Sharing is Caring

The day after the steak night in Regina was Myles's first day of preschool. As we were on our way out the door Owen says, "Mom, how are you going to spend your first two hours by yourself this morning?" I laughed at him and said I wasn't too sure what I would do...I assured him that I'd probably just be lonely here without them!

He shocked me in his response, "Mom, I think you should use your time to write your blogs. I was the only kid that listened to you when you spoke at the supper last night. I didn't realize that we had cancer in our family. I think your blogs are important." I took a minute to give him a hug and say thank you before we got him off to school.

I realized that we had underestimated his ability to understand what I've been working towards this year. Obviously the boys know that I've been running quite a bit, but we hadn't thought that they would (or maybe at this age should) understand my motivation for doing so. As I had shared in a post back in January, Owen's reaction to Heather's passing was more profound than we had anticipated too. The way that he accepts that cancer and the consequences of the disease are terrible, and yet he seems able to take solace in the fact that we are doing our best to help, reassures me.

In the couple of weeks since then, he has enjoyed learning about Terry Fox at school. They watched a movie, had an assembly and learned all about Terry Fox and his attempt to run across Canada.

Last weekend we had a garage sale. I thought setting up an iced tea stand would be a good way to keep the boys occupied and out of trouble while my parents and I tried to keep the place organized and running smoothly. They were EXCITED! Grandma helped them make their sign, mix the first batch of juice and organize their table. They were open for business!

You should have seen the cute little faces they had as they waited to make a sale (I am so angry with myself for totally dropping the ball and not getting a picture of them!). It didn't take long until someone took pity on them. After their first couple of 'customers', Owen came over to me and said, "Mom, Myles and I have decided that we are going to give all of the money we earn to the Canadian Cancer Society and we'll take it to the school for the Terry Fox walk." That was one of my greater PROUD MOM moments to date!

We put a little sticker on their table that said they were donating their earnings and suddenly business was BOOMING! What started out as an innocent attempt to keep my boys busy, ended up keeping my mom hopping for the afternoon! She mixed pitcher after pitcher of iced tea, she ran to the store for more cups and just when she thought she'd caught up Myles would holler, "we need another fill up Gramma!" When it was all said and done, the boys had made $26.15!!! At 25 cents a cup....you do the math....WAY TO GO boys!....WAY TO GO Grandma!

My mom was so proud of their efforts that she pledged Owen an additional $20 for his walk. He was thrilled when he took his donation to school on Monday.

Yesterday, the kids and I went to the school to join the walk. Again, Owen caught me by surprise. I had to fight back tears when he came out with his classmates. They each had a big sticker on their fronts that said, "Terry Fox 2012. Today I'm running for..." Most of the kids had filled it in with "Terry Fox" a couple had "For Grandpa" or "For Grandma". Owen had filled his in "For Heather".

He was happy to have us there and we were happy to join him. It was a BEAUTIFUL Fall day to walk around town.

Owen has always been a deep thinker and he's wise beyond his years. Teaching him to share when he was younger, was one of my very hard fought battles! I can see now, that it was well worth the effort. I am so proud of the thoughtful & compassionate little man that he is becoming.