Steadman Family

Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying. Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear, and smile and say how perfect it is. Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play. Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles. Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by. Just for this afternoon, I won’t worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second-guess every decision I have made where you are concerned. Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won’t stand over you trying to fix them. Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald’s and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you. Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry. Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars. Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows. Just for this evening, when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given. I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children’s graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can’t handle it anymore.

And when I kiss you good night, I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day…

~Author unknown~

Big day with several appointments…

 First, Ben had his check-in with Dr. Foreman, our neuro-oncologist at Children’s Hospital. He’s very pleased with how Ben is responding to the decadron steroid and answered several of our questions.

More importantly, Dr. Foreman introduced us to Pete, Hope and Sam Walsdorf. Sam is a little boy who lives in Littleton, is around the same age as Ben and has the same type of tumor. Sam is in his fifth week of the radiation treatment and has just started physical therapy to help him walk again. His parents are wonderful people who shared a ton of information with Melinda and I in just a few short minutes. We’re looking forward to talking some more with them and finding a way for  our two families to help each other.

Ben’s second appointment was out at Fitzsimmons to get his first radiation treatment. The treatment itself lasts just a few minutes, but Ben has to lay perfected still with his head held in a custom made mask. Today’s treatment also required an additional set of x-rays to verify that the positioning is correct before giving him his first exposure. The doctors requested that Ben not eat after 8 AM in case they had to sedate him for the treatment - which would add another hour or so to our daily time at the doctors. So now we’re asking a scared, hungry six year old on decadron (a steroid whose main side-effect is the munchies) to lay perfectly still. Melinda and I were both on pins and needles watching Ben on the monitor - hoping that he could endure.

He was so calm that the nurses thought he had fallen asleep. He told his nurse that “it wasn’t so long” as she walked him out of the treatment room. Then the decadron kicked in and we were all off for pancakes.