July 22, 2014: The day before we hit the road

What do you do the day before you get on the road from Chicago with a destination of Boston?
Visit parents = check
Lead a group activity at a nursing home = check
Aquatherapy = check
Pack = check
Load up the car until it's jammed packed = check
Get 2 hours of sleep = check

In stressful times, there are a few things I need to do to relax: 1.) see my parents or at least talk with my mom on the phone.  I've said it before and I'll say it again... I never realized just how much my parents loved me until I had kids.  2.) Pay it forward.  The quickest way I do this is pay for the person behind me in a drive through and hand them one of Cammy's awareness cards.  I tell the cashier to hand it to the person behind me and tell them "This little girl paid for your coffee today."  Today was a different pay it forward.  Today, we joined in a group activity at a nursing home.  Ryan stole the show as she ran in the middle and led the group.  The men and women perked up a bit more seeing my 2 little girls.  It melted my heart.

Cammy then had her final therapy before our big trip.  As exhausted as she was, she got a second wind in the pool.  Swimming is her favorite activity in the world.  We are looking forward to swimming every evening in Boston to unwind after long days.

All week, I've looked forward to opening the mail.  Each day, we've received a few incredibly thoughtful pieces of mail as encouragement for our journey.  Today's mail made it a little harder for me to breath.  To often, I forget that this journey of like is bigger than me.  In the past stressful week, I have certainly forgotten that this Boston journey is bigger than me, bigger than my family, bigger than Cammy.  This sincere card from a family we have never met arrived and it brought me back to reality.

Packing was difficult.  Of course my mail concerns were team shirts, melatonin and migraine medicine!    

We are extremely grateful that my sister and her twins are driving with us to Boston so Billy doesn't have to burn more days.  I wanted to make this trip as fun as I could for them.  I packed them shirts and goody bags for the 17 hour drive.  

Thank you to everyone who has set us gift cards and goodies to get through this trip.  We appreciate it more than we could ever say.  

By 9:30 pm the car top carrier was filled and the car packed so that I just had to put the kids in the van in their jammies at 4:45 an hit the road.