JaMarcus is a brave, energetic, Mickey Mouse loving kid!!  He is the strongest person I know and I’m proud to say he is my son!  I am very active and involved with my children… and one day JaMarcus just wasn’t acting himself.  I noticed he had a red dot in his mouth but never complained of it, but complained about his leg hurting badly.  He would not want to walk.. this went on for about 2 days and finally I said ok JaMarcus to the hospital we go.  Children’s hospital in DC are the ones that diagnosed him and for some reason, I felt like they knew the second we walked in the door.  We got there at 1:35 pm on December 30, 2013 and by 1:58 pm I found out that my child had Leukemia and they couldn’t tell me if he was going to live or die.  Heartbreaking isn’t the word for a mother to use.. Seriously.. it’s the worse ever.  So from December 30, 2013 to mid May 2014 we were official tenants of Children’s Hospital.  Literally lived there.

 

I can’t tell you the number of times, days and months I have cried and asked why my child, why it had to be him???  After spending all that time in the hospital with JaMarcus (mind you I never left that hospital the entire time) and watching him be so brave and do what needed to be done, I sucked it up and prayed and dealt with it.  I worked with him every day on walking.. he was so traumatized from the pain he endured during that beginning stage of Leukemia.  We did this together.  You always see people on tv and out in the world with an ill child and the first thing we as humans say is “I don’t know what I would do if that was my child”?  Well from a personal experience, you would keep being a parent.. being the parent you could be.  My children and I were already close but this definitely made us realize that NO ONE is untouchable.  As much as I protect them, in some way they can be harmed.  It has definitely made us love harder, we love much and we appreciate life more.  Financial wise… dear god it’s been a nervous wreck for me.  I will be frank.. there were a couple times that I would not eat dinner so my children could eat, due to the bills being out of control.. things got backed up terribly and still today I am still trying to get from the bottom of the ocean.

 

I am a firm believer of things happening for a reason and although JaMarcus was punished with disease in some way, shape or form there was a blessing in there… aside from him still being with us.. some other purpose was served J

 

A little saying I like to tell JaMarcus – “Leukemia is a journey I never planned, but I sure do love the tour guide”

 

I love my children with every inch and breath in me.