5:27 pm

Yesterday Brandon turned 8. He made his rounds asking everyone to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. He said "Dang I'm getting old!!" We took him out to eat at his favorite place and gave him his gifts. He didn't like anything he received because it didn't include a cell phone, vacuum, or carpet shampooer. But he didn't mind too much.

He was just enjoying the fact that it was "His day".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmEfopd3x1I
I received this link yesterday from a guy from MMA. It's a great video of Brandon & Tyrone Wright (The fighter who is dedicating his fight to Brandon).

9:52 pm

Today is a sad day for our family. My great aunt passed away today after a long illness. We know she is in a better place and she's no longer suffering. Despite this, we must continue our efforts to get Brandon to China - We know that's what she would've wanted. We leave in 16 days!! We had a wonderful weekend and met many people who will stay in our lives long after Brandon has the treatment. Saturday was the car wash fundraiser at the Hub. Between the car wash, chip repair, face painting, raffle ticket sales & donations, we raised $1,236.00. I am still selling raffle tickets so please let me know if you want in! The winners will be announced at Harmony Bowl on Academy at 3:30 Sunday August 3rd. During the car wash, Kathy had her family there to help. I can honestly say I have met the perfect family. She's been amazing - her kids are wonderful & her husband is great. Her 15 yr old daughter, Michelle, surprised me when she said that she liked her twin 11 yr old brother's Chris & Michael. My own daughter has little patience for her 2 brothers so I was expecting the same from Michelle. Not true - she truly likes hanging out with them & she's the perfect "Big Sister". Chris & Michael were so funny & adorable - we argued over football teams and I genuinely had fun being with all of them. Kathy's husband Chris was so helpful & easy going that it didn't take long before it was like hanging out with old friends. They made the day go by fast despite the heat. THANK YOU!! We met several people at the car wash who came out to meet Brandon after hearing his story on Channel 13 news. We couldn't have done it without The Hub Car Wash & their employees - THANK YOU! On Sunday we finally met Tammy & her family. Tammy got in touch with us after hearing about Brandon and wanted to help. They invited us over for a BBQ and they were wonderful hosts. Tammy made gift bags for all 3 kids. Brandon had a blast playing with a ball she had given him. He kept throwing it up towards the ceiling fan and thankfully he didn't break anything. The BBQ was absolutely wonderful - THANKS TAMMY!! I can't wait to get together again soon. After the BBQ we met with Kim Phillips, her beautiful kids, her husband Trent, his sister Thalia & her kids. They were so funny and soon after meeting them, they had us all laughing. They have graciously offered to perform at Harmony Bowl on August 3rd from 1pm to 4 pm (100% of all money raised will go to Brandon). We are looking forward to seeing them in action! They are very entertaining and I'm sure it will be memorable. We had such a great weekend despite the time constraints. We're looking forward to the new friendships we have developed and I'm sure we'll have plenty of laughs along the way - THANKS EVERYONE!!

Pictures:
1st - Brandon with the Gregory Family in front of the Hub. Left to Right: Chris, Michael, Chris, Michelle, Brandon & Kathy.
2nd: Brandon with Tammy at the BBQ.
3rd: Brandon with Tammy's grand kids & neice. Left to Right: Tyler, Sophia, Brandon and Kaelee. On the floor in front of them is Andrew and Brittney. They all live several hours away but we were fortunate to be there on a day that they got together. Brandon & Nick had fun playing with them!
4th: At Harmony Bowl - Standing with Brandon is George, Thalia, Kim, her husband, Trent & their three kids. Nick is hanging out in the background.

4:40 am

Today is the day of the car wash!! I'm looking forward to it - with a BBQ & face painting, it should be fun!! I haven't been sleeping well lately - completely stressed over the upcoming trip. ONLY 3 WEEKS AWAY!! I'm so afraid I'm going to forget something or get there & realize I should've brought something. I've never had anxiety attacks but I really think I've had a couple in the last couple of days!! If anyone has any tips on what to bring - PLEASE let me know. A lot of people who read this blog has already been to China and knows the ins & outs of it so I would appreciate any helpful tips. I purchased a translator to help us in our day to day adventures in China - PLUS hopefully it will help prevent an accidental ingestion of a cat or dog. I've been reading horror stories on what people are accidentally eating over there & it's pretty scary! Brandon on the other hand will be completely fine as long as he has his daily dose of Cinnamon Toast Crunch & fries. He's counting down to August 8th and reminds me every day of how long until we leave (of course I really don't need reminding - I'm aware of it every minute of the day!). I'm really happy that he's excited. We've been searching for a treatment for 7 years and our dream is about to become real. We honestly could not have done it without so many people. This journey has really opened my eyes to the fact there are so many others who need help. We recently met a blind man in Colorado Springs who has been down on his luck. He had a cane that needed to be replaced years ago and was in desperate need of a meal. We took him to a hamburger place & fed him then took him to his apartment. That night we ordered him a replacement cane. We really couldn't afford it but we felt the need to try and help him like people has helped us. I'm sure there has been several people who donated to Brandon that really couldn't afford to but felt the need to - just like we did with that man. His new cane arrived in the mail 2 days ago & it really felt good to give it to him. He was absolutely thrilled with it and thanked us repeatedly. I wish him luck in his future endeavours. Since Brandon was diagnosed with ONH, John & I have a new respect for the blind. I don't mean that we didn't have respect for them before but we can now appreciate the difficulties they face with day to day life. That could be why God chose us to have a blind child - maybe we needed to experience this first hand in order to be more understanding and better people. There's a reason we were given Brandon & I don't really care what the reason is - we love him so much & could never imagine life without him...

10:14 PM

The car wash will be this Saturday July 19th from 7:30 am to 6 pm at the Hub Car Wash & Diner at 4460 Forest Hill Rd (next to Garden of the Gods & Centennial). We will have Brandon there for most of the day. The car wash will be donating part of the sales to Brandon and will also be taking donations for him. There will be a BBQ, face painting & a chip repairman who are also donating a portion of the sales to Brandon. We also have several "Donation Prizes" valued at nearly $1,000.00!! Come on down & enjoy the day with us!! Channel 13 news was contacted by a company who would like to do a concert benefit for Brandon on July 26th. The singers are local talents and from what I've been told are well worth the time to go listen to them. They are working on an exact location and time so I'll let everyone know when I find out. We are turning in our Visa applications tomorrow - the very last application/form/paperwork that we have to do before we leave (I think!!). Brandon is so excited that the trip is only a few weeks away. He keeps asking what he'll be able to bring. Brandon has never played with traditional toys and has opted for electrical appliances. He likes to hear the blender, can opener and is sad that he will be unable to bring the vacuum or carpet shampooer to China with us. I told him that they are too big & the pilot of the plane won't let us take them. I couldn't imagine taking a vacuum to China for Brandon to play with! I really hope that after the treatment Brandon will start to enjoy normal toys. He really hasn't had a "childhood" to speak of. He has grown up not playing with toys or playing with other children. He has Courtney & Nick to play with but he doesn't like to. That has been the worst part of Brandon's condition. He is more like an adult than a child and he has missed out on so much growing up. If he can only gain one thing - I hope it would be for him to enjoy playing like other kids his age. He would be so much happier and I think he would enjoy life more. In just a few short weeks, his life will hopefully change for the better & I can hardly wait!!