Kisses for Cami and Kissing Cancer Goodbye

We were devastated to learn just after the Carver family spent a couple of days with us at Bear Lake in July that our adorable Cami, my sister Lenna Carver’s granddaughter who was diagnosed with leukemia when she was four and was clear for nine months, has had a relapse. This just isn’t fair!  This child who was a valiant survivor of massive chemo, steroid and radiation treatments has to do it all over again….plus much more! It looks as though she is going to need a bone marrow transplant.

However, if you think she is down or discouraged, you’ve got to think again when you see this incredible child’s determination to beat it again!  When Rick/Dad and I visited her in the hospital as she was preparing herself for the horrors of chemo and radiation we asked her how she was feeling about losing her hair again. Matter-of-factly and with a smile she said, “You know, I’m kind of looking forward to feeling that cool pillow on my bald head.” 

What a child! 

What makes this especially hard for this little cherub, who just turned eight is that she recently spoke at her best friend’s funeral. She met Millie when they were both in cancer treatment. To take a look at this wonderful friendship, click here.

Channel 2 in Salt Lake City has fallen in love with Cami! Shauna Lake, their premier broadcaster interviewed Cami in her hospital room and they aired this heartwarming segment you can see below for several days on the news. This is truly an amazing little girl!

http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_6670.shtml

Incredible friends of Pat and Chelsea Carver,Cami’s parents, organized an stunning fund-raiser to help with the expenses of Cami’s future on Saturday, Sept. 7th in Bountiful, Utah. People were informed both by word of mouth and on TV that it would be an opportunity for anyone between the ages of 18 and 45 to become donors in the international bone marrow registry. The amazing thing is that all you have to do to become a donor is request a kit at bethematch.org which is sent to you in the mail. You swab your cheek with a cotton swab, put it back in the envelope and send it back and you are a prospective donor who may someday save someone’s life!

Four hundred eighty kits were available at the fund raiser so people could swab their mouths on the spot to join the bone marrow registry. To everyone’s absolute amazement and thanks to the coverage on Channel 2. and the love of lots of people, about one thousand people showed up to be donors. The line to sign up snaked all the way across the parking lot amongst the amazing booths created by family and friends to sell things and contribute the funds to Cami. The 500 people who were were left without kits. were sent kits in the mail. What a grand show of love and support! When we turned the corner into the parking lot the sight of the goodness of the human heart made us cry! 

Here’s Rick with my darling sister on the left and a dear friend on the right. This family pulls together like no other. The “all for one and one for all” love for each other is unparalleled!

The line to join the registry seemed endless.What could be a better show of support from so many, mostly people who didn’t even know the Carvers personally! They just wanted to help! 

 

Even though the last hour of fun was amidst a huge rainstorm, no one’s spirits were dampened. Cami even came at the end to dunk her dad in the dunking machine! For a glimpse of this amazing event, click here.

Even though the test for donors is simple, the process of finding a person in the donor registry who is a perfect match is not! Luckily, of the hundreds of thousands of donors “in the bank” there was only one perfect match for Cami’s blood and marrow type. The only information they could give the famly about the donor was that he was a young man in his twenties and that he was being contacted to see if he would be the donor. Even though there is a possibility that the transplant may not be absolutely necessary, they needed to know if this guy was willing when that decision is made.

After living on pins and needles for several weeks the Carvers just received the fabulous news that this young man is willing and able to save Cami’s life.. It’s a fairly simple process but does involve some risks. Cami’s dad posted this informative information about the myths of donating bone marrow.

We are so proud of this family for their courage in the face of great danger. The process will get worse before it gets better. To follow Cami’s brave attack on cancer, see her mom’s blog at kissesforcami.com or follow Cami Carver on Facebook. This is a remarkable story! We believe that prayer works and if anyone out there wants to join us, we would welcome a plethora of prayers being sent to heaven!

Here’s Cami having fun with her hair just before they shaved it off!

Talent Show and Tennis Tournament

One of the highlights for the kids is always the annual Talent Show. They LOVE the chance to display their talents for their parents, cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents. This year was no exception…except that we had to delay it a little as a storm was rolling into the lake and the vibrant colors were spectacular. Everyone was outside taking pictures:

And on with the show! Wish I knew how to insert video on this blog. Someday I’ll corner a kid or a grandkid long enough to show me how to do it, but here are a few of the fun shots from the multi-talented Eyre kids as well as the exceptionally talented Timothy kids!

The Monster Dance….

 

Carefully choreographed dancing from these macho boys…

A song and dance I perpetual motion.

Max helping Lucy with the end of “The Monster at the End of this Book” which she repeated with incredible drama!

There’s real talent….

And then there’s other things….note Grandfather joining in this one (on the right).

The audience enjoys it as much as the kids..because we’re related!

An ongoing event beginning the moment everyone arrives is the Annual Family Tennis Tournament. This year, we got to the final match between Elle (our high school tennis star) and her adored Uncle Josh vs Eli and Julie who are both stellar players.

Just after saving three match points the score went to 5-5 in the third set and suddenly the skies opened and rain fell out like a waterfall. No time to let the court dry and I must admit that I was so relieved to call it a tie!

Because of the rain, no one got pictures of the champions but here is a picture of Josh and Elle with Elle’s parents.

And this is the prize that the winners will have to share until next year!

FUN DAY

Cataclysmic Carver Collusion!

My wonderful heroic sister who lost her husband almost seven years ago leaving her with seven kids (all married) loves Hawaii as much as we do. It was totally serendipitous to find that she and all her kids and spouses were going to be in Hawaii at the same time we were….and even on the same Island!  Even though we had seen a few of them for Thanksgiving, it seems almost impossible to get them all together on the mainland, but there we were…all together.

Noah and Kristi had left but we still had Charity, Jonah and Aja to celebrate with them at Tommy Bahamas’. It took them about an hour to get there and us about 45 minutes so it was truly a cataclysmic collusion when we were all there together having dinner!  What fun we had with all eighteen of us! 

 

It was a happy night! Lots of catching-up and bonding going on for hours! We’re sad that we didn’t have the other thirteen Eyre adults but we love these this wonderful Carver Clan! They are such superb human beings! 

Thanks Giving

When we returned last week from our stunning ride through the city center of Lahore, Pakistan here, we realized, once again, just as we always do when we return from a third world experience that our lives were changed forever. On our ride we saw people from every walk of life and every economic level. Seeing beggars on the streets, reminded me that many of those people we passed by had never held a fork, had never had a shower (as we know it), had never ridden in a car or been outside of the city limits of Lahore where they may have been born on the streets or in a shabby dwelling. Some could afford a small donkey or skinny horse to pull a makeshift cart to transport their material goods  Others were more well-off and could afford a ride in a motorized rickshaw or even a small moped for their family. Then there were those who had nice cars amidst the cacophony of humanity.  I contemplated how life must feel to those I saw on our journey.

One thing I was pretty sure of….no one there had ever been to Costco!  As I went almost directly from the airport to that well-loved place to shop for a Thanksgiving feast at our house in less than 48 hours, I was grateful! Oh so grateful! Even though I do realize that there are lots of hungry people in our own country, it doesn’t quite compare with what we saw in that far away place!

As I lugged a turkey into my basket, hurriedly lowered in beautiful pumpkin and apple pies, fresh fruits and vegetables, a ready-made stuffing mix and frozen Rhodes Rolls that only required a few hours to raise and pop into the oven, fresh juice and sparkling apple cider, I couldn’t stop thinking about the blessings of our lives in this free country full of the bounties of the earth! Not only could I buy what I wanted and check out (even though there was the inevitable line) in less than an hour, I could also load them into my car and head for my twenty minute journey home complete with red lights (which I had also grown to appreciate). What a country! And what an event beyond belief that little journey would be to most of the people that we saw on our drive through the ancient city of Lahore! 

Not only do we have bounteous physical blessings but we also have emotional security that is only a dream to most of the good people we encountered. I don’t have to fear that my grandchildren will be kidnapped. I don’t have to fear that terrorists might see me doing something they don’t like, or something they do like and happen to want. Just before we arrived in Lahore, a girl’s school had been ransacked and burned by radicals who give the country such a bad name.

Though many feel that we have a divided country after a grueling election, we are so grateful that we had the right to vote without fear and the right to express our opinions without worrying about personal reprisal. So many of our freedoms in this great country are taken for granted!

So…on to a relatively luxurious Thanksgiving celebration we did go:

My wonderful sister came with some of her children and grandchildren. She looked over our world map to pinpoint where we’d been with great interest, as well as making sure that we kept up on the score of the football games (she’s the athlete of the family).

 

We also had the pleasure of having three of her seven children and their accompanying five grandchildren. I’m so sad that I didn’t get pictures of everyone! Her son Tony brought two turkeys (in addition to the one we had in the oven) to deep fry. They were delicious and there were plenty of leftovers for everyone to take home (the best part as far as many are concerned). 

Saren and Jared came with their five kids. Are they cute enough?

Let’s take a little closer look:

Big Daddy Jared was the potato master!  Those great Idaho potatoes are like putty in his hands. They were “fabulous” as quoted by 6 year old Cami!

Lindsay and Clark brought their three kids including adorable CJ, whose current occupation is writing on the couch and the walls with a nice black pen!

And our extraordinary neighbors Eric and Leo brought their two darling daughters. Is this little Giselle adorable enough to eat right up? 

Here was the cute kids’ table:

 

And the adults plus Ashton and Isaac!

Between dinner and dessert, we played our traditional Gratitude Game. Each person was asked to list the ten most unique things they were thankful for. It had to be something that hopefully no one else would think of because if there was a duplication from someone else’s list, it had to be crossed off. The one who ended up with the most items not crossed offon their list won! It was a nice way to get into the minds of those we don’t see as often as we’d like and feel their gratitude for the unique things in their lives.

Here we are…thinking….

After dessert Lenna and I had a chance to play some Christmas music together. She on the piano and I on the violin. I think our mother must have been looking down from heaven with delight.  After all those years of tears because we didn’t want to practice as she stood over us and said, “Some day you’ll thank me for this!” we’re realized that “some day” has been here for quite a few years! Lenna is an expert accompanist who, among other things, plays once a month at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to entertain those who are in the lobby. We thank her almost every day!

Rick took this picture from the balcony:

And we had such fun singing with kids and adults and kids too!

Especially because of the life-altering experiences we’d just had, it was truly a Thanks-giving Day that we’ll never forget.