Heroes! Heroes EVERYWHERE!

Whew. What a whirlwind. We are still trying to calm our nerves from the most INTENSE hockey game we have ever witnessed between University of Denver and our beloved Western Michigan Broncos during the NCAA tournament in Green Bay. In double-overtime the University of Denver snuck one in, but we cannot be more proud of the season those Broncos have had. We are still so grateful for the way the team has embraced our family this year, and as the media got ahold of the story, it is wonderful to see the world smile in their direction, as well. We will savor every game next season, too. We promise. LOVE YOU, BOYS! Be proud of what you have accomplished. There is no other team with hearts as giving and selfless as yours. Of that I am certain.

More happened in the last three days than in three months, I think. Mattawan High School held a blood drive for Michigan Blood (where Gideon's transfusion blood comes from) on Friday, and we were able to visit the drive itself. The gym was full of volunteers and donors! Full. They were playing NEMO in the waiting area, there were FISH CUPCAKES in Gideon's honor, goldfish cracker snacks, and even NEMO coloring pages for students to color for my boys. THANK YOU, all of the volunteers and donors. Every person has saved someone's life. We are passionate about this cause!





We received more BLOOD DONATING fishies from the Otsego VFW and Davenport University who also sponsored a drive for our Gideon. Fish are rapidly swimming into our mailbox every single day, and we have not stopped celebrating!

If you missed donating blood at one of the other drives and would still like to do so, there are two more coming soon!
* WARRIOR GIDEON SCHRIPSEMA'S PORTAGE FREE METHODIST CHURCH BLOOD DRIVE
- Thursday, April 7 from 1 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
-Click HERE to schedule your appointment. Sponsor code is PFMC.

* WARRIOR GIDEON SCHRIPSEMA'S WMU BLOOD DRIVE
- Friday, April 8 from 11:00a.m. - 5:00p.m. in WMU PARKVIEW CAMPUS ROOM C-126
Please click here for more information!

Before we left for Green Bay, Gideon and I stopped by a DANCE MARATHON at Forest Hills Northern High School. I have a past with Dance Marathon as I was the Special Promotions Chair the first year it was held at Hope College, and then I was the Assistant Director the second year. All of the money raised goes to the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. Having had experience as a "Dream Team" member and now as a mommy of a child with cancer, I was asked to speak. Unfortunately, I think the emotions of the past few days overwhelmed me and I started to sob onstage. I was holding Gideon, and the sweet honey kept kissing away my tears. The part that got me (even though I have told this story without crying a few hundred times) was when I said that never had I imagined I would see "this side" while I was involved with Dance Marathon in college. I never really processed that until then... It seemed so unbelievable that this could happen to MY family. Yet, here we are and the way people have embraced us, helped us, and the MIRACULOUS way Gideon is responding to his treatment has been the most heart-awakening experience of my life. Forest Hills Northern reached their goal of $40,000! Wow. Congratulations, students! Also, THANK YOU for Gideon's birthday cake and song. I think he would have stayed the entire 24 hours had I let him!


Finally, it was Gideon's 4th birthday on Sunday. He loved spending time in the hotel and then Gideon got to be the "King of the Day" as we travelled home from Green Bay. He wanted to see where the "G's" play (Green Bay Packers) which we did, and then he wanted to "Eat lunch in a Skyscraper" which we did in Milwaukee. We will celebrate his birthday tomorrow, and the boy is ecstatic about it.

I am ecstatic that Gideon's last scary bug that threatened to keep us home this weekend went away. We had no hospital visit drama at all! He only has a seal-like cough left, and even that is leaving him... Could all of this positivity add vitamin C to his cells to battle all of the blah? I think so. That, and the fact that Gideon has an army of HEROES and angels-on-earth walking with him through this battle.