April 27th was the Philadelphia Great Strides Walk. My husband and I formed a team (Team Heavy!) and raised money. Well more like I raised money. We had some family come out from Colorado to walk with us and my dearest friend Kristen came with her husband and her son. My freshman year roommate and one of my best friends came with two of her kids. Her son was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor when he was two years old. He went through a surgery to remove a kidney that the tumor was on, chemo and radiation all at such a young age. He's now almost 6 and his checkups have been clear so she knows what it's like to have a kid with a health problem and the constant worry you feel as a parent. It's nice to know I have someone who's been in the trenches to lean on. My sister was able to come as well along with my mother in law and her mom. So we had a small team comparative to the other large teams.
I felt weird being there. I often feel as though I don't belong in the CF community...that I might be parading my son, who is currently not sick or diagnosed, in front of other parents who have sick kids and others who have tragically lost theirs to this disease. However the other side is that I want to support this community that I now feel connected to. The most awkward part of the whole thing was registration when they handed me my team sign...and a yellow lei. I wanted to give it back and say I didn't need it but then I thougth twice when I remembered that Evan's doctor had told another CF mom that I met through Cystic Life that our boys shouldn't play together to be safe. So I took the lei and went back to our group and talked to my husband. I didn't want to put it on him but Michael said if the doc precautioned us from playing with another CF baby then we should practice the same here. I didn't like it but we did.
The walk itself wsa nice. It was a beautiful Spring day and the walk was at Citizen's Bank Park which is the baseball stadium the Phildelphia Phillies play at. We did a couple laps around the concourse and we got to do a lap on the field which was really cool. Connor loved touching the dirt and running around in it and we got a couple good photos. Evan was just kind of like WTF? the whole day. I think Michael enjoyed being on the field the most as he's an avid Phillies fan! All in all I raised $1600 for Team Heavy. Not a lot but every dollar helps!
A couple weeks ago I volunteered at another local Great Strides Walk in continued support of the cause. I can't say I have ever volunteered a lot but it felt really good even though all I was doing was handing out tee shirts and squirting antibacterial lotion on the hands of all the kids playing the games. It's definitely on my list to keep doing.
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