Well, it's five days away from his 10th birthday. I look back on the past year and marvel how time can go by so fast. Remember when you were little, summer seemed like it lasted forever? At this point, I'm wondering if somehow the summer months were shortened.
Malkolm came home from school last week and told me about the fire drill they had. He said "You know Mom, I could really tell a difference when we were going out for the fire drill. It wasn't hard to keep up with everyone like it used to be!" AMAZING!!
Taking out a bit of muscle (about the size of a deck of cards) and installing that defibrillator has made all the difference in the world for his quality of life. He's completely off his heart meds, his energy levels are through the roof compared to what they used to be, and he's back to his happy self, seemingly with more confidence than ever.
I bought some scar patches to put on his scars to soften and lighten them, and he wasn't too thrilled about the idea. I asked him why and he said he wanted to remember what happened and that these scars reminded him and he was proud of getting through all that. Of course, then he added "and don't girls like scars?" Sure thing son. Sure thing.
I have to say ... God has been so so so good to our family. Bringing my son and our family through this experience, allowing us to see the blessings all the way through. Looking back, I can really see that all the energy and love and support we received through this experience made everything so much easier for us. It's like God knew exactly what we needed and put all the puzzle pieces in place for us to have that.
As we approach this date, I am thinking a lot about what we've been through. I can't believe Malkolm had open heart surgery less than six months ago, and here he is, running, jumping on the trampoline, just finally getting to be the kid that was always there wanting to participate but never really getting to. I look at my other two young ones and I can FEEL God's love for me flowing through them, and even if I lost all of this tomorrow, I've SEEN that love and I understand what it means to be His child and I know I have been blessed beyond anything that I could ever hope for ever deserve.
I recently had a miscarriage and the peace that I have about it, the kind of peace that can only come from God, didn't really make sense to my friends. They were telling me -- "Jennifer, really it's okay to be upset you shouldn't try to be strong all the time, it's okay to be sad." But I really am totally okay. And you know, it's not what I would have chosen, but I know things are as they should be. Everything has it's place.
I think going through Malkolm's surgery, seeing his complete faith about how God was in control ... it's affected me on so many levels, and has renewed my own faith, a faith that continues to grow stemming from the faith shown by my 9-year-old son. Whether or not I agree with anything that happens is really not the point. It's the understanding and awareness that God lives in the forever now. He sees everything from this moment to 500 years from now in an instant. How can we possibly even begin to fathom the scope of that?
On that note, I just want to PRAISE the Lord for the blessings that we have, for the life he's given us, for the trials he's brought us through that make us stronger and for the time, however brief or long, we have with our loved ones. God is good. God is in control. Thank you Lord for taking this weight of worry off my shoulders and I pray that you do the same for anyone who might be reading this.
-Jennifer
:)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Scratch, Scratch, Scratch!
UPDATES
It's April 30th and my scars are healing up quite nicely. I went to school this Monday, and it's been going great. I'm not allowed to carry my backpack for awhile (yippee!), not allowed to go to recess for awhile, and not allowed to go to P.E. (at least I get to play on the computer!). SCRATCH
There's a cool program on my computer that I downloaded called Scratch. It is a program where you can create games, art, music videos, videos, and more. You make them on the program and then you put them on the website. Recently, I've made a few games, some animation, and even a contest! If you want to see something I've made, click here. There's a lot of cool things on scratch, but also a lot of inappropriate things.
PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS
A few books I've been reading lately are in the Percy Jackson Series. It's about a boy who's the son of Poseidon (the water god in Greek mythology). He goes through many things that are very adventurous, and the trail of books leading up to the last book is so suspenseful. In the first book, he discovers he is a son of Poseidon and is accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt.
In the second book, he has to go into the Sea of Monsters (the Bermuda Triangle) to retrieve some magic fleece -- called the Golden Fleece -- to heal the tree that protects the camp that the demigods (son/daughter of a god/goddess) go to to be safe.
In the third book, they go to save Artemis (goddess of hunt) from Atlas, who found someone to replace him, and then Artemis took pity on that girl.
In the fourth book, they go in to the Labyrinth to find Daedalus, the maker of the Labyrinth, to get Adriane's string, which helps you through the Labyrinth.
I just want to let you know, but, I was just exploring the blog features, and i put some things on my blog page. I put a fish thing at the top, but my mom deleted it. There is a pin ball game on the side, and a pictures of puppies at the bottom. She told me the fish was an ad (oops).
I will give more updates later. Thank you for reading my blog!
-Malkolm
-Malkolm
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Getting Back to Normal Life
Well, we are still signing stories. We mailed all of them out, but some were unsealed, some were empty envelopes, some only had the note from Malkolm. *whew*
But it seems the bulk of them have been received without incident. We have extra stamps, and Malkolm is still signing stories to be ready for any we might need to send again.
Big thanks to Melissa, Shawn and family for your help in putting all those labels on and helping us get everything stamped. It was nice to be able to just stuff the envelopes as Malkolm finished signing ...
Malkolm went to a Boy Scouts meeting tonight for the first time since his surgery -- and he will be graduating this weekend. They boys all clapped and cheered when he came in. How cool was that?!! Well, he's missing the graduation which is at a campsite, but he will officially be a Webelo (not even sure how to spell it yet!) after this weekend! He's pretty excited about getting to wear the tan shirt.
Things are going to move fast -- we have a couple more follow-ups before the end of school and then it will be summer! I LOVE SUMMER! Just having the kids around all the time is one of the coolest things I can think of -- I love to hang out with them. They get along well most days, although we do have our moments where everything is a competition or argument. Who can eat their pudding faster? Who can take a shower the fastest? Who can get to the mailbox first? LOL! ahhhh, man, I love being a mom. Love it.
We're taking Malkolm to school every day now, no bus for a while. He likes being a car rider ok, but he says he misses hanging out with his friends on the bus.
Things are slowly getting back to normal. And I think normal is a good thing.
-Jennifer
:)
But it seems the bulk of them have been received without incident. We have extra stamps, and Malkolm is still signing stories to be ready for any we might need to send again.
Big thanks to Melissa, Shawn and family for your help in putting all those labels on and helping us get everything stamped. It was nice to be able to just stuff the envelopes as Malkolm finished signing ...
Malkolm went to a Boy Scouts meeting tonight for the first time since his surgery -- and he will be graduating this weekend. They boys all clapped and cheered when he came in. How cool was that?!! Well, he's missing the graduation which is at a campsite, but he will officially be a Webelo (not even sure how to spell it yet!) after this weekend! He's pretty excited about getting to wear the tan shirt.
Things are going to move fast -- we have a couple more follow-ups before the end of school and then it will be summer! I LOVE SUMMER! Just having the kids around all the time is one of the coolest things I can think of -- I love to hang out with them. They get along well most days, although we do have our moments where everything is a competition or argument. Who can eat their pudding faster? Who can take a shower the fastest? Who can get to the mailbox first? LOL! ahhhh, man, I love being a mom. Love it.
We're taking Malkolm to school every day now, no bus for a while. He likes being a car rider ok, but he says he misses hanging out with his friends on the bus.
Things are slowly getting back to normal. And I think normal is a good thing.
-Jennifer
:)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
If Only there Were Such a Brain Pill™
We licked the last envelope, pressed on the last stamp, wrote the last address ... finally got all the rest of the original orders for Malkolm's story out in the mail today. There are still about 20 who haven't paid, and about 50 transactions canceled because people decided they didn't want it for whatever reason. I expect payments to be trickling in, or notes from people letting me know we forgot to seal the envelope (!! thought at first there was a faulty box of envelopes, but after hearing the descriptions, I think we just forget to seal some before we sent them out -- only about 10 so far, hopefully that will be the bulk of it)
It's been an eventful week.
My 4-year-old smashed her hand in the door at the post office. Her finger actually. She panicked and pulled it out instead of pushing the door open, so in addition to the heavy bruising, there is also quite a large bit of skin damage, but she is doing better.
We finally figured out that if Malkolm only signed instead of signing and writing the numbers on, that things moved much quicker. So Malkolm signed, and I wrote the numbers and we finished! I never realized how annoying paper cuts on my tongue and lips could feel. If I never lick another envelope it will be too soon. I heard there were pre-sticky envelopes ... yesterday. Ok, well. That's cool. Maybe next time.
Malkolm finished his first week of school. Only half-days, but school nonetheless! Kind of exciting. He finished his project for the economics unit. I'm going to post it below.
We kept the house clean the entire week. Not all day, but by the time we went to bed, it was almost CBS worthy. Oh, and I realized that CBS posted Malkolm's story under Politics. Things make a lot more sense now.
I had a long talk with Malkolm's Discovery teacher and she told me all about her interview with CBS. She spoke of Malkolm's character and how he is, his work ethic and such -- and they only used ONE line of her interview. The one that talked about Malkolm being a natural problem solver. And now I know why they only used that line and why they used the clips they used and included the half-information they did.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and maybe I am a little naive. Ok, well, I do have that tendency now and then, but I just didn't expect it to be lumped in with the health care politics. Here I am posting on a Politics story about why it shouldn't be a politics story. LOL! I've posted several times, basically reiterating what I said in the last post, but probably a shorter version. I think it's fair to say, in general, people seem to be mostly accepting when I post about what I think Malkolm's story is about (not Luna, but the whole selling the story on Ebay thing). It doesn't really bother me that much, but I felt it worth mentioning.
I started working on some of my creative firm work for the first time in more than a month. I am wondering at this point if I am going to be able to keep up with the volume of work. I know for sure we're not taking on any more clients, just taking care of the ones we've got. One thing that has come about through all this is my realization that I do not want to spend the bulk of my day in front of a computer, I want to spend as much time with the kids as possible.
Being here is not enough. I've been SO spoiled for the last few weeks, and now that I have a taste of it, I don't want to stop eating.
On that note, here is the writing portion of the economics project Malkolm did for school this week. He had fun working with InDesign to create the package and the ad that went with it. I was impressed with how much he retained from our discussions about entrepreneurship.
Without further a due:
Ahhh, if only there were such a thing.
-Jennifer
:)
It's been an eventful week.
My 4-year-old smashed her hand in the door at the post office. Her finger actually. She panicked and pulled it out instead of pushing the door open, so in addition to the heavy bruising, there is also quite a large bit of skin damage, but she is doing better.
We finally figured out that if Malkolm only signed instead of signing and writing the numbers on, that things moved much quicker. So Malkolm signed, and I wrote the numbers and we finished! I never realized how annoying paper cuts on my tongue and lips could feel. If I never lick another envelope it will be too soon. I heard there were pre-sticky envelopes ... yesterday. Ok, well. That's cool. Maybe next time.
Malkolm finished his first week of school. Only half-days, but school nonetheless! Kind of exciting. He finished his project for the economics unit. I'm going to post it below.
We kept the house clean the entire week. Not all day, but by the time we went to bed, it was almost CBS worthy. Oh, and I realized that CBS posted Malkolm's story under Politics. Things make a lot more sense now.
I had a long talk with Malkolm's Discovery teacher and she told me all about her interview with CBS. She spoke of Malkolm's character and how he is, his work ethic and such -- and they only used ONE line of her interview. The one that talked about Malkolm being a natural problem solver. And now I know why they only used that line and why they used the clips they used and included the half-information they did.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and maybe I am a little naive. Ok, well, I do have that tendency now and then, but I just didn't expect it to be lumped in with the health care politics. Here I am posting on a Politics story about why it shouldn't be a politics story. LOL! I've posted several times, basically reiterating what I said in the last post, but probably a shorter version. I think it's fair to say, in general, people seem to be mostly accepting when I post about what I think Malkolm's story is about (not Luna, but the whole selling the story on Ebay thing). It doesn't really bother me that much, but I felt it worth mentioning.
I started working on some of my creative firm work for the first time in more than a month. I am wondering at this point if I am going to be able to keep up with the volume of work. I know for sure we're not taking on any more clients, just taking care of the ones we've got. One thing that has come about through all this is my realization that I do not want to spend the bulk of my day in front of a computer, I want to spend as much time with the kids as possible.
Being here is not enough. I've been SO spoiled for the last few weeks, and now that I have a taste of it, I don't want to stop eating.
On that note, here is the writing portion of the economics project Malkolm did for school this week. He had fun working with InDesign to create the package and the ad that went with it. I was impressed with how much he retained from our discussions about entrepreneurship.
Without further a due:
BRAIN PILL
My product is called Brain Pill™. The Brain Pill™ is a pill that, when taken properly, you will instantly know how to do a certain skill, like golfing, how to fly a plane, karate, etc. For example, your son expects you to go skateboarding with him, and he’s really looking forward to it. You are going to be busy all the time until the skateboarding, and you don’t know how to skateboard. All you would need to do is take the pill, and you would then know how to skateboard! This product would give the opportunity to people who have trouble finding time to learn. The Brain Pill™ would surely help a lot of people.
RESOURCES
The resources I am going to need are capital, labor, and I will provide entrepreneurship, land and management. Just so you know how much capital I am going to need, the things used to make the pill is: Chopped plant (gingko viable), a powdered rock (unobtanium), and a secret formula that has two chemicals in it (cranium volatile and cerebrum concord). The cost of each bottle of pills will be $50 to $200 per bottle. The simpler the skill is, the less expensive it is. So the golfing pills will be worth $50 per bottle. It will take about $10 to make a bottle of pills (including creating the pill, packaging it and advertising it), so our profit margin (or net profit) will be $40 per bottle.
ADVERTISING
We are going to sell it at stores like Walgreens, Wal-Mart, etc. For the golf Brain Pill™ specifically, we will advertise it in two papers called USA Today and the New York Times. For different types of Brain Pills™, we will advertise in different areas. For example, a cooking Brain Pill™ would be advertised in a cooking magazine or a commercial on a cooking channel. The golf Brain Pill™ will be put in USA Today and the New York Times because a business person uses golfing as a way to calm down the mood as they explain things to clients, and business people read newspapers like USA Today and the New York Times.
FUTURE PRODUCT EXPANSION
We will soon expand to baby food so babies can easily learn their shapes, colors, letters, and phonics. As soon as the baby learns letters and phonics, she/he can soon learn reading! The pills are for ages 25 and older, while the baby food would be for babies and toddlers. For children and young adults in elementary school to high school/early college, we can possibly create drinks (chocolate milk, fruit punch, etc.) that can help them learn skills like karate or skate boarding.
Ahhh, if only there were such a thing.
-Jennifer
:)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Cool at School
Malkolm had his second 1/2 day of school today, and is feeling pretty good -- not drained like I thought he might be. He will be taking the CRCT every day this week (for those of you who don't know, the CRCT is the Georgia standardized testing that all public school kids have to take). Malkolm has done pretty well on this test in the past. His first year taking it he didn't miss a question. Last year, I think he missed a question or two. (I think back to those tests we took growing up and I don't recall ever getting a score anything close to perfect -- not in any grade).
I'm not sure that he's 100% focused on this test stuff, after missing school for a while, but he's generally so happy most of the time, it's hard to tell. I ask him how his day was and I get a chipper, "Great!" I ask him how he thinks the test went and I get a chipper, "Great!" I ask him if he enjoyed his day, and I get a chipper, "Oh yes!" Ahhh, details son, Mom needs details!
He did say that there were a couple of questions on the test part today that he wasn't so sure of the answers. Tomorrow is math, probably his strongest subject.
I just gotta say, it's so nice to be sitting here thinking about how he's going to do on the test and being wrapped up in his school work (he's working on an economics project, he had to create a product, do a mini business plan, create an advertisement and write a short persuasive essay about why someone should buy his product). So different from three weeks ago ... four weeks ago .... wondering about the surgery and his recovery.
I'm totally digging it.
One thing is for sure, his personality is back to what it was before the surgery. Cracking corny jokes all the time and just being ... a cool kid. (Oh man, I love him.)
He is working on the economic project on the laptop right now, using Adobe InDesign to work on his product package design -- and he chatted me and then pasted what he saw into the chat window. His name for me on his end is: justplainoldbestmommainthewholewideworld!
Heh heh. A cool kid indeed.
-Jennifer
:)
I'm not sure that he's 100% focused on this test stuff, after missing school for a while, but he's generally so happy most of the time, it's hard to tell. I ask him how his day was and I get a chipper, "Great!" I ask him how he thinks the test went and I get a chipper, "Great!" I ask him if he enjoyed his day, and I get a chipper, "Oh yes!" Ahhh, details son, Mom needs details!
He did say that there were a couple of questions on the test part today that he wasn't so sure of the answers. Tomorrow is math, probably his strongest subject.
I just gotta say, it's so nice to be sitting here thinking about how he's going to do on the test and being wrapped up in his school work (he's working on an economics project, he had to create a product, do a mini business plan, create an advertisement and write a short persuasive essay about why someone should buy his product). So different from three weeks ago ... four weeks ago .... wondering about the surgery and his recovery.
I'm totally digging it.
One thing is for sure, his personality is back to what it was before the surgery. Cracking corny jokes all the time and just being ... a cool kid. (Oh man, I love him.)
He is working on the economic project on the laptop right now, using Adobe InDesign to work on his product package design -- and he chatted me and then pasted what he saw into the chat window. His name for me on his end is: justplainoldbestmommainthewholewideworld!
Heh heh. A cool kid indeed.
-Jennifer
:)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Great Quote
Just saw a great quote on a friend's blog.
The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.
Isn't that the truth! And so many times we try to take things into our own hands. When the waters are rough, it's easy to reach up to the Lord and ask him to help us out of the water. When the water is calm, how often do we forget and stop reaching up, thinking we got it and don't really need help?
Just something to think about.
-Jennifer
:)
The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.
Isn't that the truth! And so many times we try to take things into our own hands. When the waters are rough, it's easy to reach up to the Lord and ask him to help us out of the water. When the water is calm, how often do we forget and stop reaching up, thinking we got it and don't really need help?
Just something to think about.
-Jennifer
:)
Politics as Usual?!
As much as I didn't want to talk about this here, I guess there has been enough said that I think maybe I should.
We have a lot of people who are really focusing on the health care issue and trying to put Malkolm's story puzzle piece into a puzzle where it doesn't belong. Trying to say that if our health care system was not broken, this young boy wouldn't have to worry about paying for his own surgery.
Let me make this very clear. This young boy was not stressed out about paying for his own surgery. He was not "worried" in the sense of the definition of the word. He was aware that it would cost a lot, and he just had the idea, something that was within his realm of understanding, to help in some way. For him, this is no different than him wanting to have a lemonade stand at our next garage sale to raise money for Ronald McDonald House (where we stayed for a week while our youngest was in ICU right after she was born).
I know this is hard for some to understand, because the purity of my son's idea is something that isn't tied to any emotional or lifetime baggage. He is a young, sweet, smart (and I gotta say, pretty darn cute) boy who saw an opportunity to help, and as a proud momma, I jumped at the opportunity to acknowledge it and give him the chance to do so.
Of course we are happy to be able to pay these bills up front, to be able to stay in a hotel during the surgery, for me to be able to miss my creative firm work for over a month, and pare down my ebay listings for a while. To have the money to make the follow-up trips to Atlanta. BUT, these are not things that would not have happened if Malkolm's story had never been in the equation. For me, especially, just being able to focus on Malkolm and not worry about money coming in from my work to pay bills -- well, that was just COOL.
Even if the health care was FREE, I still would have had to work during his surgery to continue to bring in money to pay bills that we need to pay, and that would have been really hard. Not impossible, but definitely hard, and something I'm so glad that I didn't have to worry about. To not to have to worry about missing work so I could tend to Malkolm? Well, that is a gift that I can't even begin to thank people for. And then, on top of that? To have the surgery paid for and the follow-up trips to Atlanta? BONUS. HUGE blessing.
Yes, we are on a tight budget, that is one of the things we knew would be the case going down to a one and a half income household. Yes, I own two businesses and work too many hours (something I would do no matter what job I have), but this is our choice. Our choice for me to have the opportunity to be available at home to raise our children. I missed the better part of the first three years of Malkolm's life. I will not make the same mistake again.
There are certain sacrifices you make as a family in order to make this happen, but again, it is our choice, and no "fault" of the government or any failing health care system.
I have to be honest, I am not a fan of the new health care bill. Especially considering my son's situation -- I don't want to have to wait for approvals to get procedures he might need at the drop of a hat. Does anyone think that if we were under the new health bill that we would have gone 23 days from the time the docs said he needed to have surgery to the actual surgery? I doubt it. Twenty-three days to get through government-run red tape and paperwork? I'm sorry, but from my experience with government-run agencies, the turn around time just isn't that great. As many families dealing with a condition like this, we know that time is of the essence.
Please note: Again, we were prepared and willing to pay for this on our own. We have good insurance. Cash flow is an issue with a one-income home, but we make it work. We work hard and we don't expect handouts from anyone. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that if we had known how everyone would have responded to this, we may not have let him sell his story on ebay ... well, I know my husband would have said no, beyond a shadow of a doubt and that would have been the end of it. We would have made it work.
PLEASE don't put my son's puzzle piece in a puzzle where it doesn't belong. Please don't tarnish this young boy's intent by bringing politics into the mix.
Ok, that said -- I remember when I was in the newspaper a lot growing up, as I was playing high school basketball in San Antonio, and then later on playing college volleyball and basketball in New Mexico -- anytime things are in the news, there are inaccuracies.
I remember when I missed a game, injured, and somehow I was reported to still be the high scorer (when it was actually my sister). I remember when I played with a broken pinky on my right hand and the newspaper reported it was a broken thumb on the opposite hand. Things like this happened all the time. It's just something you get used to when you're in the news a lot.
I have found that with medical conditions, it is even harder for facts to translate. I cannot even begin to address the inaccuracies in all the stories and news coverage -- but the important thing here is that Malkolm Poyer had an idea to try to help when he would have had every right to just be focused on everything he was going through. When facing a life-threatening surgery, a life-threatening condition, he was totally excited to not only have the surgery with unabashed faith, but also wanted to help in any way he could.
The reporters we spoke with were 100% across the board super kind and I don't believe they in any way meant to misrepresent things, but in some ways they did. Not just about the medical issues either. I guess I should not expect people to not focus on the money in an economy like this. The money is just a piece of a bigger picture, and shouldn't have been the focus of the picture. The kid who wants to keep up with his friends, who is cute and smart and totally unaware of the scope of this -- he is the main thing in the picture. (How anyone can get past those long eyelashes is a wonder to me, but anywhoo.)
Sure, it's a groovy thing to be able to have this extra income in a hard time, don't get me wrong, but I think it's important to view the whole picture and not take out pieces to suit an argument or two.
In other news, Malkolm is doing well, and signing away. We hope to get the remainder of the stories out to everyone who bought one early next week. He's almost up to 1,000 now!
On that note, I've got some chicken in the oven and a few hungry kiddos. Better get to it.
-Jennifer
:)
We have a lot of people who are really focusing on the health care issue and trying to put Malkolm's story puzzle piece into a puzzle where it doesn't belong. Trying to say that if our health care system was not broken, this young boy wouldn't have to worry about paying for his own surgery.
Let me make this very clear. This young boy was not stressed out about paying for his own surgery. He was not "worried" in the sense of the definition of the word. He was aware that it would cost a lot, and he just had the idea, something that was within his realm of understanding, to help in some way. For him, this is no different than him wanting to have a lemonade stand at our next garage sale to raise money for Ronald McDonald House (where we stayed for a week while our youngest was in ICU right after she was born).
I know this is hard for some to understand, because the purity of my son's idea is something that isn't tied to any emotional or lifetime baggage. He is a young, sweet, smart (and I gotta say, pretty darn cute) boy who saw an opportunity to help, and as a proud momma, I jumped at the opportunity to acknowledge it and give him the chance to do so.
Of course we are happy to be able to pay these bills up front, to be able to stay in a hotel during the surgery, for me to be able to miss my creative firm work for over a month, and pare down my ebay listings for a while. To have the money to make the follow-up trips to Atlanta. BUT, these are not things that would not have happened if Malkolm's story had never been in the equation. For me, especially, just being able to focus on Malkolm and not worry about money coming in from my work to pay bills -- well, that was just COOL.
Even if the health care was FREE, I still would have had to work during his surgery to continue to bring in money to pay bills that we need to pay, and that would have been really hard. Not impossible, but definitely hard, and something I'm so glad that I didn't have to worry about. To not to have to worry about missing work so I could tend to Malkolm? Well, that is a gift that I can't even begin to thank people for. And then, on top of that? To have the surgery paid for and the follow-up trips to Atlanta? BONUS. HUGE blessing.
Yes, we are on a tight budget, that is one of the things we knew would be the case going down to a one and a half income household. Yes, I own two businesses and work too many hours (something I would do no matter what job I have), but this is our choice. Our choice for me to have the opportunity to be available at home to raise our children. I missed the better part of the first three years of Malkolm's life. I will not make the same mistake again.
There are certain sacrifices you make as a family in order to make this happen, but again, it is our choice, and no "fault" of the government or any failing health care system.
I have to be honest, I am not a fan of the new health care bill. Especially considering my son's situation -- I don't want to have to wait for approvals to get procedures he might need at the drop of a hat. Does anyone think that if we were under the new health bill that we would have gone 23 days from the time the docs said he needed to have surgery to the actual surgery? I doubt it. Twenty-three days to get through government-run red tape and paperwork? I'm sorry, but from my experience with government-run agencies, the turn around time just isn't that great. As many families dealing with a condition like this, we know that time is of the essence.
Please note: Again, we were prepared and willing to pay for this on our own. We have good insurance. Cash flow is an issue with a one-income home, but we make it work. We work hard and we don't expect handouts from anyone. In fact, I can almost guarantee you that if we had known how everyone would have responded to this, we may not have let him sell his story on ebay ... well, I know my husband would have said no, beyond a shadow of a doubt and that would have been the end of it. We would have made it work.
PLEASE don't put my son's puzzle piece in a puzzle where it doesn't belong. Please don't tarnish this young boy's intent by bringing politics into the mix.
Ok, that said -- I remember when I was in the newspaper a lot growing up, as I was playing high school basketball in San Antonio, and then later on playing college volleyball and basketball in New Mexico -- anytime things are in the news, there are inaccuracies.
I remember when I missed a game, injured, and somehow I was reported to still be the high scorer (when it was actually my sister). I remember when I played with a broken pinky on my right hand and the newspaper reported it was a broken thumb on the opposite hand. Things like this happened all the time. It's just something you get used to when you're in the news a lot.
I have found that with medical conditions, it is even harder for facts to translate. I cannot even begin to address the inaccuracies in all the stories and news coverage -- but the important thing here is that Malkolm Poyer had an idea to try to help when he would have had every right to just be focused on everything he was going through. When facing a life-threatening surgery, a life-threatening condition, he was totally excited to not only have the surgery with unabashed faith, but also wanted to help in any way he could.
The reporters we spoke with were 100% across the board super kind and I don't believe they in any way meant to misrepresent things, but in some ways they did. Not just about the medical issues either. I guess I should not expect people to not focus on the money in an economy like this. The money is just a piece of a bigger picture, and shouldn't have been the focus of the picture. The kid who wants to keep up with his friends, who is cute and smart and totally unaware of the scope of this -- he is the main thing in the picture. (How anyone can get past those long eyelashes is a wonder to me, but anywhoo.)
Sure, it's a groovy thing to be able to have this extra income in a hard time, don't get me wrong, but I think it's important to view the whole picture and not take out pieces to suit an argument or two.
In other news, Malkolm is doing well, and signing away. We hope to get the remainder of the stories out to everyone who bought one early next week. He's almost up to 1,000 now!
On that note, I've got some chicken in the oven and a few hungry kiddos. Better get to it.
-Jennifer
:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
