Bryanna's Love - Give Kids a Snuggle

Approximately 2 weeks into Bryanna's admission at Children's National Hospital, 2 weeks after learning that our worst nightmare had come true...that Bryanna was fighting for her life. Two weeks after we learned that Bryanna had ETP-ALL, not AML, not T-Cell ALL...Two weeks after having to pick ourselves up, dust off the fear and produce a strength that we had know idea we had...I started a caring bridge page for Bryanna. It was to update all our friends and family of what was happening. It was a way for people to understand the severity of Bryanna's condition, though we couldn't possibly list all the horrible things she was enduring. It was a place where I found peace this time at night, when the room was dark, Bryanna was sleeping undisturbed, I knew Evey and Liam were in bed, and I had stopped working for the day. It was at this time in the night that I would update, I would pour out our day into what became one of our life lines. Caringbridge was something I resisted creating as I couldn't fathom sharing our personal struggles with the world. It seemed so unnatural. And yet, it became my bridge to the outside world. It became my connection to the world outside the walls in Bryanna's room. It was my own silent encouragement, it was the secret to my strength. It was helping me fight. Now it is my documented memory of our fight.

Bryanna's Story Profile on CaringBridge.com/bryannasteam

"Bryanna -  She is our warrior - she is our strong and brave little girl who is fighting the fight. We appreciate your support and all your prayers. She needs all she can get!  She will beat this and we will be with her every single step of the way!" - The very first thing that I noted about Bryanna's story. 

The end of her very first post on August 14, 2016:

"She is our trooper and from here on she will have to fight the hardest battle of her life.  We know that the only way to get through this is to lean on our village. To get through this, we have to ensure that she can find joy and humor in the good moments and feel okay to cry through the bad moments. We need to stand together as a family and embrace this journey with all the heart that we can muster. This is not just a journey for Bryanna, but it is one for Liam and Evey as well. They are having to work through this along side her and learn how to cope with all these very scary and confusing changes. We are strong though - Bryanna, Evey and Liam will all be okay. They will get through this with everyone's help, love and support.  For Bryanna, this is only part of her story.  There is so much more to Bryanna than cancer. She will win this battle and will show the world what she has to offer. She will continue to make people smile and she will not lose this battle. We have her back. Cancer will not win. " 

~ For Bryanna, this is only part of her story.  There is so much more to Bryanna than cancer. She will win this battle and will show the world what she has to offer. She will continue to make people smile and she will not lose this battle. We have her back. Cancer will not win.~

How true is that. There is so much more to Bryanna than Cancer. She will continue to make people smile....cancer will not win.....

God, I wish this post was a reflection about how far Bryanna has come, and that she was hitting remission, that she was reading this post with me and we were marveling at the progress she made...the strength she still had to fight...the battle that she was winning.  Instead, I have this blog to make sense of her death. Her death caused by a rare and aggressive form of cancer. 

 Directly before letting Bryanna go and again afterwards, we were asked if we would consent to a autopsy. Bryanna's body had failed in every sense of the word. The super bugs she had shut her body down. The chemo was killing her. The leukemia was killing her. The drug we had to use to foster white blood cell growth, which was her only chance of beating the infections was harvesting her cancer cells. We were growing her cancer in an effort to save her from the infection. IT all came back to cancer. We declined the autopsy. She hated to be touched - so we couldn't possibly let that happen. I remember telling Bryanna's doctor...who by the way, I have the utmost respect and consider her a friend...that this was cancer. Her body failed because of so many things...but the ultimate cause was cancer. It was cancer. 

This is only part of her story. She will show the world what she has to offer. She will continue to make people smile...how could I know the impact she would have on the world? We have started our Bryanna's Love - Give Kids a Snuggle Campaign. We have heard first hand stories of how strongly Bryanna's story has impacted them. How it had changed their life, how Bryanna has given them a deeper understanding of what love is. That Bryanna has saved their lives. Yes...we have heard of the direct impact Bryanna has had on a special someone and it saved their life. Bryanna...my beautiful little girl continues to work her magic...her love. Her story is so powerful, so meaningful...we just have to keep sharing it. 

It was so hard to get started on this campaign...to tell Bryanna's story...to remind myself that it hasn't even been a full 7 months since she passed. It feels like only yesterday when I held her...when I could smell her...when I could touch her. The only way I can get through this right now is to know that her love is being felt by so many other kids and families. It is to continue to share her story, to bring awareness to ETP-ALL, to make kids happy. It is to make sure that we as a family are working together through this and being a part of this little nugget of snuggles and love that we are trying to share. With that, we really want her love to be felt by so many. We want to do great things and know that Bryanna would have been so very proud of us. We know that she would have been so excited about these campaigns. I know for a fact that she would have been a very big part in doing this. She always wanted to help others. Now, it's our time to help her help others. We would love to invite you to join us during this campaign.  Please also feel free to follow us on facebook as we will continue to update the drop off locations for this Give Kids a Snuggle Campaign.  We will be extending this to soft blankets for the kids and the families as well, as this got us through some of the toughest nights...and we still today have them on our beds. Thank you so much for your support and we are excited to join forces again to share Bryanna's Love to those who need a snuggle and a little extra love the most. All donations will be going to the HEMONC/PICU/CICU units at Children's National Hospital. Our first campaign yielded over 300 stuffed animals in just 2 weeks. We know we can do more! We had a wonderful company help us by donating 16 build a bears that they made during a team building exercise during the last campaign! There are so many wonderful ways to collect these stuffed animals...and each and everyone of them are received with smiles and love. We hope that this campaign will yield enough stuffed animals that will help bridge the gap between Christmas and the summer months when the existing donations are depleted. We hope to grow and be able to extend this to surrounding hospitals and at some point nationally. For now, we will start slow and continue to give back to the one place that we love and appreciate so much - Children's National Medical Center

Please check out our facebook page at (www.facebook.com/bryannaslove) as we will continue to update it with new drop off locations. 

Bryanna's Love - Give Kids a Snuggle Campaign

Date: Now through the end of June 

Items Needed: Stuffed Animals and Blankets NEW with the Tags or in Original Packaging as these will be going to very medically fragile children and their families.

Drop Off Locations (More locations are pending and will be updated at a later date):
Burtonsville Elementary School
Fairland Elementary School
Banneker Middle School
Camp Sonshine (Silver Spring) (also noted on their facebook page)
Green Turtle Burtonsville
Dave and Barry's Deli
Pediatric Associates (Prosperity Drive, Silver Spring)
(A moment of Magic has sent a news letter to their followers as well!)

Auburn School

or Mail To: PO BOX 448 Burtonsville, MD. 20866

(Some business require the physical street address on Amazon - if the PO box is not accepted, please use the post office's physical address:
15210 Dino Dr, Box 448, Burtonsville, MD 20866)

Thanks so much! 

Remember - You are never alone - You always have Bryanna's Love!