Announcements

Some announcements for the week:
0. There was a green old navy jacket (adult size xs) left at the Head Shaving Party @ Romp n' Roll in April. If it belongs to you, please come by or call to claim it. It's really cute and I would take it but there's NO WAY I'm an XS :-)
1. Mini Golf/Batting Cages/Driving Range TONIGHT 7-10 PM at Glen Allen Golf on US1 to benefit Charlotte.
2. The Five Below event @ VCC seemed to be a success and Charlotte's story has really touched on the people there SO they are repeating the event for the next TWO weekends. Get your flyers at Romp n' Roll and take them in to buy all your summer tchotchkes (sp?).
3. Don't forget about the Brain Tumor Awareness Benefit Concert with Susan Greenbaum and Cheryl Fare at Ashland Coffee and Tea Saturday (5/23) from 3-6 PM. The event itself does not benefit Charlotte directly but it is a great cause with great music AND there will be a 50/50 raffle for Charlotte as well. Much thanks to Susan and Cheryl for letting us piggyback on this. We are sorry that we will miss it.
4. A shout-out to Christy, Wendy, and Torrie for helping Roger with the FACES event at Virginia Crossings tonight.
5. A HUGE shout-out to Jackie Plank for continuing the fundraising efforts.
6. On that note: another date change. The home based business bazaar will be June 27th at St. Ann's Catholic Church. More details to follow but there will be lots of vendors (Pampered Chef, Arbonne, Longaberger Baskets, etc.) selling their wares and donating a portion of the proceeds to Charlotte. Start your Christmas shopping early! Also, I think a Silent Auction is in the works.
With all of these fundraisers in the works, we are very grateful. We just found out that the insurance IS going to cover our visit to TX as a "second opinion" (they will cover the visit but not the tumor evaluation since that is considered experimental). We did receive a second denial of our appeal for considering the stem cell transplant services as "in-network" at MCV. The insurance ombudsman feels we made a great case and that the insurance did thoroughly review our cause but they continue to maintain that they are not denying us coverage and that we can go to an in-network hospital or pay the out-of-network rates. Given that we do not know right now how many stem cell transplants/rounds of high dose chemo she will need and/or whether this will go on past this calendar year (since our deductible is for the calendar year), this will probably increase our out-of-pocket medical costs to anywhere between $40-100K. We will definitely be talking with MCV about negotiating cost but there isn't much point until we know the direction where MD Anderson will point us...

That is all I have to report. I hope to see some of you tonight. Then I must pack and we leave for the airport about 5 AM tomorrow! Whew!

Rachel

First off and VERY IMPORTANT, the little thermometer to the right isn't our idea. It makes it look like Charlotte will somehow get donations if you click there. I've asked them to remove Charlotte's name from it. Seem a little sneaky to me. I've already sent them a donation when we first started the site and I know several of you have as well. Might be the last one I send if they keep that kind of crap up

Be that as it may, today was a HUGE day! First off, I woke up, completely alert, at 4AM this morning. No idea why.

Charlotte and I went down to Children's Hospital to get the fabled slides of the tumor which we will take with us to Houston ("Houston, Texas?!?")

This next event illustrated Cerisa's post brilliantly: While headed home, I asked Charlotte where she wanted to have lunch and she said the ever wonderful, "Chick-fil-a." When I said, OK, we're going to Chick-fil-a, she immediately said, "People eat there seven times a day!" If you don't know to what that refers, immediately open a new browser tab/window and go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJHqstPuNo
No, really. Go do that now...

Hmmm dee dum dummm

Great, eh?

OK so we get to CFA and we meet Mommy there. We had a great lunch, CJ had ice cream with her lunch, and Mommy and I switched cars and Charlotte.

I then went to VA Crossings Resort to set up the Romp n' Roll stuff for the FACES of Virginia meeting. I was actually getting a little nervous because the final count was edging up into the low 40s which is a handful under primo conditions and I knew this wasn't going to have those conditions.

I got to the resort and realized they weren't going to have the two separate rooms for the kids or the other, OTHER separate room for the older kids to play board games. I figured that's OK since I'll have my star volunteers, Torrie (Too Tall Torrie) Heathcoat and Christy Yeadon MAN Am I glad they were there! Couldn't have done this without them. Thanks, ladies!

After teaching my classes at Romp n' Roll, I zoomed over and found the place in chaos already. We got the kids a little focused with a song or two and an idea of what an obsticle course should be and they took it from there. They really seemed to love the springboard! There were a few "breaks" and lots of redirection but a pretty fun time was had by all.

So we made a lot of FACES parents very happy to be able to have a nice, relatively quiet dinner. I also think it got us a bit of new business. If you've never plopped your head into the pensieve that is the world of foster parenting and adoption, it's had to imagine what a tough job it is. Foster and adoptive parents need and deserve access to every little bit of resources under the sun! That's why I dig this FACES of Virginia Families organization so much. That's what they do. If you don't get suckered in by the little thermometer over there and have given as much as you want to CJ's fund, I can think of few other places as deserving of your support. Heck! Boss woman, Cate Neubanks is even going to yoga with us on June 6th.

I had a ton of help tearing down and schlepping out to the car so it was next to no time before I was on to the Glen Allen Golf Fun-raiser! I sort of came in on the tail end of things but it seemed like it was a very successful evening there as well. We'll get final numbers out as soon as we can.

We still don't have final numbers from the burrito eating contest at Qdoba. Still working on it.

Now I'm home, trying to stay awake to finish this before I go pack for tomorrow. Rachel has most everything ready and lined up, I just need to make it all fit in the suitcase.

Thanks for all your well wishes for the safe trip. See you in Houston.
Rog

p.s. We got the ReeseStrong doll and will be taking it to Houston.