My Jessie Journal: Happy New Year Sweet Pea….It’s daddy writing from cold Denver Colorado. We have been here for 10 days and leave today to go home. We came to celebrate Christmas and New Years with Aunt Kimmy and Uncle T. We also wanted to be here on Christmas as this was the last place we celebrated Christmas with you. We ate all of your favorite foods and sweets as we remembered two years ago with you. It didn’t snow much like it did when you were here. You wanted a “white” Christmas and you got one. We also shopped a ton and I remember giving you piggy back rides all around the mall. You always said, “Daddy you can put me down if your back was hurting.” You always were thinking of others even when you knew it was so painful for you to walk due to your treatment. Those dawn steroids messed with you so much.
You loved coming to Denver. We are actually looking at launching one of our new mobile JoyLabs here this year so we can better support the kids and families in this community. That would be so cool. One of our long term goals is to open up JoyLabs in every state. That would be so amazing and a great way to get all of your incredible fans more involved, which they all want. You have the best team of people around the world that love and support you so much. I met one of them yesterday at this mall with Aunt Kimmy. Mommy and I have her a hug and she started crying as she talked about you. I was so touched and inspired by her love for you and compassion for other kids hurting. She never even met you but it was like she had. She knew your story. She new your dream. She knew she needed to be part of helping. I bet there are 1,000’s more wonderful caring people like this lady around the world that would volunteer to help encourage kids and families to NEGU in their community. I know one lady that wants to open up a JoyLab in Berlin, Germany. Now seems so far away=).
We leave in a few hours to head to the airport and fly home…part of me does not want to leave. The main reason is in three days I have to face the gut wrenching pain of Jan 5th. I’m trying to get you 300,000 “likes” on your page by then to celebrate you. It is going to be one of those brutal days that I will try my best to look solid but inside be crumbling. Every time I see 4:30am I’m reminded of mommy waking me up with great worry saying, “Something is wrong, I can’t wake Jessie.” That phrase will forever be burned into my soul like the time I heard “Jessie has cancer”…oh how those are just statements parents should never have to hear. We will make sure we keep busy as a family. That seems like the best thing for us to do on certain days.
Typically at this time of year people set all sorts of “goals” or “resolutions”. I could try really hard to come up with some that sound fancy but truth is my only goal is to “Keep your legacy alive so we can ensure more kids and families have the support and resources to Never Ever Give Up.” I’m so thankful we have been able to over 80,000 children in the last two years but that is such a small number when I think about your wish and “helping every child fighting cancer”. So I press on because I made you a promise and I will do everything I can to reach them for you. I’m excited that your new book comes out in September. I sure hope this will open more doors for us to reach more kids. This is the cover….I hope you like it. I love that pic of you. Some wanted a pic of you looking sick but that I not how I choose to remember you. There are 16 pages of colored pictures inside that show your journey but I wanted this amazing picture on the cover.
Jess, I miss & love you so much it hurts and some days hard to breathe but I’m so honored to be “Jessie’s Daddy”.
xoxo
Daddy