the belles of the ball

a couple of months ago, a member of the development staff for duke children's hospital called us and asked if we might be willing to be 2010's Teddy Bear Ball patient family speakers. I actually remembered seeing the posters for it when Heath was in the hospital 2 years ago. we were honored to be asked--and the kids were excited about going to a BALL! (not that they understood either, but it sounded exciting!) Karen had gotten to know us well enough that she said, "now, there will be 750 people there, so it might freak ella brooks out..." she knows my girl. but, the thrill of the ball "gown" outweighed the scary thoughts of all those people. Heath and Chris got fitted for their tuxes, which apparently was hilarious in itself. The duke folks did everything they could to help us be prepared and for the kids to be comfortable--from getting us a suite at the hotel to having us come early in the day to "rehearse" to inviting mom and strow to join us so they could help us with the kids during the evening.

As you can see from the pics, it was quite an evening that none of us will ever forget. We arrived at the hotel to discover that the hotel staff (big cheers for the downtown durham marriott, btw) had left a spray of wine, cheese and fruit and chocolate milk for us...along with a couch full of gifts that brought absolute squeals of delight from my children--teddy bears with scarves embroidered with ella brooks and heath's names, coloring books, a truck for heath and a beautiful necklace/bracelet for eb. Their kindness was overwelming. We got our fancy clothes on (more pictures coming!) and made our way to the ball. The kids were pretty excited about the enormous playhouse that was being auctioned (made by the raleigh builder who did extreme home makeover--such a nice guy), got to drive the Barbie jeep (heath backed it off the playhouse pad and freaked us out earlier in the day!), made friends with lots of people who loved seeing them all dressed up, ran away from Wooly Bull (durham bulls mascot--my kids are not lovers of anything or anyone in costume!). The quote of the night: My mom looked at chris and said, "hey why don't you go grab a glass of wine?" Heath, who was standing next to Chris, said, "No thanks, I don't like wine..." hee, hee. He later did enjoy a little water in his wine glass.

We all went up on stage and I spoke for about 5 minutes. I will try to post the audio if I can get it from the Duke folks. Heath decided while on stage that he wanted the drumsticks that belonged to the band. Oh my. I just tried to step forward and keep talking. It was pretty emotional--but also very difficult to capture our feelings about our last two years and our experience at duke in 5 MINUTES!!! But, I think it went well.

Then, as we left the stage and Heath continued to pine for the drumsticks, they were surrounded by a throng of lovely ladies from Elon who were helping with the event, so they were pretty much in heaven. We're looking forward to the Elonthon--April 8-9, I think.

Heath even went back up and let the mc for the night (brian hoyle who is the "voice of the carolina hurricanes" who is a really great guy!) hold him while they were getting live auction bids. Pretty amazing. It was a moving evening--with beautiful music sung by 3 girls who have been patients at Duke and just the enormity of emotion that comes with seeing people be so supportive of duke children's. Then, the kids got to go have a sleepover with Ama and Grandpa while Chris and I stayed for the end of the fundraiser and a night away from home at the hotel!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh....

So, you'll hear more about our adventures soon, but i thought I would go ahead and post some pics and tell you a little about our night.

I almost can't imagine, or let myself imagine, what we were doing 2 years ago on this night. What a long way Heath has come!

I ask your prayers for our dear sweet Olivia (PICU roommate) who is back at Duke with some rejection issues. They are having a rough time. And I also ask for prayers for Uncle Robert and Aunt Sarah's family in New Orleans--his cousin's 11-year-old daughter was killed in a tragic accident a couple days after Thanksgiving. There really aren't words for the grief that this family is experiencing right now, and we are with them in Spirit and prayer each day.

Stay safe, warm and grateful for your blessings in this Advent season.

(also, read the blog post below that is also new)

carrie