a lot of love

Rico is home.

He's eating and drinking and sitting and walking a bit more each day, but none of it easily - though today there was guacamole, part of a cherry shake, and these peaches that Tiny's new teacher shared with us - peaches she must have performed some voodoo on or something, because nothing north of Savannah tastes like a real peach - but these do  -  we've all been eating them nonstop.

We're doing our best to keep everybody else on their regular schedule, with their regular activities - you know - like school shopping, and show rehearsals and signing up for piano lessons, and moving back to college:

We do have a life outside of the "C" word. But honestly, it is pretty consuming and we're working hard to make sure we're all doing our best for Rico.

Suffice it to say that all of our kids are stepping up their game, but Tiny amped it wayyyy up this weekend. When she asked why this medicine was so hard on her dad, we had to explain to her that there isn't a GREAT medicine for cancer no matter what, and that for Sarcoma there are even fewer options. Which of course led to . . .

"Why?"

Try explaining to your not-yet-third-grader that her dad's illness is rare and underfunded - that despite the fact that it's torn two summers, three birthdays and a Christmas from us, that it just isn't high on the list - that there is no money for scientists to help people like her dad.

The discussion was much more difficult for us than for her.

She just nodded and said, "Well that doesn't seem right. I'm having a lemonade stand or a bake sale or something."

And she did. She spent Saturday baking with me, and making signs, and posting on her Instagram.

We only had a two-hour window because we had to get her sister to an appointment, but she was insistent.  And she was right.

Her friends turned up with all of their piggy-bank savings. Teachers walked over to purchase wayyyyyy more cookies than anybody can eat in a sitting. Kooka's friends were there,  strangers stopped and said, "keep the change", family friends drove from across town.

She believed she could - so she did.

She believes that her community loves her dad just as much as she does, and today they proved her right - with a final Facebook donation, she raised over $600 for the Sarcoma Foundation.

The look on her face when she counted it up was miraculous. The look on her dad's face, when she asked how much he thought she raised  . . . . just tears.

"Hey dad, how much money do you think we raised for Sarcoma?"

"Ummmm - sixty-five dollars." (And he was being generous).

"Nope. Five hundred eighty-six dollars and fifty three cents. Plus some more is coming."

Kooka and Rico and I just all looked at each other. There weren't any words.

But when we finally found one it was just, "Wow."

That's a lot of love.

Thank you for helping our kid help her dad. It's exactly what she needed, exactly when she needed it. The world is a good, good place.