Hope4Peyton

I have awesome friends. They have awesome kids. They love my kids. They touch my heart.  I have AWESOME friends.

Mandy Willis is 7 years old. She has Neurofibromytosis and is battling Optic Glioma and other non-malignant brain tumors.  She and Rachael have bonded since we met in the spring, becoming the closest of friends. How close? These are Mandy’s own words:

“I helped my friend Rachael at a sleepover. I handed her my first Webkinz named Butterscotch. She is a brown and white doggie. Rachael was sad because she missed her mom. The sleepover was at my house. We listened to smooth and rock and roll music on my ipod. Butterscotch got Rachael’s mind off her mom. She was happy and so was I. We went to sleep. We are best friends and are never not friends for as long as possible. In the morning, we ate breakfast and took Rachael home. Our sleepover was cool. We have had a lot of sleepovers so far. She came a couple of weeks ago to my house and I come to her house sometimes. I want her to come again. She comes to play day sometimes too! I can’t wait for her to come again.”

“We are best friends and are never not friends for as long as possible.”

Oh. Mah heart, it’s melting.

To make it even better, Mandy’s older sister Alannah, wrote this sweet bit of lovely poetry the same day she took the underwater picture of Peyton in this month’s new header.  Alannah is 14 and one of most WONDERFUL 14 year olds, ever, hands down, no questions.

And as I sit with five candles flickering before me like stars

I remember Peyton’s laugh, soap bubbles, pearls, from her mouth.

And as I sit with the keyboard beneath my fingers

I wonder what else there is to say.

And as I sit with the world in a box in front of me

I marvel at the number of people who don’t know.

And as I sit with life all around me

I am amazed at how fast life can disappear.

And as I sit unscarred by tragedy

I hope that I can remain so unblemished forever.

And as I sit with love enfolding me

I feel for the people who don’t have that luxury.

And as I sit with no sickness inside of me

I see my little sister’s face at the forefront of a line of people
who do.

And as I sit with the means to tell the world three feet away from me

I pour hope into my body from the pitcher we all share

As improbable as it seems.

Oh yes, Alannah is made of awesome.

I have decided to adopt a baby.  Regardless of the fact that this particular child’s parents have no plans to actually GIVE said baby up for adoption, I already have paperwork in process to declare them incompetent…thus giving me parental rights to this yummy piece of human.

While that paragraph might lead the F.B.I. to think I have slightly creepy stalker tendencies, I absolutely have every no intentions of actually going through with it.

Instead, I will nominate her mama for a September ROFL award.

Heather from The Spohrs Are Multiplying RAWKS!…from her very cool job, to her incredibly movie-ready family, and of course, the aforementioned pre-adoption baby with the most amazing eyes in THE WORLD.

For all the reasons I am so sad that Peter doesn’t live with me right now, there is one tiny piece of me that revels in it. The part that knows no bounds of joy that the kids will be asleep and I am on the couch, clutching the remote in utter silence. Free to watch whatever I want, without the “EWWWWWW’s” that come with any episode of Grey’s Anatomy involving an open chest cavity or brain matter, which COME ON, next to watching McDreamy’s hair ripple in the Seattle wind, is the BEST part.

So when I read “I’m Ready For Primetime, Player“, I knew that we were soulmates….destined to someday bond over an entire VH1 marathon of  “My So-Called Life” from thousands of miles away. And that I would have to give her an award for it.

Heather, you deserve this award because not only did it make me roll on the floor laughing, but I am considering having the entire list tattooed down my shoulder blade ala Angelina Jolie.

Definitely check out Oh, The Joys and Chicky Chicky Baby to see who else picked up an award.  Send them an email to get on the list so that next month you can pick a ROFL winner, pass on the fun!

**Updated to add video: but I warn you now, it’s utter crap for quality, but it UP.  Remembering that the theme of this episode was “Overwhelmed Moms” and not childhood cancer, which is for another day, I pray.  I only put up my segment of the show, so it may seem strange out of context.  The Brenda they keep talking about is the blond and last summer she went to work, forgot to drop off her daughter to day care and left her in the car for 8 hours, where she died. So. Yeah.

Ok.  I’ll say this once and only once.

I was on OPRAH! SQUEEEEEEEEEEE

For those who saw it and left nice messages about how I didn’t pick my nose and how I didn’t get all ohmygodoprahiloveyouwillyouforgetaboutgailandbeMYbestfriend! on her, thank you, thank you, thank you.

It was an incredibly emotional episode and if you watched it just to catch my teeny bit, thank you, thank you, thank you.

To Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom who were the starting point of it all and helped make this happen, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And, finally, I’d like to thank everyone from the Academy who voted for me…..oh….yeah…that was just in my HEAD.  Meh.

I’m going to try to get a video of my screen time, so anyone who missed it can at least see what earth-shattering revelations I shared with the world.  It may look like crap, but you’ll see me and Oprah…talking to each other like we were old school-girl friends….I’m still waiting to hear from her about my invite to come over for a pillow fight. A girl can dream.**

Anissa on Oprah from Anissa Mayhew on Vimeo.

I’m completely unable to write today.

Could be writer’s block.

Could be the nonstop frenzy of Dora the Explorer going on in my living room, as Peyton is feeling cruddy post chemo yesterday.

Therefore, I leave you with the reminder to watch Oprah today!

And this message of mental health. MY mental health.

There are words that, when strung together, just make your heart sink.

“Ummm, the principal needs to speak to you.”

“I missed.” Regarding anything having to do with the bathroom.

“I didn’t do it!” Regarding everything else.

I have a new one!

“Guess what I found in the couch?”

At this moment, there is no thought that there couldn’t possibly be something stuck under the cushions of my couch.  In fact, it is the second place I look for ANY misplaced item…missing socks, tax returns, a Cornish game hen…anything…ANYthing!

Surprised? Me? No. These are my children we are talking about.   The treasure trove that is my couch should ferry forth no new shocks for me.

Yet it did.

Peter’s next words left me slightly befuddled and trying to make the connection between the two sentences.

“There must be over 100 Splenda packets in the couch.”

Huh?

Splenda packets?

Empty.

In the couch.

Rachael.

She copped to eating them.

Can I get a BLEHHHCH from anyone?

Poor thing wanted something sweet to munch on and chose Splenda packets.

People, I swear we have food in the house.  Lots of it. Yummy, real food. That isn’t granulated.

I guess the only bright side of it was that she ate them and wasn’t snorting them.

So she says.