Big Update on Emily and LGF

April was quite the month with all of the flooding around us and we narrowly escaped it all and were/are very thankful as we tend to flood out here.  Some basement water, but we are used to that.  Our friends around us were not so fortunate and our hearts still go out to all as everyone affected tries to recover.  We partnered up with Nebraska Community Blood Bank again this year and have done even more with them and more to come as we know first hand what blood donations do in helping to save lives like our Emily! We also helped out our friends with Angels Among Us as they opened up a new center at the Ronald Mc Donald House of Omaha and we got to meet the real Ronald!  AAU helps children and their families like they helped us when Emily was going through cancer treatments to help pay regular bills as they don't stop for cancer or any disease.
May we had a StormChasers fundraising baseball event, celebrated Emily and Joe's 11th kidney birthday on May 6th and Emily's younger sister's birthday- she turned 8 years old.  We also celebrated AAU's grand opening and LLS ( Lymphoma Leukemia Societies) Gala and our friend Lily was girl of the year and one of Emily's docs,Patel, got Man of the Year! The girls finished their 9th grade and 2nd grade years of school and then we had a Ribbon Cutting for our NCBB friends where I spoke about Emily's impact as a blood recipient.  (Grandma J in the mean time was in Hawaii being treated like a Queen with her eldest son, Chuck and his wife Annie- a much deserved month's vacation!)
This brings us to June: I went on a much needed 3 day retreat and Joe handled things around here with the girls.  I had been running like a mad woman and until I stopped for FIVE minutes and gave myself permission to tune out I hadn't realized how crazy busy I had been.  SO thanks hubby!  Then We all left for COLORADO!  5 days of mountain bliss!  We stayed with Emily's very best favorite nurse ever, Leanna and her sweet family for 2 days and then stayed in the Rocky Mountains for two days in a tent!  The weather was amazing- comfortable warm during the day and cold at night!  What an adventure we had.  We knew Emily would be wiped out after, but it was worth it to create those memories as a family.  She tried to attend one day of her usual Children's Choir Camp but was too worn out to go all week.  Taylor-Jo attended gymnastics camp and then Grandpa and Grandma King camp in Iowa the following week. She on the other hand was not worn out and loved it all!
Our ROUGHRIDERS friends honored Emily at their big charity event last weekend where I was asked to speak and we were also surprised with another generous donation- well several by nite's end for our Little Giants Foundation!  And yesterday we rounded out the month with a Sweet 16 honorary blood drive for Emily with NCBB and we are pretty sure we met and exceeded our goal, which means many lives saved with blood donations that feed into our hospitals where Emily is a recipient and funding for our foundation for SIOD research at Stanford! And Emily was on a billboard in Omaha gifted to us to promote the drive!  So thank you to all who participated yesterday!
Tragedy struck our town of Gretna, and many of you may have heard in the news about the 4 of 5 young girls who lost their lives in a car crash on June 17th.  Addisyn Pfeifer was a friend of ours, her whole family and she had just turned 16.  Emily phrased it best when asked how she was doing with the loss of her friend, "I am sad and mad!"
Our hearts truly go out to all of the families and to the young girl, Roan who is still with us recovering from burns. Our family lost Kyle and his friend Jake when seniors in HS in that same location in December of 2006, so I may not know your loss, but our family does and we ache for you all.  All we can do is continue to lift all up in loving light.
And speaking of loving light- Emily officially turns 16 on July 8! Such a blessing and so astounding as children with SIOD usually don't live past the age of 9.  We know what a gift she and her sister are and are so excited to celebrate this milestone!
Thanks again for tuning in and I will work to attach some photos and videos, too!
BELIEVE-
Erin Koesters