Christmas Eve 2011
Merry Christmas!
Please join me in praying for all of the children who face the life-and-death battle of cancer this Christmas.
God, please give these kids the courage, resilience, and the will to fight.
Please bless their families and give them the strength to deal with this unthinkable horror.
Please bless all of the dedicated caregivers in the hospitals and clinics who treat our children as if they were their own.
Please bless the anonymous scientists who, through their brilliance and passion, fight every day to find cures and improved treatment protocols.
Please bless the supporters of The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, and the supporters of all of the other childhood cancer charities, who support our battle for “our kids” even though they have not walked in our shoes. May they never hear the words “Your child has cancer!”.
Please bless our friends and colleagues all around the country who tirelessly fight childhood cancers through their organizations. May there never be competition, but only collaboration, between all of us.
And, please God bless the families who have lost a child or children from this earthly world. I don’t ask for prayers for the kids, like Andrew, because I know that they have earned their place beside you in your Kingdom. May families, like mine, receive strength everyday from our sons and daughters in Heaven and smile and laugh as we try to focus on all of the great memories.
Thank you, God.
Andrew, Merry Christmas, Pal. We LOVE you SOOOOO much. (See picture below of Andrew’s last Christmas here. He has his two special gifts — a Jeff Samardzija Notre Dame football jersey from Ali and an aluminum baseball bat from “Santa”.)
Ali & Andrew’s Dad
