#Be a Grown Up

When I came home from work today my three year old son Lincoln heard me outside and ran to the door yelling "Daddy's home, Daddy's home!" Since it was my daughter Emma's first day of school, and he knew that big boys and girls get to go to school, he said to me, "Dad, I want to ask you a question. Dad, what do you want to be when you grow up"? I paused for a second and tried to be as serious as I could as I looked at him with deep thought behind my eyes and speaking softly said, "I would like to be just like you Lincoln." He started giggling and then I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said "I want to be Iron Man!"

 

You hear kids say things all the time like "I want to be a veterinarian" or "I want to play major league baseball" but you know that it is usually wishful thinking at the time and our dreams change into the reality of life as we know it now. What do you think would happen though if everyone became what they wanted to be as a child? Would the world be a better place because all boys could hit home runs and all of the animals of the world were healthy and not endangered from being extinct? I guess we will never know because of many things that change in us in our younger years.

 

Right now there are thousands of children with dreams that are fading with the dawn of each new day because of pediatric cancer, the #1 disease that steals children's futures. Times are hard enough for children that are not hanging on to life and Growing Up now feels too far out of reach for so many who have no chance for a cure. I wonder what would happen if all of the children of the world got together and started talking about why they were not going to be able to Grow Up like most kids.

 

Do you think that they would say that they couldn't grow up because they didn't have any hair?

Would they talk about all the weight they gained because of all of the steroids that had to take that made them hungry everyday?

Would they say that because they are sick, there would be no hope for helping animals?

 

 

Its hard for adults themselves to think about seeing the future of these young kids when all they can imagine is the pain they are going through. Adults know that being a Grown Up is not always easy and sometimes very painful itself, but the one thing you would never hear from a child is that all of the Grown Ups never did anything to make my dreams come true. If that is the case, is that the reality? Are we as Grown Ups so focused on still trying to Grow Up ourselves that we don't think about those who have yet to grow into anything at all? Have you given all of your dreams away to a self inflicted nightmare that leaves no room for you to help a child dealing with a life threatening disease? Is your heart so bound up that you can't even look for a moment into the eyes of a child losing their future to cancer? Its time to take a deep hard look inside and listen to your heart as it continues to beat and hear the voices and see faces of children who could still have a future because you cared. Its time to Be a Grown Up and stop dreaming because being responsible is your Reality. Listen to their Voices, see their Faces as you watch this. (Thank you David Cook for this Song)

 

 

 

Lets start a movement for the lives of our children fighting cancer and choose to #BeAGrownUp once and for all.

 

Please follow me on Twitter @ Brian Jones‏@ricksson33 and please help start Trending #BeAGrownUp and

#PostitTweetitShareitSIGNit #PostitTweetitshareitSIGNit #PostitTweetitShareitSIGNit #PostitTweetitShareitSIGNit http://thetruth365.org/petition 

 

 

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Life Interrupted

If you have kids you know that when you are right in the middle of something important, like writing a blog, there is always a huge interruption. Right now my two kids are interrupting the rest of the house like this as I write, and it has taken me 22 minutes to write 2 sentences because they keep calling me to play...be right back after the next pillow fight.

 

Now 34 minutes later I have at least 3.5 minutes to add a few more words while they start winding down for the night. I always give them a 5 minute warning which is usually more like 15 and then my son shouts out, how about 6 more hours? Wouldn't that be nice. Now nearly an hour and a half later I am spending some quite time outside on my laptop, only to hear the neighbors screaming kids avoiding bed time. Good thing I have earphones and some loud music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life can be full of interruptions and we don't have time for most of them because when we finally get focused enough to be productive something unexpected always seems to come into play. Sometimes distractions come when we are trying ourselves to relax a little on a Sunday night or during the championship game that's only on once a year. How do we deal with those things that just don't have any room in our lives when there are greater and more demanding needs? Everyone needs a break from the relentless forces of distractions and I'll tell you from personal experience that you don't want to be caught with out some spare parts when a breakdown becomes a meltdown. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is something I read today about a life interrupted, from a humorous advice column written by a friend of mine, please take a moment to read @ http://valleyrave.com/Advice-detail/ask-mr-bitter-10/

 

 

 

We now Interrupt You with a Word from...

 

 

 

 

For 13,500 families in the next 365 days there is one huge interruption that not a single one of them would ever expect to happen. From September 4th, 2012 to September 4th, 2013 thousands of families will inevitably experience a diagnosis of pediatric cancer that will peel the layers of their lives to the core. This isn't something that happens just once every ten years like a war, or every 4 years like the summer Olympics because it happens every year without fail. These people who's children will not get to go to school this year will not take an extended vacation to Disneyland because they will head straight to the ER of the closest children's hospital. Father's are going to have to drop out of their Fantasy Football Leagues and Mothers are going leave the comfort of their homes and away from the care of many other children because an extremely underfunded disease will take hostage a child from everything they ever knew. Our government will call this something that rarely happens but with the lost voices of children passing away day after day, someone must step in and speak up louder than ever before for the cause of children with cancer.

 

 

...The Truth

 

 

 

Right now you may be taking your very first step in advocating for childhood cancer this September and its so easy that you could do it during an earthquake.

 

 

 

 

 

Start by signing the Petition  http://thetruth365.org/petition/

 

LIKE and SHARE The Truth 365 page @ http://www.facebook.com/theTruth365film

 

 

Celebrate Kids on the Wall of Fame @ http://www.facebook.com/redcarpetkidsforthecure

 

Speak up to Silence Cancer @ http://www.facebook.com/speakuptosilencecancer

Join Jessie in NEGU @ http://www.facebook.com/JessieReesFoundation

 

 

 

 

and now you can follow the Ronan Thompson Foundation on Twitter @

https://twitter.com/RonanFoundation

When Stars Fall

Today I heard someone say how hard it was to believe that it was already September. With so many things happening during the summer a lot of people feels like it ended before it began. I know that working an average of 65 hours a week May-August, the end could not come soon enough but with family vacations, warm days and many events like the State fair, letting go of summer and moving into the school year is easier said than done.

One of my favorite summer past times as a kid was spending night after night on top a roof top watching for shooting stars with my friends. We would spend hours outside late into the night watching for just a handful of meteorites to pass through the atmosphere. One late August night we witness something that we thought we would never see again. The Perseid meteor shower gave us a show of nearly 200 meteorites that night and was better than any 4th of July fireworks display I had ever seen. Today I think of about 200 children that have become Star in my life since I became aware of childhood cancer.

Today as people enjoyed the sunny day the stars that fell above would not be seen, but late this afternoon the life of two of very big stars would come to the end of their journey. As Facebook and Twitter lit up like an August meteor shower when a famous movie actor suddenly passed away, a little boy would fight with the Heart of a "Lyon" as he entered heavens gates. Both losses were shocking to those who knew believed deserved more of a life, but only one would make the trending headlines on Yahoo and Twitter.

Tonight as I write, I find it hard to believe that any life should be less than 80 years, but with the way our health systems function, I find it harder to believe that a child is no longer a priority when it comes to funding research for life threatening childhood diseases like cancer. Now as another family plans a funeral for their child I pray that their story would make an impact like a giant meteor crashing down to earth.

 

Rest in Peace brave little ones, please listen to this.

Share the Truth that Hope is Alive Saving lives begins right here by signing the petition that demands funding for critical research http://thetruth365.org/petition/ LIKE and SHARE the page @ http://www.facebook.com/theTruth365film Celebrate Kids on the Wall of Fame @ http://www.facebook.com/redcarpetkidsforthecure Speak up to Silence Cancer @ http://www.facebook.com/speakuptosilencecancer Join Jessie in NEGU @ http://www.facebook.com/JessieReesFoundation

We Believe!

This weekend I went to visit my brother and his family for a relaxing day during the holiday weekend. My sister joined us with her son so the boys could all play in the pool. My daughter Emma can handle herself with all of her boy cousins but with the new arrival of my niece she has someone to look forward to playing with. My wife also saw her brother and niece and nephew today and brought Lincoln along. I didn't realize it until then that all of these little ones Max, Amanda, Emma, Hunter, Bradyn, Ethan, Brynlee and Conner are all names I recognized from the kids that I follow who have cancer. Even though names are common it is terribly sad that I am aware of these names that my nephews and nieces share. It really says something about how many children have been affected by cancer but it says nothing about how rare children's cancer is.

 

 

In 2011 when the doctors diagnosed our 2 year old son Lincoln with leukemia, I would have more likely believed that dinosaurs were my neighbors pets, and they don't even have any. The rug was swiftly pulled out from under us and the life we thought we were on track to live was a dirt road to nowhere.

 

Our family had already lost a child just one year before that fateful day, and it felt like the final blow from the monster that had come to steal, kill and destroy our families faith. Hope felt out of reach and fear began to set in as our only sons life was being threatened by the unstoppable force of cancer. Now one year later we have overcome a lot of doubts but we can never look at our sons life the same way because we will never be 100% sure it won't come back.

 

Last September I payed close attention to every facebook page and caring bridge that had a child with cancer and I began to hope again. Even thought I witness one tragic loss after another from children of all ages and all types of cancers I noticed something that was undeniable. Through a network of families, friends and a significant amount of complete strangers, the hope that was shattered like glass on D-day would become like flakes of Gold, that once having gone through the fire, would be molded into a purified hope, that one day cancer would not longer be able to steal a child's life.

 

With the belief that people could join together as an army united "in the power of hope and the strength of peace" We believe we can make the world aware to fund and find a cure for our children fighting this fear. Let the Truth be heard with "One Voice" this September during childhood cancer awareness month @ http://thetruth365.org/

 

Do You Believe...   I Believe...   We Believe...

(please listen)

 



Share the Truth that Hope is Alive Saving lives begins right here by signing the petition that demands funding for critical research http://thetruth365.org/petition/


LIKE and SHARE the page @ http://www.facebook.com/theTruth365film
Run for Lincoln! @ https://www.facebook.com/RunningForLincoln
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State of Awareness

During the summer months there are a lot more people on the roads from other states here in Oregon. We drove up to Long Beach, Washington last weekend and I wanted to see how many license plates from other states I could find. Normally I would be unaware and only notice a few like Washington, Idaho and California, but as I actively looked for each state you wouldn't believe what I discovered. I have seen plates from Florida, Texas Alaska and even Hawaii but when I counted over 70% of our country within 120 miles of highway, I was shocked! The amount of people who wanted to visit a few small coastal towns in Oregon and Washington was almost mind blowing, but what's even more baffling is how many people are totally and utterly unaware of how many children in these states are diagnosed with cancer each and every year.

If you have ever heard the name Kyron Horman you know that the mission to find this missing child received national attention from right here in Oregon. For those who pay attention in their social media circles, cancer is worse than a serial kidnapper running rampant. What if 13,500 children vanished from their schools like Kyron did one day, would anybody notice? Would the news channels help in a campaign to reveal the ones responsible? When cancer steals a young persons life or their treatment keeps them from going to school like normal children, there is a massive void that cannot be refilled.

As September begins and children are going back to school we quickly become aware of school zones as children are walking safely to their classrooms.

Here is a great opportunity and reminder to keep yourself in a constant State of Awareness that thousands of children will be missing from their classrooms this year because of cancer.  When you pass through a school zone you cannot use your cell phone, but with your eyes wide open, you can say a prayer for the kids that will spend 7 days a week in a hospital because of limited treatment options. When you see the number 20, remember that more than twice as many kids will be diagnosed with cancer today, tomorrow and the next day. When you see the color yellow, remember that Living Strong is an understatement when kids fight cancer and they deserve a Gold medal on their journey to recovery. Finally when you see this...

...remember that you are responsible for watching out for all children everywhere.

Run for the White House for #OurKids @ https://www.facebook.com/RunForTheWhiteHouseForChildhoodCancerAwareness