At It Again

Jack and Sally went out on the town this Halloween. Aside from scaring our niece, Mary, I would say it was a success.

And now that Halloween is over, we can get to the good stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, my grandma and I made a trip up to Primary Children's Hospital. There was a meeting for the Festival of Trees (read about our experience last December here), and she was kind enough to go with me. I was still a little on the fence about donating a tree to this wonderful cause. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was a little hesitant about asking for help (again).

Following the meeting, we started to make our way out of the hospital. We waited for the elevator to get up to our floor and when the doors opened up, we could see a little four-year-old girl sitting in a wheelchair. She was hooked up to several machines, needles pressed into her tiny arms, and tears stained her pale cheeks.

Grandma and I got in the elevator after our little encounter with that beautiful girl. After pressing the button to return to the bottom floor, I looked at my grandma who was starting to cry.

"And that's why you need to do this...," she whispered. "Because of the little children who need your help."

So we are donating a tree again, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Last year, we donated a tree in appreciation of all the things PCH did for Porter following his accident. This year we are doing a BYU sports-themed tree (because Porter works for the football team, so we can get some sweet stuff) and also to honor the biggest Cougar fan we know.

And since I know he is definitely reading this, I might as well let him know via the blog.

Dad, this year's tree is in honor of you. Despite receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, you never quit on us. I will never forget that devastating phone call (which came just weeks after I got married) and thinking even though I had moved onto a new stage in my life, I still needed my Dad. You went through chemo with a smile on your face (at least in front of us kids) and always remained positive. Even when it appeared you would lose that fight, you battled back. If only the BYU football team had a little more "Howard" in 'em... :)

I have had a few people ask me how they can donate and so we have set up a site again. You can find it here. We truly appreciate any and all help we can get.

If you have any problems following the link, please let me know. You can also copy and paste the below link into your browser:

http://www.gofundme.com/gmbfe8

All money raised will go towards our tree and if there is any left over, we will donate the remainder of it to the hospital like we did last year.

No child is ever turned away from PCH due to inability to pay. Funds raised at events like Festival of Trees are a huge blessing to families and children during their time of need. Remember to come out and see all of the decorated trees December 3rd-6th at the Sandy Expo Center.

We truly appreciate all of your help. This will be the last year we will have the opportunity to do this, so we want to go out with a bang!