Favorites for this week and a Thank You!

Things continue to go well here in Philadelphia.Thomas has only two more weeks of treatments left, and so far he is tolerating them well. Going to and from the hospital and waiting for multiple appointments does take a lot of time, so I don't have a lot of time post or read blogs, but I do like to remember the best parts of each week, so I am joining again with Susanne of Living to Tell the Story for Friday Fave Five. Here are some of my favorite things about this week:

• Kindness - My family and I have been on the receiving end of so much kindness and generosity the past few weeks. Earlier this month, my long-time blogging friend Mari from My Little Corner of the World reviewed the delightful children's book, Would a Worm Go on a Walk? She also had a give-away contest for the book.  I entered the give-away because the book sounde like one my grandson would like. A few days later, Mari emailed to say that I was not the winner of the giveaway, but she would like to send Thomas a copy of the book anyway.

 The book arrived here at the Ronald McDonald House earlier this week and Thomas loved reading it.  It is a fun, well-written and illustrated book about how God planned and created everything just perfectly. Such a great message! Thanks to Mari for her generosity and kindness in sending the book.

• Maddie - My six-month-old grand daughter, Madeline, Thomas' sister, is an absolute joy and delight. She is a happy baby who loves people. We literally have strangers on the street stop us every day to tell us what a beautiful and happy little girl she is. While we have been here at the Ronald McDonald House, she learned to crawl...

...and then less than a week later, she is pulling herself up and standing. It has been so much fun to watch her grow and change while we have been together.  

Maddie is such a sweet and precious little girl and I know that I will miss her when I go home to Arizona in two weeks.

• Ronald McDonald House - This place is still on my list of favorites because of all the ways it has helped my daughter and her family through this difficult trial of having a child with cancer.  Not only has it given us a place to stay and food to eat, it has given Thomas the opportunity to play and make friends and be a "regular" kid even while he battles cancer.

High school student volunteers come every day to play with the children and provide some respite for their busy and overburdened parents.

In the evenings after dinner, there are fun activities like music, art and pet therapy, to keep the children occupied and happy, even while they may be going through a difficult time.

• Outings- Because Thomas is tolerating his Proton Therapy treatment so well, and because his treatments only take part of each day, we have been trying to get out and go on some outings.  Sometimes we just walk to a new store.  When this picture was taken, we were getting ready to head out for a long walk to Trader Joe's in downtown Philly.

Another day we went to the Penn Museum - an interesting Archeology and Anthropology museum on the the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, right next door to the hospital where Thomas receives his treatment.

We enjoyed all the exhibits and learned a lot.

The hands-down favorites were the Sphinx and mummy in the Egyptian exhibit.

Today,  Thomas had treatment in the afternoon, so this morning we road the subway to the Historic District, visited the grave of BenFranklin and his wife and then went across the street to the Philadelphia Mint.   I had visited the mint a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday when the machines were not operating, but today all the machines were going churning out shiny new quarters and pennies.  We all enjoyed our visit to the mint and seeing how money is really made.  Afterward, my daughter and I treated ourselves to Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches from a street vendor. It was a nice morning.

• Reading - I have been able to do quite a bit of reading here.  At home, I usually read traditional paper and ink books, but here, I am finding that reading books on my Kindle is so much easier. I just recently figured out how to borrow e-books from the library and now I have several lined up and ready to go.  I plan to post a review soon of the books I have read so far this summer, so stay tuned.

Enjoy the weekend and remember that there are always blessings, in every situation. We just have to open our eyes and hearts to what is around us.