This weekend

Thought I would start telling about the bone marrow drive weekend starting with Saturday. Rachel (my best friend since high school, the person Alivia gets her middle name from, and bone marrow organizer extraordinare) arrived and she and I headed to the wonderful world of Costco. We got all the snacks for the drive and then headed for our car. Out of nowhere it started to rain. It was a hard, freezing, soaking rain. We were running around trying to load up the car...laughing like fools. We noticed others around us just kind of standing and staring. So of course we had to stop and look. There in the sky was the most amazing rainbow I ever saw. It looked like someone had taken a marker and drawn this perfect rainbow on the sky...and you could see both sides. I was amazed and it was such a cool start to the weekend.

That night we had dinner with Bill, Cynthia, John, Will, Erin (who lives with us), Rachel, Dad, Mom, Andrew, Aaron, Bekah Walker, James, Alivia and I. It took forever but we had a good time. Dinner was over 2 and half hours. But we had a great time.

Sunday AM we arrived at Cimbrian (where the drive was) around 11 to get set up. The volunteers were so amazing. We had a crazy, busy time. And we added 355 people to the registry. That is 155 more than we originally planned for. I was amazed. There were some times when it was so busy you couldn't even more around and there was never a dull moment. (Ann B. could you send some of the pictures you took to me so I can post them for everyone)It was so amazing how many people showed up just because they saw the broadcast on the news or read about it in the paper. Probably about half the people I didn't know. Thanks to every single person who came. You don't realize how much it means to me and other families with sick children.

We had a nice day today. My parents, Andrew, Alivia and I spent some time at the mall. I have some pictures but I'll try to post them later. My dad and James just left to take Andrew back to the airport so he can head home. It was a great weekend.

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the transplant team. I don't think they will give us a time frame but they will at least give us more of an idea what we are facing. Not looking forward to it at all but thats the next step I guess. My parents and James' parents are going with us. Tomorrow evening Alivia is going trick or treating for her first time. I will post some pictures of it. At least it is something to look forward to after such a huge meeting.

Thanks to Cheryl A. and Vivian for the toys for the treasure box. To Mamaux, Marmie, Jim and Jean McClements and Erin for the great cards, to Sandra Knowles for the gift.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers yesterday..we couldn't have done it without all of you. The volunteers were Rachel K.(organizer/ location oversight/ main question answerer) , Andrew A.(location oversight), Aaron A.(barcoding), John H.(barcoding), Jamie S. (barcoding), Will H.(health screening), Cynthia H.(health screening), Dave (my daddy- directing/crowd control/jack of all trades), Sonya L.(health screening), Andy L. (greeter), Erin W.(health screening), Angie S.(health screening), Scott S. (who jumped in to health screen the last moment), Leslie Y. (health screening), Ann B. (Bill's sister who drove from Virginia and ended up being the refreshment table manager), Bekah W. (cheek swab lady), Darcy S. (barcoding), Jason (health screeing), and Matt H. (clean up).

We are so thankful to everyone who came...You'll never know how much it means.