Help for Lesly

As of right now, any treatment of her cancer has been denied by the insurance company. She had a scan done on Friday which revealed a tumor behind her kidney that has now grown to 5.5x3.5x2.5. She is having a lot of pain in her abdomen as well as in her head right now. Without treatment, her tumors will continue to grow. I believe it’s been at least 8 weeks since her last chemotherapy treatment.

Her parents have been consumed with researching different treatment options and studies across the country. It is basically up to them to find answers or leads to treatments and it is an emotional roller coaster for them. Right now, they think there might be a chance for her to join a study in Dallas, TX. This would require that they go to Dallas for a total of about 5-6 weeks and then return once a month for follow up care. Of course the biggest obstacle to this is money.

Here is what they need and how you can help:

• I would like to create a schedule of “meals on wheels” as they do not have the time or energy to be cooking healthy meals. If anyone would like to donate frozen meals to the Foster’s, please let me know, I will come get them if you need and I will make sure that they get them. I’ve also contacted Kathy to see if there are any days of the week that they are typically home so that we can create a schedule of people to bring by fresh, homemade meals to them.

• On December 1st from 6:30-8:30 one of Glen and Kathy’s friends has rented out the entire skating rink at Oaks Park as a 50th Birthday Party (Slash) Fundraiser for Lesly. It can hold 1000 people. Does anyone know how to get this into the media so that it becomes more of a public event where anyone and everyone can come? If you can come, we would appreciate it and if you can come AND donate PLEASE do!

• I would like to coordinate a Bunco fundraiser. I am hoping to get volunteers to host a Bunco game at their home for the benefit of Lesly. The more hosts, the better! My goal is to have at least 20 hosts. If you already belong to a Bunco group, this could be a really easy task. If you don’t , STILL pretty easy! And for example, if you and your daughter play in the same Bunco group, it would be great for each of you to host a game to enlarge the network of games being played. I’ve thought of having all of the games on one night as a “Bunco Night for Lesly” however I know that everyone has different schedules and it may be better to allow for more flexibility. If we were to have it on one night, December 5th or 12th is my suggestion. Suggestions on how it would work:

o $10 buy in per person – or more if they would like. Ideally each game will generate $120 or more, therefore the more games the better it is for Lesly.

o Regular Bunco rules will apply

o I will supply dice, paper, pens if you need it

o A suggestion of a “Couples” Bunco party has been suggested as a theme.

o You can ask for people to bring snacks in an effort to keep costs low for the host.

o If the Bunco host would like, they can donate gifts for prizes but because you are already donating your time and house, I think people would understand not receiving prizes.

o I know Bunco groups are highly coveted and that your monthly games are very much looked forward to. If you would like to “donate” your month’s game to this fundraiser, it would be greatly appreciated. If you could do this on top of your monthly game, it would be greatly appreciated. Whatever you can do!

• Glen and Kathy are so consumed by all of this that Christmas is a very difficult time. With financial resources low as well as time to shop, I’d like to help them out in this area too. If you would like to donate a gift, please contact me and I will arrange to come get it. Lesly is 9 – she loves all things girly. She is very crafty and loves art projects. She also loves Hannah Montana, dogs, horses. She has a Nintendo DS as well as a Wii, so new games might be nice.

• If you or someone you know is able to donate frequent flyer miles or hotel points for their travels to Dallas or wherever this might lead/take them, I would be more than happy to help take them off your hands.

• If all else fails and all you can do at this time is donate some money, please do that as well. If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, visit any nationwide Chase Bank branch and donate to: Account Number 492-397-9631 for benefit of Lesly Foster

Thank you again for your time. If you have any suggestions or ideas for fundraisers, I am here to listen.

Sincerely,
Kristie VanValkenburg
503-267-5211

There's a First for Everything!

We made it 3 years......not one story of a baby/toddler vomiting passed me by without me knocking on wood.  I was dreading every part of it, as you can imagine but it went as well as it possibly could have!  A couple of hours before bedtime on Saturday night Megan told us her tummy was sick.  She's said it before without any "results" so she just cuddled with me and I rubbed her belly before she went to bed.  About an hour later she woke up and Josh went in to see her.  She again told him that her tummy was sick so he gave her a bit of water and she laid back down.  Well, only about 10 minutes later she was up again.  Just as I was about to the door she screamed and I had a feeling of what I was about to walk into.  She was a little scared but I just kept telling her that it was okay to feel sick and it's okay to throw up.  She kept saying, "I spit in my bed."  I took her into the bathtub and we started the process of cleaning up.  I had her and Josh had the bed.  She was such a trooper, I'm sure it's scary to a little girl to wonder what the heck was going on.  I just kept telling her it was okay and that mommy and daddy have to do it too sometimes.  We took a shower together to clean up and then we rocked and she was better.  While we were in the bathroom, she said, "I talk to my Gamma please?" "Make me feel better?"  It was late but we made a call to Gamma and Megan told her the story.  It's so wierd but I was so proud of her for being so brave.  She didn't freak out on us like she could have.  I felt so bad knowing she didn't feel good but she was so sweet about it.  She really does have her moments!

3 Year Old Pictures

Halloween Time!

It has been crazy busy around here and can you believe that we never made it to the pumpkin patch?  Well not the real exciting, lots of activities kind of pumpkin patch.  Yeah, major mom guilt going on here.  Because we all know how neglected our child is.  One day when I was picking Megan up from my mom's house, I was trying to hurry her out the door so I told her that if we left soon we might have time to pick out a pumpkin.  Well it didn't seem to work but as soon as we turned onto Scholls Sherwood by Gramma's Place, she said, "Mama, I pick a pumpkin please?"  So we stopped briefly, got a couple of pumpkin pictures.  Again, I had to tell her that we needed to get going if we were going to have time to carve the pumpkin after dinner.  She said, "No, I paint the pumpkin." I said, "Oh, that's a good idea."  She said, "Yeah.  I smart." And there you have it.

I'll have to admit, our trip wasn't all that fun for her.  The whole time I was telling her NOT to splash or step in the puddles.  Brand new white tennies are not great pumpkin patch shoes!  She wanted to carry her own pumpkin too, which she did quite well.

I was surprised to find out she was lugging around a 10 pound pumpkin!  That's a 1/4 of her body weight.  That's like me carrying.....oh nevermind.

While I made dinner that night Megan got to paint her pumpkin which started out to be a delicate process.

And then she realized that finger painting was much more fun.

Here's our little Dorothy getting ready for trick or treating.  She's carrying her new Woody doll that she got at the mall yesterday.  We took her to get her 3 year old pictures and I told her that if she was really good and did what we asked, she might get a special surprise.  I was mostly concerned about her letting me put on a hat that I wanted her to wear for her pictures.  I didn't want a fight so I turned to bribery.  She did even better than we expected and took some really cute pictures.  She did everything the photographer asked.  And we got the photographer that we like best there without even having to ask.  He seems to get the best reactions out of her.  I'm excited to pick them up next week!

My parents and Tami and Kelly came over to trick or treat with Megan.  We just went to downtown Forest Grove like we did last year.  We were only out for about 45 minutes but she got quite a full bucket of treats!  The costumes this year were a lot more unique than I've ever seen.  One little kid had a sandwich board on that was designed to look like an iPhone.

After every treat, she had to look in her bucket to see what she got.

After trick or treating it was time for the Duck game.  We came home and had dinner and dessert while we watched the Ducks beat USC!  GOOOOOOO DUCKS!