Happy Thanksgiving

Hello and happy Thanksgiving! It has been a very challenging year but we are thankful for so many things, most of all the love and support from our family and friends.

Yesterday we returned from a Carnival cruise that took us to Cozumel, Mexico. We had a great time and the girls had the opportunity to swim with the dolphin. On board we celebrated Bubba's 70th birthday and Auntie Laurie flew in all the way from Oregon to surprise Bubba and join us all on the cruise. We made some great new friends that will be friends for life. Photos will go up on the blog soon!

Before our cruise, Sammy had a chest CT that revealed one nodule in her right lung. We were all upset but relieved that it was only one. It's got to come out and surgery is scheduled for November 30th. Like before, it will be a thoracotomy with an approximate one week stay at Boston Children's. Sammy's team at Dana Farber is contemplating how to proceed with medication post-surgery. There are a few options they are considering.

Hopefully Sammy will recover as quickly as she has in the past because she is eager to make an appearance at a pediatric cancer research fundraiser put on by the band Jody Joseph and the Average Joes. Uncle Jonathan is the drummer for the band which is based out of NJ. The concert is scheduled for 12/15 at The Stone Pony in NJ. So for all of you blog readers who live out that way, please come to the show if you can. It should be a lot of fun! I am going to try to paste a link on the blog so people can check it out for more details. If I don't succeed in posting the link in the margin, please check http://www.jodyjoseph.net/.

We received a call yesterday from Matt Albuquerque, Sammy's prothetist at Next Step. Though Sammy likes Miss Walker and the new cover Next Step recently placed on Miss Walker, the reality is that the cover does not look that much like Sammy's left leg had... Matt wanted to do better for Sammy so he contacted an England company, Dorset, that makes life like covers made out of silicone. Heather Mills was instrumental in designing the product. When Matt explained how important aesthetics are to Sammy and the friendship between Sammy and Heather, Dorset offered to make a cover for Miss Walker free of charge. That's a big deal and we are so grateful. So Miss Walker will soon be flying off to England to get a makeover. She'll probably be ready for her debut once Sammy has recovered from surgery. Again, I'll try to place a link in the margin but just in case, check out http://www.dorset-ortho.co.uk/.

Speaking of Heather Mills ... it has really been bugging us about how much bad publicity Heather gets. For those of you who actually follow the stuff, Heather has a new publicist, Michele Elyzabeth. Michele is the person who helped put the Dancing With the Stars trip together. She has contacted our family several times since our trip just to see how Sammy is doing. The media refers to Michele as being "eccentric" and "crazy." I could not disagree more. Michele is the type of person you would want to have as a friend because she's just down to earth and fun. Michele started a blog to counter the allegations that are made against Heather. I can't speak to the relationship between Heather and Paul, but I can tell you about the relationship she has with Sammy. Heather reached out to Sammy right after Sammy's amputation because friends of ours from Bow emailed Heather just to see if Heather would. Heather actually replied to the emails and contacted Sammy. It got crazier when our friend thought why not try to see if Heather could get the family tickets to DWTS... Heather and Michele pulled it off with no expectations in return. They just wanted to do something kind. I have no doubt that the friendship with Heather was a contributing factor that now gives Sammy the courage to take dance lessons and hip hop dance (on one leg and in a high heel) in front of a crowd on a cruise ship at karaoke. So, because I am so crazy about Heather and Michele, I'm posting the link to Michele's blog. But again, just in case, it's http://www.micheleelyzabeth.blogspot.com/.

I think that's about it for now. Eat a lot tomorrow.

Lots of love,

Shari and David