Jones Family

Jones Family
November 2009

Thursday, August 11, 2011

843 days in...366 days to go

Wow...I'm working on writing a speech for Brayden being chosen as the Champion Child for this year's Will Golf 4 Kids and Color of Hope Gala for the Arkansas Children's Hospital fundraiser. Tommorrow is not only the big day for the event - it begins the 1-year countdown until Brayden is done with chemo. I can't wrap my brain around that. Then - when you consider how far we've come, it's more than I can fathom. In those early days, it hurt too much to see this far. We could't look beyond the next hours or test results or day. To say we're thankful and so proud of Brayden is just the tip of the iceberg.

He's a bit intimidated by the Gala tomorrow. We all are...so we try to use this for good and help the other kids, help the hospital, and focus on the celebration of all he's endured and just how tremendously far he's come. It's easy to get sidetracked by all the pomp and circumstance of it. But at the heart of it all is a little boy who's faced more adversity than my heart can handle and has a daily fight with Leukemia and keeps on going, keeps on smiling, and continues to bring my life so much joy than I ever knew possible.

His chemo has been going well. His counts have been good. We've had a few concerns here and there with his ANC being almost too low then his hemoglobin taking a dip making me worried about needing a possble transfusion. But all in all, he continues to be so resilient and persevere.

Please say a prayer for us tomorrow with all the events that we remember to enjoy one another and breathe in all the moments. It will be an emotional time for us as we watch the hospital show Brayden's video and documenting his story and journey since diagnosis. We just want to do what we can to help! The fundraising money for the event will go for an Infusion room at the new Oncology wing at ACH. You can read more about it here: Color of Hope Champion Child, Brayden Jones, Patient Story