Festival of Trees

I had only been to the Festival of Trees once when I was teenager. This year Dale and I bought tickets for their Auction night. It's the night before the Festival opens to everyone and where you can bid on any of their trees, centerpieces, quilts, wreaths, etc. After having Jack in PCMC and the care and help that he got there, we decided that it'll be a tradition that we will go to every year. It's a small contribution now, but we're hoping, that as soon as next year we'll be able to start making small trees with our kids to donate and to help benefit the children there.

Last night we found that they used 14 million dollars in charitable funds to help children in 2009. They made 1.5 million at Festival of Trees. It's amazing how willing people are to donate and help.

As we were walking in, I told Dale that I knew I was going to cry at some point during the night. He said, "Don't cry, smile instead." There were times that I really took that to heart, and it was wonderful. As we sat down to listen to the program before the Lights on Ceremony, I was totally touched by the guest speaker. It was Paul Cardall. I'll be honest, I'd never heard of the guy before. However, as he talked about his heart disease, and having surgeries upon surgeries throughout his life, I was listening. Carefully. He said that he estimates that he spend years at PCMC. A year ago, at the age of 37 (ish) he had a heart transplant at PCMC. Since it's usually a childhood disease, the doctors there were more educated in the disorder than other doctors. His transplant has been a success and he's doing well.

As I listened to him play Silent Night, I thought of some of those nights in the hospital last year. The first night, Dale and I went to our "parents room" around 9 PM I'd guess. We hadn't slept in probably 36 hours, and we'd gone from having a baby that was fine, to having our baby being in recovery from brain surgery. I remember laying down by him, and being too tired to cry, but feeling so comforted that he was there, and knew what I felt and knew what I'd gone through.

I remember another night, Dale was back at home with the kids and needing to be at work and school. I stayed in the parents room again. I woke up around 3 AM, and decided to go see how Jack was doing. At the same moment I left my mom, another mother left hers. We started talking. Her 4 year old son had just had heart surgery. I had a 4 year old son at the time, and couldn't even imagine what that must have been like. Then I realized she probably thought the same thing about my situation. It was a good moment. I moment that I knew that I found someone that knew what it was like to be there, with my child in the Pediatric ICU.

This might sound silly to some. Sometimes I feel guilty about Jack. As I see pictures, and hear stories about kids that are in the hospital for months, or even years with disease, and recoveries, and injuries, I wonder why was it that my little boy lived? Why were we so lucky that we found his clot so quickly? Why did he recover so amazingly? I'm not complaining, I PROMISE! :) I just wonder how we were so lucky, when others aren't. My baby is doing everything he's "supposed" to be doing. The stroke specialist that he sees, and his pediatrician, are both surprised by how well he's doing. I can't imagine being in the hospital longer than we were though. There is a spirit that resides there ... it's everywhere. A calmness almost. It's hard to explain. There is hope running through the halls. There is also anticipation of what will happen though. How things are going with your child. I still can't picture the cafeteria without thinking of how hard it was to just eat some days.

We are blessed. I'm so happy to have my 4 kids home with me. Jack is just getting so big, and it's so hard for me to think of his as a big brother, lol. He's so little all at the same time. I'm so happy to hear his babbeling, or his excitment with life as he says, "Tickle" over and over and over again. I love watching him discover what's out the window, or how to climb the stairs. I love watching him interact with the other kids, and I love that my big kids all want to be with him so much and give him all the attention in the world (sometimes it's a little over whelming).

I loved attending this action. I loved being reminded again of how precious life is, and how it can change instantly. I love being reminded of what it was like to go to my brothers house and see my 3 older kids after a few days and just wanting to capture every moment with them. I appreciate their hugs, their desire to sit on my lap, or just talk with me, so much more. It's the hard moments at home that I need to remember those moments, and remember that I need to love them, play with them, and be with them more. Jack's experience has changed me. Sometimes I forget how I changed, but I was changed during that week. I will never be able to thank those doctors and nurses enough.

And on to the highlights of the night. :) Here are a few pictures we took during the night. It's hard to take pictures of Christmas trees all lite, and the room was light, and yeah.

BTW, as you look at these, know that when you purchase the tree, you get EVERYTHING around it too. So all the toys or whatever that are surrounding the tree, are included. It's pretty impressive.

This is a ginger bread house that Dale's co-worker made. It had lights and everything.

I LOVED this wreath. I thought it was super creative.

This is a Barbie tree that our friends family made. We were really impressed by all the Barbies. there were a TON!

This is for my mother-in-law. There were a few penguin trees.

I LOVED the divided trees. I think this was my favorite.

This Whinny the Pooh one was cute.

This picture was for our boys. This was a Spider Man/Super Hero type tree. It was crazy impressive and had a ton of stuff around it.

Pink and girly, for our Katers. This was impressive too.

Another one for Betty.

This was in the ginger bread houses. It was called Candy Land. It was crazy how much candy they used and how detailed and big it was.

See, we really went. :)