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Garrett Burnham 
Check out Garrett's KidStrong website! garrettskidstrong.org Garrett's story is on there and donate page! Finally a working web site!
Journal
Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:31 PM CDT Hello All,
It has been a busy and lazy summer here. With gas prices we decided not to go to Florida this year and try to make the best of it here in Texas. My sister, Cathleen, and her family visited on their way to their new home in El Paso. What a shock for them to be moving from Germany, spend a while in Penn. then have to move to El Paso! I was so happy to see them! Brad is such a grown young man and Nathan is getting taller than I ever expected. Sometimes it hurts me to see these children grow up knowing that I will never see Garrett grow up. I have that feeling when I look at Kyle and Caleigh. Kyle is now 11 and Caleigh is 9. To tell you the truth, I think Caleigh looks more like Garrett than Kyle. But it is still hard to imagine Garrett at 13. I wish I could see what he would have looked like.
Several things have happened since I last posted. Garrett's gravesite had to be dug up. The reason being that all around where he is buried was lush green except an exact rectangle of what would be his coffin. I went to the manager of the grounds where he is buried and showed them what was going on and they could not give a reason why the grass had died in that fashion. Of course I was worried about the condition of his vault and they agreed with me that in order to find out what was going on we would need to dig up the grave to make sure the vault was not compromised. So I had to go through the ordeal of my son's burial plot being dug up and making sure the vault was intact. There is still no answer as to why the grass died in that shape and only over Garret's gravesite. But so far as seem to be well. I did not know that on his vault was his name and the birth and death dates on there, I had never seen the top of the vault before and that kind of got to me.
Other things that have been going on, Kyle got into baseball for the first time in his life and he excelled in it. He seems to be a natural pitcher, much to his father's delight. He even made All Stars his first time out. Kyle seem to really enjoy it and is looking into doing fall baseball instead of football which may be better for him since he was diagnosed with Von Willebrand's disease. Oh, I forgot to mention that. Kyle had a problem with brusing extremely bad even though it was a little bump. He would even bruise if I tickled him. Well, I took him to the doctor and they thought it might be diabites. He checked out okay there, but the endochronologist said to go to a hemotologist/oncologist, and yes, he went to Dr. Wells, Garrett's oncologist. The warning signs, the shivers, the anxiety and the worries all came back to me. Even though I have been in the clinic many a time since Garrett has passed doing activities through Garrett's KidStrong, taking your child in there to be tested just sent me into a spin. Kyle was diagnosed with a mild case of hemophillia and VWB disease and will be tested again before he goes back to school. We just have to watch him, he can still do all the activities he has done before, but just let the doctor know before he has to have any surgery or oral surgery done. As I am writing this, Kyle slipped a little while ago on the floor and hit his ankle on the reclyner that gave him two cuts and I know that by tomorrow his whole ankle will be a great big bruise. They tell me that this is passed on from the parents and I am sure that I am the one that passed it on to him because I bruise so easily but never thought to have myself tested for it.
Caleigh is doing well, growing like a weed. She finally agreed to have her hair trimmed the first time in three years. She wears glasses now, unfortunately I also passed on to her my vision. She got her first pair of glasses that change into sunglasses a couple of months ago. I have already spent more on her vision wear than mine!
I got word a couple of weeks ago that the Leathernecks and the Tornados are planning on having another benefit for Garrett's KidStrong this year!! What a great group of people we have here to do that. They really believe in us and what we are doing for the kids. We have terrific backing from the clinic and the new Dell Children's Hospital (in that they work well with us and are open to our suggestions when it comes to activities) I just wish that they would contribute financially to our endeavors, but we take it one step at a time. I appreciate that they call on us for our opinions when it comes to differetant activites and appreciate our input. I am proud to be able to contribute any way that I can to make these kids happy and hopefully have the best experience they can through their cancer journey. Unfortunately we have lost a few children these past few months and I truly feel for the parents and the siblings of these families. It is a very rough road ahead of them, it will have definite lows, but it does get better with time. You will always miss your child, but if you look back at the time that you had with that child and can truthfully say that you made the best of that time with that child, you can be sure that wherever that child is, they are happy.
With that thought I leave you for right now. Take time to be grateful for what you have, what you have had that may be gone now and live for tomorrow. Make tomorrow a better day, even with just a nod of the head and a "Hello" to a stranger. I must share this with you. When Garrett was a little boy he would listen for the garbage men to come by the house. He would jump with joy and run to the front door when he heard they were coming around the corner and he would greet the gentlemen twice each week with a smile and a wave. At Christmastime he convinced me to bake cookies for them and delivered them proudly to them just before Christmas when they came around. Now days you don't even think about the garbage people when they come around, they either come too early or you are not at home when they come. Well, I have to say that I have the most fantastic sanitary engineers that pick up our trash at our house. They don't know my family's trials that we have been through, but they are terrific. If I happen to be outside when they come around, even if they are three houses down, they yell "good morning." One time when I had forgotten to put something out and I went running out there to catch them the gentleman said, "I am glad you caught us and God Bless you." I have to think back to when Garrett was so nice and thoughtful and I have to think that this is the repayment of his thoughtfullness and caring. What goes around, comes around.
Take care of yourselves and your family. Take care of your neighbors and your community. Take the time to acknowledge someone you don't even know with a nod of the head and a Hello. What goes around, comes around.
Read Journal History
Hospital Information: Patient Room: In your heart Heaven
Second cloud from the right
First Rainbow
Just Pray and I will Answer
Links: http://caringbridge.org/tx/jacobf Jacob's page
http://garrettskidstrong.org Garrett's KidStrong Program
http://cookwalden.mem.com/display/Tributes.asp?ID=692428 Garrett's memorial page
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