Happy Easter!
Buona Pasqua!
Love -
Michele, Patricia, Ellie, and MAX
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Max's Big Outing
A few weeks ago Max went on his first ever overnight field trip! Of course he had his own two personal chaperones in tow....Mom and Dad! Although Michele and I could certainly come up with several other more exciting vacation ideas than traveling to the Grand Canyon with a hundred or so 4th graders it was truly priceless to watch Max so thoroughly enjoy himself!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
D-Day
On June 6, 1944 at 6:30 AM the Allies stormed the shores of Normandy. On June 6, 2011 at 6:30 AM Max will storm the shores of an Operating Room at Johns Hopkins. Perhaps it’s only a strange coincidence but I prefer to think of it as a symbol – sort of a victory will be ours! Just one more important date in “Max’s War”, one more thing to conquer just as we have conquered so much these last ten years. Please keep praying for all of us, now that we have an actual date that can be circled on the calendar we’re all getting a bit edgy!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Letters Home
There has been so much going on the last few days, what with visits to the ER, multiple doctor’s appointments, and my continued fight with the state of Arizona to provide Max with the care he needs that I really haven’t known what to post about – sort of “pick a topic any topic” situation. But in the end I realized that most of my list is really just our typical stuff, nothing glamorous or earth shattering and certainly not newsworthy. My lack of posting material came to a screeching halt when Max came home from school with the following note for his dad. 
This note resulted from a conversation that Michele and Max had that morning before school. Max was beginning to recognize the inevitably of his upcoming cardiac surgery and was peppering Michele with questions, all of which Michele answered in his usual soothing manner convincing Max that everything would be OK because he would have so much more energy to run around and play after he gets his new valve. Max seemed to walk into class that morning at peace with what needed to be done. And then Michele picked him up after school…..not so much at peace anymore Max shoved this note into his father’s hand. There are many heart wrenching qualities to Max’s words. One, he took the time to write the note in Italian (mostly) which is a bit of a stretch since he’s never had any formal writing classes in Italian and, two, notice the way Max signed the note. Max generally signs his notes with a heart and his name, if you look closely the heart he drew in this note is broken. The note translates as:
This note resulted from a conversation that Michele and Max had that morning before school. Max was beginning to recognize the inevitably of his upcoming cardiac surgery and was peppering Michele with questions, all of which Michele answered in his usual soothing manner convincing Max that everything would be OK because he would have so much more energy to run around and play after he gets his new valve. Max seemed to walk into class that morning at peace with what needed to be done. And then Michele picked him up after school…..not so much at peace anymore Max shoved this note into his father’s hand. There are many heart wrenching qualities to Max’s words. One, he took the time to write the note in Italian (mostly) which is a bit of a stretch since he’s never had any formal writing classes in Italian and, two, notice the way Max signed the note. Max generally signs his notes with a heart and his name, if you look closely the heart he drew in this note is broken. The note translates as: Your stupid surgery idea for me is bad and crazy, dad.
Max
P.S. You want to ruin my life.
So although Max is starting to accept things he still hasn’t completely come to terms with it emotionally. But then I really don’t think any of us have, how do you ever really come to terms with your nine year old son’s fifth heart surgery?
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