As December ends and January starts we all have excitement.  A close of one year and the start of a new one.  A fresh start, new plans and visions, new resolutions and new opportunities for a fresh start.  Unfortunately for parents who have lost a child it just represents another year longer without their child.  A year further removed from the last time they saw them alive, another day they are not here.  

This new year though can be a bit more difficult because we now enter into a new decade.  Twenty twenty (2020) represents a new chapter in this world that does not include their loved one.  

I often wonder how big Gabriella would be?  How tall would she be compared to her siblings?  How would her voice sound like or what changed interests would she have?  

This new decade brings about a new season for all of us but many families will be clinging on to the previous decade because it was during a period of time when all seemed normal.  It was and now it isn’t! 

I too will forever be stuck in the past decade, 2015, a memory of the year my baby passed away and went home to heaven.  I like many families will enter 2020 with a deep scar that will never go away and never be covered.  I wear my scar openly and never cover up my wounds.  I never want to forget and never want others to forget my sweet Gabriella.  

Be patient with us and don’t try to fix us.  We enter 2020 forcefully grieving forward.  Hug us, love us but most importantly, Remember!  Remember as we Hold on!  

Happy New Year

After Gabriella passed away I was reminded of a conversation I had with a fellow father who had lost his daughter to the same cancer that took Gabriella’s life. He told me with complete honesty and with great sincerity, not to offend me or make me feel inadequate in my decisions, but a comment that forever remains part of who I am. He said, “no matter what decision you make for your daughter, THAT IS THE RIGHT DECISION”! This was such a liberating statement. It didn’t matter what others said or what others wanted or suggested to me. The decision was our families and ours alone. That lifted the weight of the bombardment of suggestions we received during Gabriella’s journey. Although many suggestions were sincere, many were cold hearted and unthoughtful. We cocooned ourselves within a small circle of influencers and dove head first into this dark and painful pediatric cancer journey.

Many nights we were at a breaking point of borderline insanity and desperation! This “thing” that keeps me up at times is intermittent and does seem further and further apart, but when it comes, it comes with a tenacity as if I were reliving the same moments when Gabriella was alive.

I attribute much of who I am today to these emotions that I battle to become a better person and focus my attention on helping others.

These families struggling with children with cancer need our help and I intend to be one many to help them.

Please consider coming along this journey with me... with us! I guarantee you won’t regret a single moment of it!

When you come across a family, a friend or even a stranger with a child with cancer, remember they are part of a club now they can’t escape. Lend a hand of support or a simple gesture that signals to them you are thinking of them or perhaps praying for them. Lets help these families know they are not alone and they have our support to embrace them in the dire time of need.

I am Ordained with the Assemblies of God and look forward to sharing our positive message with you.

The project called “The Strong Initiative” is part of “Gabriella’s Smile”, and "STRONGERthandipg”, and will involve our work in the community and across the country as we share Gabriella’s story and bring awareness to DIPG and pediatric cancer.

We hope to grow this project by working not only helping families, and funding research, but also to help bring a positive message to families facing pain and discouragement. We hope to help families find purpose beyond their pain.

Please join us as we embark on our journey by subscribing to this blog or liking our page on Facebook called The Strong Initiative.

We have a Voice

We have a Call

We all have a Purpose

Res.69: Crucial Awareness Supports Greater Research from the Tragic Example of DIPG

Dr. Michelle Monje Deissiroth of Stanford University and Dr. Adam Green of University of Colorado, Denver, join us to discuss the breadth of their research as pediatric neuro-oncologists, specifically regarding DIPG, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. They discuss how they were inspired to study this particular disease as a focal point for much of their research, and the general state of the research landscape with regard to the challenges facing treatment and the hope of new discoveries which give important clues to causes and biological understanding. Dr. Monje and Dr. Green were conferring experts of Congressman Steve Knight's (CA-25) H.Res.69, the DIPG Awareness Resolution, which designates an Awareness Day for DIPG, and confronts the inadequacies of a medical research culture which systematically neglects those most urgently needing solutions, children with cancer. (35:05) Cecilio Torres, who’s daughter tragically died of brain cancer and began the Gabriella's Smile Foundation(San Antonio, TX) in her honor, gives us the unique perspective as a parent. He is joined by Paul Miller (Littleton, CO), concerned citizen turned tireless advocate for children with cancer, who shares his perspective as an onlooker to a rapidly growing community of children with a so-called rare disease and their families in the last 5 years.