Last spring, I posted about Christi, who I discovered on the "Make A Child Smile" website when I was looking for someone to enjoy the mini Kaya doll that was accidentally sent to me during the CODE craziness. Christi has been fighting neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer of the nervous system, for more than three years.

Well, Christi's mom sent me a very sweet thank you note for the doll, along with the address of Christi's website, and since then I have been a faithful reader. Last month, they found out that Christi's cancer had spread (again) and was in her skull, arms, legs, and pelvis. She and her mom are in Philadelphia right now for an experimental antibody treatment--the first child to ever attempt this treatment at her hospital.

Christi's mom posted her hospital address where she can receive cards, and since I had ended up with two copies of the Felicity DVD (my mom let it slip that she had bought me the Target set with mini doll the same day that I ordered one from Amazon) I decided that I would send the unopened one to Christi instead of returning it to Amazon. So I sent that and the freebie copy of the "Best That I Can Be" book that I got last fall (I knew I was saving that for a reason!) [img]smile.gif[/img] off to Philadelphia on Monday. I stuck a note on the DVD saying that I hoped it wasn't one she already had, but if she did to have her mom e-mail me and I would help her exchange it.

ANYWAY, and here's the point of this whole long post, I got the SWEETEST e-mail from Christi's mom on Thursday! Here's part of what it said:

"Dearest Erin,
You cannot imagine the joy your incredible package brought to Christi today in the hospital. Yesterday it arrived and she was too ill to want to open it. This morning she was feeling better so before her treatment began again she asked if she could open it. I wish I could have captured her delight on video! It was precious! You see, she had asked Santa for the Felicity (Her favorite doll!) DVD, but Santa didn't bring it. Then her adored Cousin Shelby told her she saw it at her friend's and that it's very good. She told me she'd ask Santa again next year."

She went on to say that the hospital had DVD players in their rooms, but not too many movies to choose from, and that after Christi recovered from her treatment that night, the two of them would be sitting down to watch Felicity.

I was almost in tears reading that. One DVD doesn't make up for all the horror that Christi and her family have endured the last three years, but I hope that watching the movie gave her a chance to be a "normal" eight-year-old for awhile.

I don't know...I love buying AG for myself, but I think I love sharing it with others more! That e-mail brightened up what I thought had been a "bad" day. Then I realized that all the annoyances I'd had that day were just that: annoyances. I didn't spend my day on an oncology ward watching my eight-year-old in a fight for her life, so maybe I still don't really know what a "bad day" is. [img]graemlins/wilted.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 15, 2006 01:37 AM: Message edited by: ErinGoBraugh ]</font>