HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KATE HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

DEAREST KATE
WE WISH YOU A VERY VERY HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY !

WOW WHAT A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT ! WE HOPE YOU HAVE A LOVELY DAY TODAY AND A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY PARTY CELEBRATING THE AMAZING WARRIOR YOU ARE! WE ARE SO PROUD TO KNOW YOU AND YOU CONTINUE TO BE AN INSPIRATION TO DEQLAN AND TO US!

WE CONTINUE TO WEAR YOUR RED BAND PROUDLY ON OUR ARMS AND THINK OF YOU EACH TIME WE LOOK DOWN AT IT OR SEE A BUTTERFLY CROSS OUR PATH .

CONTINUE TO DO SO WELL KATE, NED FOREVER! PRAYERS SHALL ALWAYS CONTINUE FOR YOU AND YOUR WONDERFUL FAMILY AT CAMP JACOBS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL , MAY IT BE A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR YOU

GOD BLESS AND LOTS OF LOVE
MARK, SAMM, DEQLAN , LOGAN AND ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

We made it for Rene!

UNFORTUNATELY COULDNT PAST THE LETTERHEAD, BUT THIS ARRIVED FROM YOLANDE FROM CHOC ON AN OFFICIAL LETTERHEAD - THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS FOR HELPING RENE - YOU ARE AMAZING DEQLANS ARMY! GOD BLESS YOU RICHLY FOR ALL YOU DO FOR OTHERS!

Dear Friends

When I send this e-mail, I did it as a last resort to try and be of assistance to Rene and her family. CHOC Pretoria bought groceries and helped with some transport funds for Rene to get to hospital and back, but I knew from past experience with my little boy who was treated for a brain tumor six years ago, that that was only a small part of the difficulties they are facing.

During this year so many children lost the battle with cancer and many relapsed (cancer came back). It is hard sometimes not to get discouraged and to remember that there is a bigger picture. One thing that occurred to me this week is that we all get the same length of time to live. It is only the part spent on earth that varies. It is not the length of the path that matters (even though it is saddens us when it ends so soon) but the steps taking you from the beginning to the end. Did you greet the people on your way with a smile? Did you stop and shared a laugh or a cry? Did you stop and smell the flowers and saw the sun rise with glory or set in a splendor array of colors. Did you stop and rolled away a rock to clear the path for someone? DID YOU ENJOY THE JOURNEY?

I have been touched by the wonderful response from friends, collogues, and strangers! I stand before you in awe as to what a simple e-mail (sent with a big prayer) achieved. You have created within me an excitement about my work with CHOC and our cancer children and made me realize that people care and want to make a difference. The opportunity just sometimes lacks. ! We have not only reached our goal of R6050.0 for Rene’s medical aid, but also have a bit extra to help the family with outstanding medical accounts and needs.

Thank you for helping us to give Rene another day/week/year! We at CHOC Pretoria thank you for helping us to keep more than hope alive!!!

Kind Regards

Yolande van Rooyen
CHOC Pretoria

New findings for Neuroblastoma research

ENJOYING MY BIKE ( HOPE DEQLAN NEVER ASKS FOR THE REAL THING!)

Hello Deqlans Army

Hope you are well and happy today

Thought Id share the following news story with you on a breakthrough for neuroblastoma research

http://cbs3.com/health/Health.Alert.Neuroblastmoa.2.718393.html

This is why we need to raise more awareness, more funds so more testing can be done, more specifics discovered and that they all lead to the cure for this dreadful disease.


I received some very sad news this morning , little Sarmone passed away on the 29th of April . Please say a prayer for her and her heartbroken parents. When Sarmone was diagnosed with Leukemia at the beginning of last year , the family moved up from Nelspruit to be under Dr De Jagers care, here in Pretoria. Thank you for those that prayed for her.

Very urgent prayer requests for our warriors in Pretoria, Ruan, Benny and Charlize, thank you

Thank you so much for the AMAZING response re have received for the please for help for Rene and her family - we know of at least R3000 that has been collected today from our dearest friends and family - we cant thank you enough - you are AMAZING and God Bless you all for opening your hearts, generosity and love for Rene and her family , in desperate need of financial assistance to save this beautiful young warrior! Thank you!


Thank you to Aunty Irene and Uncle Dave for the GORGEOUS pilot outfit for Deqlan - he looks to beautiful in it - had to take some pics to show you all! So sorry we never got to see you while you where out here Aunty Irene - you have such a giving heart and always so thoughtful. Thank you for your prayers to , I know how you and Uncle Dave pray for our warrior, thank you


Hope you all have a great evening and weekend ahead!

We have to take away a lot of the foods Deqlan enjoys from Monday - as we go for the VMA /HMA urine test on Wednesday - foods like bananas. vanilla, vitamin c, chocolate and more can affect the result - so to get the most accurate counts we have to take them away from Deqlan for two days! I will also be trying a gluten free diet for Deqlan from Monday - i have heard wonders and so many children who have had such positive outcomes from staying away from the gluten - so we are going to give it a bash! I have also bought a lot of new vitamin and mineral supplements and immune busters which i would like to get Deqlan on, just waiting for dr De Jagers go ahead on these

God Bless and please pray for our precious Deqlan to remain ned always and pray for all his brave warriors and those families who have lost their warriors to
All our love
Mark, Samm & Deqlan

FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU , DECLARES THE LORD, PLANS TO PROSPER YOU AND NOT TO HARM YOU, PLANS TO GIVE YOU HOPE AND A FUTURE
JEREMIAH 29;11

Happy 26th Wedding Anniversary

Dear Uncle Ken and Aunty Jenny

A huge congratulations on your 26th wedding anniversary!

We hope you enjoy the celebrations and we pray that there are many many more!

May Our Lord continue to Bless and guide your union and love always!

God Bless and lots of love

Mark, Samm ,Deqlan, Logan, Bev & Derek, Megs ,Conrad & Keaton, Mom and Dad

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

....and in the news this week....

Hello Everyone

How are you all doing? All going well on this side with our beautiful warrior Deqlan

Go and check out this link :

http://www.tmz.com/2008/05/05/cruise-puts-crazy-on-hold-for-cancer-victim/

Its of Grace's Mom speaking to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes about her daughter who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma last year - she actually got there attention and they listened to her and even got the details of her websit - lets hope and pray something comes of this

Graces website
http://www.graceogorman.com

I take my hat off to you Grace's Mom, for having the guts and determination to do this and whatever else necessary to try and save Grace and our children


Deqlans prayer army - we need to ask you to please continue praying for all our friends, but please say extra special prayers for the following warriors
Charlize - relapsed nb
Benny - relapse
Sarmone - battling with leukimia
Ruan - battling with leukimia needing a bone marrow transplant
Gabriella - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gabriellarocco
Emily - http://www.caringbridge.org/fl/emilyadamson/
And a new friend I have just learnt of this morning , they have just recently discovered the nb and surgery to remove what the could of the primary tumor, his name is Carter and he is just 11 months old
http://www.carterjayryan.blogspot.com/
Another friend we have just started to know is Connor who is NED , but suffers from a very rare disorder opsoclonus mycolonus syndrome - this affests his eye and his muscles and his speech
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/connorkhoury


Congrats to Claire and Stephan and the confirmation that there little expected bundle of joy due on Deqlans Birthday, is a boy! Hannah is going to be a very good big sister!

Thank you to Kathy and Vicky for a huge bag full of pjs! Thank you so much ladies for your effort and thoughtfulness in choosing the beautiful pjamas - i love the pink camo ones - what a good choice! You to , are always there for us, and always support us in our projects to help others - thank you so very very very much for always being there for us and for your amazing contribution to snug as a bug - May God continue to bless you both as you bless others!

Speaking of camo, i had to mention a very special moment - One of Karens ( a very dear and special friend) sons, Dylan said something so beautiful on their recent holiday - ' We were in the Lowveld for a break last week. I had given Dylan his camo shorts to wear and after he had dresses I sent him to put on some shoes. He came back with Camo sandles on too and said to me – “I’m dressing for Deqlan today”. Thought it was so sweet.' thank you so much Dylan for being such an important part of Deqlans army - i hear that you and your brother Jordan continue to pray for Deqlan - you boys are amazing and i cant wait for you to meet Deqlan one day!

I came across a few sayings this week which i would love to share with you all

GOD MAKES US PERFECT AND DOESNT CHOOSE THE ABLE , HE ENABLES THE CHOSEN

FORGET A PERFECT ANYTHING. THERE IS A CRACK IN EVERYTHING, THATS HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN! ( FROM NANNA)

'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.'

Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety . If you can't do anything about a situation, forget it.


So true i thought!

Deqlan had a great speech therapy session yesterday - we didnt go to occupational therapy as Anri Louise had flu and didnt want to make Deqlan sick! Deqlan was a lot more chilled and willing to co operate with Esedra - he even took Nanna down the hall into the room he wanted to play in, and normally its the opposite - he runs out the hall to get outside! So we where all very chuffed with his progess yesterday. We have decided to make the speech and ot sessions shorter as not to traumatise Deqlan to much - if he gets to upset and cries and doesnt want to actually be there we are not going to get much achieved , except a very angry and heartsore Deqlan - so we are going to see how that goes from next week

Have a great day and God Bless
all our love
Mark, Samm & Deqlan

p.s- just a little reminder that we will be collecting for snug as a bug until end of May!

ERASMUS STREET WILDLIFE CENTRE

so thats what this thing does....My first drink of water straight out the tap















What a gorgeous gift we have been Blessed with!





























Autumn has arrived















Playing in the park!















Peek a boo!















Me and by big boy














Our little legend














Deqlan not wanting Dada to leave for work!















We have decided we are going to start charging visitors to our house, the range of wildlife is spectacular! The new species our meerkats! Yes, we came home from the shops to find a meerkat in our garden,and Mark and I just looked at each other and started laughing! What next? Apparently meerkats like eating snakes.....enough said...something mus have attracted the little fellow to our garden?mmmm....

Hello from a very chilly and very wet Pretoria - it feels like we are living in the UK ! The strangest weather for this time of year , we here its sunny and bright in Cape Town - very strange - it should be opposites this time of the year..

We have had a wonderful 3 days of holiday at home..it didnt start off so great....

Deqlan and I got home on Wednesday afternoon to no power....it had been off for 2 hours already so didnt expect it to be much longer. Oh boy , was i wrong! It only came on at 8pm!!!! I was just about to take Deqlan to Nanna when he fell asleep on the bed, so him and I cuddled until the lights came back on !

We have been playing a lot of games and trying to keep Deqlan entertained as its to cold to be outside!

The sun was out on Thursday morning and I took Deqlan to a park down the road from us - we had the whole park to ourselves! The autumn leaves where to beautiful and i am definitely going to try and go back there to take more photos of Deqlan in the leaves...when it eventually stops raining....

We have discovered that he LOVES Happy Feet! He laughs straight from his belly when he says mumble dancing - how beautiful it is to hear and see him laugh, one of the best feelings in the world!

His love for Zebra's continue - Deqlan chooses the zebra puzzle piece out of all the animals in the puzzle and it seems like he is pretending to walk with the zebra - which is fantastic and encouraging to see him to a bit of imaginary play!

Deqlan continues to enjoy saying car - he says it with so much pride and enthusiasm! Its the first thing he says when he wakes up- CAR!!!! i wish i could record it and put it on the blog for you to hear

He is making a lot of sounds today being aba and va va - perhaps the start of va va va voom! ha ha ha !

I hope the weather is better tomorrow so we can take our warrior outside to play, our maybe take him for a drive just to get him outside the house a bit!

I have had a few requests re snug as a bug items - you are welcome to send anything related to sleep time with such as vests, socks, slippers,teddys - anything will be so appreciated and loved by the kids wearing and enjoying them, thank you!


A very happy birthday to Shannon for yesterday, we hope you had a great birthday and that this is YOUR year! Hope you where spoilt rotten!

Happy Birthday to Michelle for today! Hope you are having a great day with the family - sending you hugs and blessings!

Congratulations to Chinh and Thy Tran and their arrival on ther baby boy,Aiden on 1 May. Congratulations to a wonderful family, cant wait to see the little fellow, I am sure Kira is a proud big sister and Lucas smiling down on you all and so proud of his little brother.

Request for extra special prayers for Gabriella - you can follow her story at her website:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gabriellarocco


Another prayer request for a fellow CHOC child, her story and her parents request as follows:

Dear Friends Thank you for your valuable time. I know there are many hoaxes going around and that people are afraid to help nowadays, but we desperately need your help in supporting a family that has been through hell the past year. They have already lost their car, their house and their dignity, because of great medical expenses paid in order to give their daughter Rene another day, week or year to live.Rene Degenaar has been diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia when she was only 4years old. A child diagnosed with this illness, has to receive a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. If failed to get a suitable donor, a child will only live for approximately 6 to 12 months. The bone marrow shuts down and fails to produce new cells.Rene's 11th birthday was a medical wonder that cannot be explained. She never found a suitable donor and although she is terminally ill, she has managed to fight this illness for 7 and a half years. Rene receives platelets and/or blood every week of her life as her bone marrow fails to produce it's own. From time to time Rene has a reaction to the blood or platelets she receives and needs urgent medical attention. Two months ago her heart stopped and her lungs collapsed. All credit to the ER team at Unitas hospital who responded in two minutes and successfully resuscitated her.The family has a medical aid and we are desperately trying to keep Rene on it. She needs the services of the South African Blood Service to ensure that blood (she has a very scarce blood type- B negative) and needs to be at a hospital where emergency services are available at all times. Unfortunately the medical aid plan she needs to be on and the many costs not covered by the medical aid, has left this family in great financial need.I really think that Rene has earned the right to our support with her GREAT fighting spirit and the grace she has accepted her fate with.We need your help to give Rene another day/week/year!Our motto at CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation is to "keep more than hope alive!". We can support them with food and transport money, but cannot pay for treatment. We need funds in her trust to pay for medical expenses.
Rene's Trust Fund:Rene Degenaar Trust
ABSA- Branch 632005
Account nr: 4052660818
Rene is one of four children. If you wish to support them with day to day expenses like school fees , clothes etc:
SM Karsten
FNB- Branch 251145
Account nr 62036092063
If you need more info, you can call Rene's mom Irma at 082 497 8990, or stepdad Jan at 082 828 9950.CHOC Pretoria fully support their cause and we hope that you will too. Formore information or confirmation of this case, you can phone Yolande at084 588 3164.
Kind Regards Yolande van Rooyen CHOC Pretoria


Thank you for all your prayers and support for our beautiful Deqlan, please continue them always. Please also open your hearts and prayers even further by including all our friends from all around the world!

God Bless, have a lovely weekend
All our love
Mark, Samm & Deqlan

FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU , DECLARES THE LORD, PLANS TO PROSPER YOU AND NOT TO HARM YOU, PLANS TO GIVE YOU HOPE AND A FUTURE
JEREMIAH 29;11

Thank you , thank you , thank you

Dear friends,

I wanted to say thank you again for opening your hearts and giving so generously for Snug as a bug.

James, Heidi and Hannah - thank you so very much for driving all the way out here to hand over all your goodies - thank you for the beautiful and cuddly pjamas for the boyrs and girls and for the beautiful packs of pjs with underwear and socks tied so beautifully together with ribbon! Thank you so much guys - this means the world to us! Hannah is beautiful and we cant wait for Deqlan to have a play date with her soon!

Lisa and Dale - as always, you jump into our projects with such enthusiasm ! I am sorry we didnt get to thank you personally , but thank you so very very much for your beautiful contribution - thank you for the gorgeous dinosaur pjs and slippers for boys and kitty and doggy pjs with pink slippers for thwe girls- they are to cute!

Conrad, Megs and Keaton- thank you to your amazing contribution - from sheep, to soccer , to bumble bee's to candy - you have brightened the lives of 10 children who are going to sleep so snug and feel so special in their beautiful new pjamas - you where the pioneer of this project Megs, coming up with the idea to get these little ones and bigger ones into pjs after we saw pictures of the kids in hospital gowns. Bless you for all you have done and continue to do for others - you are an inspiration to so many, and its is an honor and privilige to call you my sister and Deqlan his Aunt and Godmother - thank you for giving us the idea and for your amazing contribution, we thank you and love you so very very much!

God Bless you all for helping and thank you to you all ,
Lots of love and all our thanks for all the warriors
Mark, Samm & Deqlan