Hope4Peyton

Spring Fling is an event that our school holds each year to raise money for things like expansion, repair, special programs and it was today. Rachael’s dance class performed, Nathaniel ran around playing games and winning prizes like a maniac and Peyton flitted from business table to business table scoring swag like balloons, notepads, pens and candy. This was an opportunity for us to socialize with lots of friends and support our school at the same time.

It’s been a year where things have had to be sacrificed. I was used to being very involved at the school, actively volunteering for PTF, attending class parties to help whenever I could, last year I read to Nathaniel’s class every week, and just being able to give of my time to the school. This year I haven’t been able to participate in hardly anything, I’ve gone on one field trip for each kid and I’ve missed almost every class party they’ve had. Either Peyton wasn’t well or she was at the clinic or something came up to keep me from being able to participate. So, this was a day that we could take the whole family and show our love of this school family that has been there for us in so many ways this year. I wasn’t expecting for us to have a special blessing today, but then I never do and they continue to rain down on us.

Troy is a little boy in Rachael’s kindergarten class and his father is the preacher at Riverdale Baptist Church. His cousin Lauren Dion, middle-school age, had been keeping up with Peyton’s story through this website and she decided to have a fundraiser for Peyton. Lauren, with the help of her cousins, family and church had a yard sale and presented me with over five hundred dollars today for Peyton. This was such a touching moment, to watch all these kids excited to meet Peyton (yes, she inspires a Beetles-type hysteria wherever she goes) and to receive the money from this young girl with a hugely compassionate heart.

Stories have come in from parents of kids in all grades, those who see and talk to Peyton daily and those who only know her as “that little girl with cancer”. Kids who donate their snack money, kids who raid their piggy banks for pennies, kids learning the importance of helping others in need. I told someone today that I never wanted Peyton to get sick, I would give anything to be able to make her well right this second, but if she’s putting a personal face on cancer for these children in a way that is going to impact them forever, then there is so much good to come of it. We need to make sure they have compassion and love in their hearts and the CBCS kids, especially, have it in huge quantities.

"We laugh in the face of cancer!"

I have 40+ shoe boxes on my garage floor! That might sound like a strange hobby to some, but hey, don’t judge! Actually, the school used the shoe boxes for their poor man’s auction and they let me have the boxes so that we could use them for our Relay auction. Sweeeeet! I think that with all the places I still have to visit we are going to have more than enough items to use all those boxes and that is awesome all the way around! Our Team, who’s goal was to have 10 members, has 25 members today. I am so grateful for the friends and family who are coming to join us and make this day wonderful! It’s more than raising money for the American Cancer Society, or walking around a track, it touches me because these are people who are getting involved because they love Peyton.

So, I have to end this post and go referee a fight between Rachael and Peyton. I can hear them screaming in the bedroom like two cats dipped in hot wax. As you can see, because you’re still reading, I’m not all that concerned. The amount of noise they generate while fighting can be measured on the same scale as shuttle launches and hurricane force winds. I’ve figured out from the few words I can make out through the screams and wails that the argument is over a Ziploc baggie. I’m taking my time because I refuse to rush for plastic.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—-Anissa

Ps….I have to share that Peyton’s getting pretty full of herself lately. Her new response when she doesn’t want to do something like taker her medicine or clean up her toys “But I don’t loooove it!” Yeah, well, welcome to life, kiddo.

5 year old Brooke Bonilla, a classmate of Rachael's who is also a team member of Team Peyton said this to her mom over bedtime prayers.

"Mama, don't forget, I have to take my pennie for Peyton tomorrow. I'm helping Peyton get better. But, Mama, you don't understand…I'm helping ALLLLLLL the kids with cancer!"

Awwwwwww!

She gets it.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—-Anissa

So, when I get on a mission, it’s all or nothing and our Relay for Life team is getting our all! I am so thankful for the friends and family that are supporting us with donations, participation, preparation, and commitment – I couldn’t come up with another really good “tion” word. But I know in my heart that this is another way that Peyton is touching people’s lives….her cancer is the driving force that’s led us to joining this Relay, and she’s the reason for our friends to rally around her. Cancer stinks, but the good that can come out of it awe-inspiring.

Nathaniel and Rachael have been inspiring their classmates and this is growing a group of children with compassionate and loving hearts. We dropped off mason jars decorated with pictures of them with Peyton and a challenge to help fill that jar for Team Peyton. That was Tuesday, and today I had to go to both classes and empty out the jars because they were full already….and the letters of explanation had yet to go home….this was the kids doing this on their own. Rachael has raised twenty-one dollars and Nathaniel has raised thirty-five dollars towards their individual goals of one hundred. I’m so proud of them for wanting to do this, for understanding how important it is to contribute to a good cause and for being an example to their fellow classmates! Go kids!

I have to give a HUGE round of applause for Sonny’s BBQ in Brandon because they have some really awesome employees. I met Kim and Kathy there for lunch so that we could brainstorm some more ideas for Relay….and there were some seriously great ideas thrown around…just watch out for next year, ya’ll! I asked the manager for a donation for the auction we’re holding at the Relay and he committed to giving us a gift certificate…yeah!!!! But Peyton had demanded a mason jar of her own to get her own pennies. We took it to the clinic and she got some money there and all of a sudden, that jar made sense to her….if I shove this jar at people and smile pretty, they put money in it….this might be the greatest thing since chocolate milk! She held on to that jar pretty tight and took it into Sonny’s with her because she wanted to show Kathy and Kim. What I didn’t expect was the response she got from everyone around us. Waiters and waitresses were coming over to our table to talk to her and put money in her jar….people who were just there to eat were stopping by to drop their change and dollars into her jar and wish her well….that kid did nothing more than smile and look cute and managed to raise forty dollars in an hour!

My parents are going to be joining us from Daytona Beach for the Relay. This is a big deal for me because my mother had breast cancer and is doing great now. I got to be there for her during the first part of her treatment and it was a time I’ll never forget as bringing my mom and me closer together. She’ll be there as our guest and registered as a survivor. It made me a little teary today to realize that my mother and my daughter would be walking the survivor lap together, hand in hand.

Peyton’s trip to the clinic was uneventful. Her counts are still very low, her ANC is down to 300, everything else is low as well, but should make it until her chemo trip on Wednesday. We’ve been to the pool a lot lately, and the time in the sun has her looking a little tan and gives this great glow to her. Her hair is really starting to come in….Rachael said “Her head is getting all dark!” I told her “It’s not her head getting dark, it’s her hair coming back in.” This was a new thing to Rachael. I know we told her that Peyton’s hair would fall out but eventually come back, but I think she has the idea that we’re making this stuff up as we go along. Which, frankly, some of it we are….that’s how the Mayhews roll. She does have one more round of hair dropping chemo left, it may go completely shiny and start all over again, but once she’s finished Delayed Intensification and radiation, her growth should be back for good. I just hope it doesn’t come in as a mullet….I might prefer to keep her bald.

So, I have to say this…we get quite a few hits daily on Peyton’s page and we love to know that people are keeping in touch with us and keeping current with what’s going on with all of us. But I want to know who’s been here!!! Please feel free to leave us comments or messages so we know that you’ve been here….if you can deal with wading through all my ramblings, I want to read some of yours as well.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—-Anissa

With our Child magazine theme in mind, I've started working on our wall of fame magazine covers. If you are a parent of a cancer child, please send me a large photo of your brave fighter so we can celebrate them! Anissa.mayhew@gmail.com

In the event that telemarketers continue to plague my house, I have hatched a new plan! Peter tells me that a pool company called, one that he had contacted a long time ago about pool ideas (we were as close to buying a pool as we were to growing stalks of celery out of our belly buttons), but he just wanted information, no biggie. They call today to give him a hard time about why we haven’t bought the pool yet! And I have an epiphany….it’s a good one….every time someone calls my house to sell us something, upgrade something, invite us to try something new and interesting….I’m going to turn it around and try to get them to donate to Relay for Life. Yes, I am going to see how long it takes a telemarketer to hang up on me! Every time they try to bring me back to their reason for calling, I’m going to find another way to ask them to donate money….it’s a beautiful plan. I think I’ll get dropped off a lot of call lists.

Peter and I celebrated our 9th anniversary today. It was a day that reflected the amazing closeness of our relationship, the depth of our togetherness….he went to the Apple computer store at the International Mall and I went panhandling all over Brandon for donations for our Relay auction. We did text each other on the phone though!

Peyton went with Grandma Sharon today so that I could hit what felt like half the stores and restaurants in Brandon for charity donations. I got a surprising amount of “Nope, can’t help you” responses, but I also got some wonderfully compassionate gifts to use in our fundraising efforts. I still have a lot of places to go and things to pick up, but it looks like the auction portion of our Relay onsite fundraising is going to be awesome! I have found that I have a real knack for asking for stuff for a good cause and staring at people until they squirm their way into handing me a gift card….we all have our talents, I guess.

We got surprised tonight with a visit by most of the Powell family! Adelaine turned 3 today, Angela and Doug took her to Busch Gardens for the day (her brothers are camping in GA with grandparents) and they came over to our place for birthday pizza and cupcakes after. The Powells can’t come to our house any other time because Mason, their oldest son, is madly allergic to dogs…especially Labradors…Buffet being a Labrador making it an issue. Angela is an extreme cleaning nut, I am not….you should have seen the mad rush to put our house in some sort of order for the Powells to arrive. Whooo hooo, whoever said Rome wasn’t built in a day didn’t watch me crack the whip over the kids to help clean up the house….those Romans were SLACKERS!

Nathaniel and Rachael did us exceptionally proud with their report cards. Nathaniel got a string of A’s down the board….Principal’s honor roll all the way! He got 6 merit points out of 7, that last merit point being for “No tardies”….I told him not to hold his breath on ever making that last merit point. Poor kid. We only live a block from the school and they’ve been late twice this week! Rachael is still raising the bar for kindergarteners. The child loves to read and is amazingly good at it, she’s reading chapter books for 2-3rd graders and I’m seriously praying for the 1st grade teacher that has to try to stay one step ahead of this kid.

Nathaniel brought up a very interesting question in the car on the way home from school. Let me know what you think of this one.

“Mom, do you know how Adam and Eve are different from the rest of us?”

“They got to run around naked all the time and no one pointed at them?”

“No, like their bodies. How are they different?”

“I have no idea? What are you talking about?”

“They didn’t have belly buttons.”

“What?”

“Well, you get belly buttons from growing in your mom’s belly and since Adam and Eve were never babies they wouldn’t have belly buttons!”

Follow this conversation with a moment of silence and a look that blatantly says "I'm just a little smarter than you, Mom!" Of that, I have no doubts.

Deep thoughts by Nathaniel Mayhew….chew on that one.

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
—-Anissa

So, check this out. Team Peyton’s standing out of 46 teams is #2!!! This is only behind Moffit and they’ve only raised two hundred dollars more than us….they have over 30 members on their team. The #3 team has over 20 members and is less than one hundred dollars behind us in donations. Team Peyton is rocking the Relay with only 13 members!! And 5 of those members are under 10 years old….if you could see me right now, I’m doing a little typing boogie as I write!

This morning Nathaniel and Rachael took jars with them to school for their fundraising effort that we’re calling Pennies for Team Peyton. They were so excited that after only one day each one had some money donated to their jar and I think that this is going to be a real learning experience for them. Tonight Rachael prayed “and help Peyton get her money and all the other cancer kids get their money jars”. She doesn’t quite have it all figured out, but the size of her heart definitely makes up for it.

I got invited to speak at the Relay! I was a little surprised, but totally honored to do it. I will be speaking during the Survivor’s Reception and I’m not sure what I’ll say, but I’m thrilled to be able to share Peyton’s story at this event and the wonderful way God has moved in all our lives.

Wednesday the 28th will see Peter and me celebrating 9 years of marriage. In 9 years we’ve had three kids, moved 5 times, lost some hair, gained our share of weight, had a stroke and cancer…we’ve shed a lot of tears, shared a lot of laughter and loved completely…..it’s been a long but wonderful 9 years. We are blessed to have each other, I am so thankful to be Pete’s wife and to be side by side with him each day. He’s an awesome father and the most wonderful husband I could have dreamed of. The Lord definitely knew what he was doing went He matched us up…..Pete is sooooo lucky! Hahaha

Update on Anna and Tiffany Allen!! I just got off the phone with Tiffany and got their wonderful news. After a second dose of chemotherapy, Anna’s finally in a remission from her Evan’s Syndrome. Her platelet counts went from the low thousands to over 200,000 and her hemoglobin is finally in the normal range. The doctors feel that after she finishes her last two doses of chemotherapy, she should remain in remission for up to a year. Anna will require weekly visits to the clinic to monitor her counts, but she will get to go home tomorrow after two weeks at All Children’s and complete her chemotherapy treatment outpatient at the clinic in St. Pete. This is such a huge answer to prayer, Anna has been heavy on my heart and I am so thankful that her treatment has been successful. Tiffany sounded so wonderful tonight, happy and positive and upbeat and it was fantastic to hear the happiness in her voice.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
—Anissa