Kayla's Mission

At various times over the past couple of days, when I look at Angus, my throat constricts. My tummy turns and I work hard to hold back the welling in my eyes. He is just months away from turning four and he is absolutely beautiful. He sings and dances, tells jokes and giggles uncontrollably at almost anything. He is in his element when doing art and craft and delights in constructing objects from the ground up. The higher, the better. He demolishes his food and keeps the dairy industry in business with his intake of milk and yoghurt. He is revered by his baby brother, who thinks he is just the bees knees. And he is. He is almost four and I adore him, more than words can say.

Today, I made a comment on a post by one of my favourite bloggers. About how I will never truly understand why some things happen. Why really bad, tragic things happen. My sis-in-law's niece has a little girl a couple of months older than Angus. During our pregnancies, Stef and I connected over email on numerous occasions. Sharing in the excitement of our pregnancies and subsequent births. She in Adelaide, I in Sydney, but linked by a common bond. Our precious first borns. In April this year, her sweet girl Kayla, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. My heart aches terribly to even write that sentence. I just. don't. understand. This dreaded disease, cancer, takes on so many forms. It creeps up like an evil predator and indiscriminately shatters the lives of good, honest, wonderful people. 

I've felt such a strong sense of sorrow since learning of Kayla's condition. It has shaken me to the core. Stef has set up Kayla's Mission, a facebook page dedicated to her beautiful daughter's fight for survival. This evening, I cried long and hard reading Stef's updates on Kayla's progress. My gorgeous, almost four year old boy sleeping by my side on the lounge. All those tiny day-to-day hiccups that tend to get me down, fade to insignificance. The health of my boys is the greatest gift I could ever wish for and THE most important thing in the world. I hope and pray with every inch of my being, that darling Kayla can get back to being her four year old self sooner than later.