This little guy is for our friends first ever little baby, I’m very excited. Glenn and I went to Uni with the Daddy (sorry didn’t check whether they minded their names being plastered all over the internet) so we have known them for a while and have been patiently wondering when they were going to produce a play mate for our horde.

I think he looks a little like an Eliphoctopus with legs like that. I like saying Eliphoctopuss because it makes Glenn think I’m saying a bad word and then he giggles, I’m probably going to get in trouble for writing that.

Their nursery seamed to be mostly red cream and green so the little elephant is wearing colours to match.  His ears are made out of crocheted circles. I’ve only ever made granny squares before look at me branching out. The eye are hand embroidery, in fact every stitch in him is done by hand as I still don’t have a sewing machine (do you sense the frustration??)

I know, enough of the elephant already but this was Glenn’s favourite photo. Apparently he likes looking up elephant noses. I liked another one better so to avoid conflict you get to see both.

All jokes aside I am so very thrilled to welcome a new baby to that ring of people that dwell close to the heart. I hope and pray that his new little owner has a wonderful life and that she grows to love and appreciate the beautiful family she has been born into.

I feel a little like I’m cheating but I’m not really I swear. When I read that the theme for My Place and Yours hosted at Hello Owls was Collections my first thought was oh poo. You see because we moved into a smaller house, had an extra child and immediately started renovating most of the items that fall into the category of ‘My Stuff” are still locked up in boxes at my parents house. And to make it worse I’m the type of person that likes collecting. I have a collection of horse figurines that I have collected since I was 6, all but three books from the entire Trixi Beldon series and a lovely button collection my Mum started before I was born, but can I get my hands on any of them, no. 

So I wasn’t going to join in but then I thought there must be something I’m collecting at the moment. Then realization dawned, there is, something really important. I am collecting PRAYERS and AWARENESS.

You see my friends Bubba Finn has Cancer, Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, which is a nasty one and a hard one to detect. That’s why collecting Awareness is so important. Finn had symptoms but if you didn’t know what you were looking for you would dismiss them as normal quirks of development, in fact doctors did. When Finn started to crawl he had his own style favouring one leg and dragging the other one along behind so he was sit crawling. Then when he started to walk, on his first birthday, he had an odd little limp. Jo (His Mum) took him to doctors and he was having physio. He went off his food but this is all around the age that babies are teething so it was easy to believe that teething was the cause. Then he started having temperatures and just seeming off and unwell. Jo just had that feeling, you know the one were you know something is off and eventually after many doctors visits and tests they found a 5 x8cm mass above his kidney. It tested positive for cancer and then they found that the cancer had spread to his bone marrow and other parts of his body. Other kids diagnosed with Neuroblastoma present with black eyes, sometimes referred to as racoon eyes. Look here If you would like to know more about Neuroblastoma or find out how you can support children’s cancer research or the Children’s Hospital.

Now to my prayer collection. I am asking everyone I come across at the moment to pray for Finn.

  Super strong Finn started chemo yesterday, this is no huge revelation, he’s been off to the hospital every three weeks for chemo for so long now I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t texting Jo with questions about blood counts.  It’s surreal how easily words like bone barrow, ECG, MRI and central line fit into our everyday conversations. But this round of treatment is a little different. Finn is having a stem cell transplant. They are using his own cells so there will be no problems with rejection but before he can get his cells they need to give his body a massive dose of chemo. This will wipe out his entire immune system you cannot survive this amount of chemo. That is why the next part is referred to as stem cell rescue as the new cells will hopefully cause his body to start producing cells of his own effectively rescuing him from death. But oh boy its a scary process.

It isn’t an operation, the cells are injected through his line as far as I can gather, but he will get very sick and he will be in hospital in isolation with his Mummy for 6 weeks. Then after that he we have to remain in isolation at home for a further 6 months as his immune system will be more fragile than a new born baby’s. No play time with friends.

  So that means this is that last photo we will have like this for the next 7 1/2 months.

So PLEAES PLEASE PLEASE help my collection grow. Any prayers, best wishes, kind thoughts or I hate Cancer This Totally Sucks comments will get to Jo. Jo also has her own blog that she updates from hospital so we can all keep track of this amazing little guys progress. I’m so thankful the internets were invented other wise she drop of the face of the earth for half a year.