge of the student council, presented us with a check for $2,100 from the Turkey Trot we participated in in November. Wow! Hannah's school and student council have been so supportive of Cans for Cancer, we can't thank them enough. We'll try by keeping up our work and continuing to help kids that need our support.

Hannah's last comment was "why do they keep showing all these kids that die?" Unfortunately, so many kids do die. Unfortunately...

♥Kim

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Yes, we DID IT! It was so much fun, yesterday we delivered all of the gifts to the oncology floors at the hospital. I did begin this update last night, but fell asleep so I'm trying again tonight.

We started on the inpatient floor, Santa went around to each room, while Santa's helper reported back to us on the age of the child and what they liked. Hannah and Colby then picked out the gift and Santa delivered it. Some of the older children that were able to come out with their iv poles came into the toy room and checked out the selection for themselves, and got to choose whatever they wanted. We had many toys left, and next headed down to the clinic (where Hannah is seen now) for outpatient hematology/oncology kids. Santa had visits from many kids, some that sat on his lap, some that ran away screaming. It was great to see the kids rush in, with their brothers and sisters, so excited to be able to pick out their own toys! We had plenty for everyone, with some left over to leave with childlife for the many other deserving clinic kids.

Pictures of us preparing the night before and from yesterday:




















It was a great day. We also delivered the gifts for 3 families that were adopted, 1 by Hannah's Cans for Cancer and another 2 by a local family that reads Hannah's blog and wanted to adopt a family (or 2). How great is that? We delivered big bags of toys for all 3 families.

I'll sign off tonight by wishing Dave a Happy 50th Birthday!! Yes, tonight is the BIG 50! We celebrated with a nice dinner at home and a cake, decorated by Hannah. She told me as I was frosting the cake that if I wanted to work in "her bakery" that I had better learn how to frost the cake correctly...ha ha. She wants to buy a bakery asap and start up!

One last tid bit of information. Hannah has been having many stomach issues lately, with stomach aches bad enough to keep her home from school. This week she came home Monday morning, was out Tuesday still feeling sick, out Wednesday for the toy extravaganza, and back in today. The latest thought is that she has vincristine toxicity. Vincristine is a chemo drug, which can cause bowel issues, as well as neurological issues. More on this later, but she will start a new medicine this weekend. I hope it works, because she really hasn't felt well lately. One year out from chemo (today) and you would think it's done and over!!! Unfortunately not.

♥Kim

Sunday, December 14, 2008

So much to do, and so little time! That always happens at this time of year. Here are a few things we have been doing this week. I hope you make it to the end of the post, it's so exciting!!

We have been busy collecting toys for our toy drive for Schneider's Hospital. A BIG GIANT THANK YOU to all of you. We have received so many wonderful toys, and so many nice donations too. The student council at Colby and Hannah's school decided to hold a raffle, collect money and purchase toys for the toy drive. They have been such an amazing support to us for Hannah's Cans for Cancer, with the BIG fundraiser last year, as well as their donations for the toy drive. They dropped off the toys on Friday night after they went shopping...what a great collection of toys. Thank you so much! Also, Colby's class along with another 6th grade class collected toys in their classrooms. Colby's teacher sent a note that in place of teacher gifts this year, they would like the children to buy toys to donate to the toy drive instead. How great is that? Colby's teach (and all of the teachers there) are just terrific.

Each day we arrive home, Hannah checks the toy donation box, and each day, there are more toys. Thank you to all of you that took the time out to buy the gifts, then drop them off. Wait until you see all of the toys we have collected, it's amazing! This is truly what Christmas is all about, helping others. I feel so fortunate that Hannah is doing so well and we are collecting toys, rather than in the hospital. We are blessed.

Tonight we separated all the toys into age groups. We put them all in big boxes, so when we get to the hospital we can easily find an appropriate toy for each child. Mrs. Santa was dropped off tomorrow, so I'm all set. Santa and the elves will be arriving shortly. The girls and I also finished shopping for the family we are adopting. Those gifts we will wrap and put together for the girl and her mom. We will be delivering those gifts also on Wednesday, along with the gifts for the other 2 families that have been adopted by another local family that reads Hannah's blog and asked to adopt 2 families this year, WOW!! 

We also had a party and collection for our overseas troops at the 4H this weekend. We arranged to collect items of need for our troops to send to Operation Moms (Men/Women of Military Service) Cookies. They are a not-for-profit organization that collects items and packages them to send to our military service men and women. Each 4H member purchased items from the troop wish list, and collectively we put together an amazing group of items. We also made cards to go along with the items, expressing our thanks for their service, and well wishes. The clubs really had a good time making the cards and they looked great. Here is a picture of the group with their items and cards. 


Now on to our BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:
Today Hannah was adopted! WHAT?? I learned of an organization called Friends Of Jaclyn (FOJ)from someone else's blog. You can read about this amazing organization in-depth online at their website. From their site, FOJ matches a child with a college or high school sports team based on geographic location. Once the team and child have been matched, there is a ceremonial adoption. The child is surrounded by 20 or 30 new friends that rally around him or her. A deep bond is formed between the child, the child's family and the sports team. The relationship is a priceless gift. The gift is in the relationship; a child is gaining a loving support network and the team is gaining an insight into the value of life and the power of love. The result of this connection is mutual respect, support, friendship and love. I contacted Denis Murphy, Jacqlyn's father, and he responded very quickly. He has been working for a few months now to match Hannah up with a team, and notified us a couple weeks ago that the Hofstra Softball team was looking for a girl to adopt. It was a match!! We met with the team and two of their coaches today. What a wonderful group of girls, they were so welcoming and down to earth. Hofstra ia a Division 1 softball team, and very good! They won the NCAA championship last year and we hope to be there this year with them when they win it again.

We ate breakfast with them, met them all, and shared Hannah's story. They had sent the girls both t-shirts a couple weeks ago, and today they presented both of them with their own official softball team jerseys. The girls were so excited and Dave and I were just humbled to see these college girls so interested in being involved with little Hannah. We saw where their team played, and heard about their demanding workout schedule, and dedication to their team. They are like a family, and they made us feel like a part of that family. Maybe they don't know how much this means to Hannah and to our family, but it is a support system that we didn't have before. It seems to come at such a perfect time, with Hannah dealing many emotional issues. They asked Hannah to be their bat girl at their games, so I hope we get to attend many of their games this year. Their official season starts in February, so we are really looking forward to that.

I spent some time talking with one of the girls on the team whose boyfriend was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma just days before she signed with Hofstra. He went through chemo and radiation, and she went with him. They thought he was in remission, but it recurred in a new area. He passed away. I felt a bond with her because, unfortunately, she knows what Hannah has gone through.

Here are a few photos from our visit, including a big group hug. Hannah said she is going to put together a video from our day with all of the photos, so when she is finished, I'll share that here. 

 

I'm off to wrap presents...thanks for visiting,

♥Kim

Monday, December 8, 2008

We have a date...today we got a confirmed date from the hospital for our toy day. We will be handing out the toys on Wednesday, December 17th. Colby and Hannah are looking forward to it, as are Santa and Mrs. Clause! It should be a lot of fun, but we still have so much to do! We had planned to do a little more shopping today, but Hannah came home from school early with a stomach ache. She looked terrible when I picked her up, and slept for 5 hours when she got home. Her stomach aches are still not under control, so we'll be addressing that at her next visit.

She was better when she woke up, and ate dinner. She was peppy enough to make cookies for our friends Coleman and Caden Coleman's Website. Their 5th birthday is Wednesday.

Thanks again to everyone participating in our hospital toy drive. There is still time, please drop off all toys or donations by Tuesday morning, December 16th. Or, give us a call and we can come by and pick them up! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, scroll down!!!

♥Kim

Friday, December 5, 2008

TGIF! Time is really flying by, with lots to do before our big toy day! We did receive word about the family we are adopting. The patient is a teenage girl, with a single mom. We can't wait to go shopping for some fun things for them.

We also had another family that reads Hannah's blog request a family to adopt. Isn't that wonderful? They are adopting a little boy, 6 years old with leukemia, also with a single mom.

This is all so exciting. We have been collecting toys through our toy drive also, for the kids on the oncology floor. We hope to visit them the week of December 15th. We will know the exact date soon.

Hannah really gets a kick out of checking the toy box every day for new toys. She goes through each of them, anazlying them. She wants to keep many of them too... such great toys! Thank you all so much for all of the toy donations and monetary donations too. Your gifts will help us make so many other kids happy at Christmas time. We love you!

♥Kim


Toy Drive
This year the girls want to do two things to help kids with cancer from Hannah's Cans for Cancer program. First, we are adopting an oncology family this year from clinic. We do know the patient with cancer is a pre-teen girl, but we are awaiting the rest of the details on the family to be able to purchase gifts for them. We are so excited about this, and hope to make Christmas very special for a family struggling with cancer who may need some extra help this year.

The other thing the girls want to do is visit the 4th floor pediatric oncology floor at Schneider Children's hospital, where Hannah spent her time when inpatient. The plan is that Dave will dress up as Santa, I will be Mrs. Clause, and they will both be elves. Yes, you can all stop laughing now, it should be quite amusing. We will have boy and girl gifts for all ages and will travel room to room handing out gifts and candy to all the kids. We plan on leaving toys for the bone and stem cell unit children also, but we can't enter that area, as it is strictly quarantined.

We had to get special permission from the hospital to be able to go up on the 4th floor. Usually, they do not allow donors to directly give the gifts, due to hospital and state regulations. Also, no child under 12 years old is typically allowed on the floor if they are not a patient or a sibling (I never knew this.) Since both of the girls are under age 12, they will not be allowed to actually enter the rooms, but the children can come out to the hall or the doorway. If that isn't possible, their parent or a Childlife helper can deliver the gifts.

We are very excited! There is a lot of work to do though. As you're probably thinking...these are very ambitious projects. I'm thinking the same thing..but I know we'll pull it off. The thought of bringing these kids a little bit of happiness at Christmas will keep us on track and rolling! We are in need of toys, lots of toys and FAST! We will be delivering these toys to the hospital and the family sometime during the week before Christmas, which doesn't leave us a lot of time. We need boy and girl toys, of all ages, but mostly in the age range 6 years old and above. There are kids of all ages on the oncology floor, but not that many very young children. The children were most often around Hannah's age or older. If you are out and about shopping for Christmas, please help us help these kids, many of whom will be in the hospital on Christmas, instead of at home with their family, as they should be. It's difficult to be in the hospital, and especially difficult to be in the hospital on a holiday.

Please consider donating to Hannah's Cans for Cancer Toy Drive this year. If you do not have time to purchase a gift, and could drop off or send a donation instead, that would be appreciated also and will go directly to purchasing gifts for the children. Hannah designed a sign for the bin that is now out in our driveway. Please drop off any unwrapped gifts to our Toy Drive box at our home, 1556 Grand Ave, Mattituck. If you would like us to come pick up at your house, we would be happy to, just send me an email or call (information on the side bar on the left of this page.)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Another day at home, Hannah was down for most of the day. Here is a picture I took of her this morning, look at her baby Tod up there protecting her!!



She had a stomach ache, headache and sore throat the entire day. She pepped up a bit, you can see her here in the box I was wrapping to set out for our Toy Drive! I knew she wasn't feeling well when she didn't want to wrap it herself, she laid on the couch and watched me. She did start feeling a bit better by late afternoon, finally ate a bit and did some homework. We're going to try school tomorrow and see how she makes out. There are quite a few kids in school sick right now with a similar virus.

Thanks to all of you for the great response to our Toy Drive. I received many emails offering assistance, that's wonderful. I'm still hoping to have more information to report tomorrow, and will pass it on as soon as I do.

♥Kim


Toy Drive
This year the girls want to do two things to help kids with cancer from Hannah's Cans for Cancer program. First, we are adopting an oncology family this year from clinic. We do know the patient with cancer is a pre-teen girl, but we are awaiting the rest of the details on the family to be able to purchase gifts for them. We are so excited about this, and hope to make Christmas very special for a family struggling with cancer who may need some extra help this year.

The other thing the girls want to do is visit the 4th floor pediatric oncology floor at Schneider Children's hospital, where Hannah spent her time when inpatient. The plan is that Dave will dress up as Santa, I will be Mrs. Clause, and they will both be elves. Yes, you can all stop laughing now, it should be quite amusing. We will have boy and girl gifts for all ages and will travel room to room handing out gifts and candy to all the kids. We plan on leaving toys for the bone and stem cell unit children also, but we can't enter that area, as it is strictly quarantined.

We had to get special permission from the hospital to be able to go up on the 4th floor. Usually, they do not allow donors to directly give the gifts, due to hospital and state regulations. Also, no child under 12 years old is typically allowed on the floor if they are not a patient or a sibling (I never knew this.) Since both of the girls are under age 12, they will not be allowed to actually enter the rooms, but the children can come out to the hall or the doorway. If that isn't possible, their parent or a Childlife helper can deliver the gifts.

We are very excited! There is a lot of work to do though. As you're probably thinking...these are very ambitious projects. I'm thinking the same thing..but I know we'll pull it off. The thought of bringing these kids a little bit of happiness at Christmas will keep us on track and rolling! We are in need of toys, lots of toys and FAST! We will be delivering these toys to the hospital and the family sometime during the week before Christmas, which doesn't leave us a lot of time. We need boy and girl toys, of all ages, but mostly in the age range 6 years old and above. There are kids of all ages on the oncology floor, but not that many very young children. The children were most often around Hannah's age or older. If you are out and about shopping for Christmas, please help us help these kids, many of whom will be in the hospital on Christmas, instead of at home with their family, as they should be. It's difficult to be in the hospital, and especially difficult to be in the hospital on a holiday.

Please consider donating to Hannah's Cans for Cancer Toy Drive this year. If you do not have time to purchase a gift, and could drop off or send a donation instead, that would be appreciated also and will go directly to purchasing gifts for the children. Hannah designed a sign for the bin that is now out in our driveway. Please drop off any unwrapped gifts to our Toy Drive box at our home, 1556 Grand Ave, Mattituck. If you would like us to come pick up at your house, we would be happy to, just send me an email or call (information on the side bar on the left of this page.)

Monday, December 1, 2008

I was hoping to include a picture of Hannah with her Toy Drive collection box, but unfortunately she came home from school this afternoon not feeling well. She never really got any better tonight, finally ate one piece of dry toast. She is complaining of a stomach ache, headache and sore throat. When I signed her out at school, there were many other sick kids on the sign out sheet so a lot of kids are sick right now. 

Thanks to Stephanie, we have a Santa suit waiting to go! We also got word that the hospital has a family for us to adopt for Christmas. We know that the girl is a pre-teen, but we are awaiting all the other details. 

In case you missed last night's entry....please check below.

♥Kim

Toy Drive
Yes, we are in need of toys, lots of toys and FAST! We will be delivering these toys to the hospital and the family sometime during the week before Christmas, which doesn't leave us a lot of time. We need boy and girl toys, of all ages, but mostly in the age range 6 years old and above. There are kids of all ages on the oncology floor, but not that many very young children. The children were most often around Hannah's age or older. If you are out and about shopping for Christmas, please help us help these kids, many of whom will be in the hospital on Christmas, instead of at home with their family, as they should be. It's difficult to be in the hospital, and especially difficult to be in the hospital on a holiday.

Please consider donating to Hannah's Cans for Cancer Toy Drive this year. If you do not have time to purchase a gift, and could drop off or send a donation instead, that would be appreciated also and will go directly to purchasing gifts for the children. Hannah designed a sign for the bin that will be out in our driveway beginning Monday, December 1st. Please drop off any unwrapped gifts to our Toy Drive box at our home, 1556 Grand Ave, Mattituck. If you would like us to come pick up at your house, we would be happy to, just send me an email or call (information on the side bar on the left of this page.)