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On August 1st, Lily’s Pad will have officially been open for one year. If you’ve followed our previous blogs, you know the passion with which we fought to create this safe space for children to play. It was a true labor of love, and our blog posts were typically about how hard it was to […]

Humor me for a moment and let me paint you a picture. Journey with me to a quiet forest. Imagine a little stream running past. Hear the water flowing and feel a cool winter breeze on your face. In front of you is the start of a campfire. It’s in the beginning stages where the

Take a look at these two photos. If you don’t think that time can make a difference in our lives, these pictures might just convince you. Just look at my little niece in 2017. Look how small she looks, how sick, how incredibly vulnerable. I can barely look at it without crying. But then I

Every once in awhile, amidst the quiet confinement of Lily’s immune compromised life, we would get a reprieve. Her counts would rise and she could come out of quarantine. Well, kind of. Basically, she would get to live the way most of us are living today. Socially distanced, hand sanitizer at the ready and with

If you want a lesson in life, I don’t think you need to go to church or read a self help book. I don’t think you need a therapist or a group counseling session, although I believe all of those things can be helpful. In my opinion, if you truly want to learn what life

It was December of 2017 and just days before Christmas. Lily had been sick off and on for weeks, months maybe. The spike in her fever is what drove my brother and his wife to take her to the hospital. They feared pneumonia or some severe respiratory infection. They anticipated meds, a possible overnight stay

Today was a very big day in the history of Lily’s Pad. The first official non-related board meeting took place in the future home of our play space. These board members did very important things today too. They approved bylaws and a conflict of interest policy. They reviewed financial plans and analyzed construction challenges. And

As you can see from the bald little head under that hat in this picture, this was a pretty tough time for Lily. She had been undergoing chemo treatments for quite sometime as well as several surgeries. She was no longer going to preschool and spent most of her days at home. Her immunity didn’t

Years ago, I started following a Facebook page for an organization called Smashing Walnuts. A friend of mine shared the story of Gabriella, a little girl diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and her family’s mission to change legislation and funding for childhood brain cancer research. It was an uplifting story when I first started

This morning, I got a call from a good friend of mine. She’s a mom of two young kids and they are both still remote schooling. She has her hands full just keeping the balls all up in the air since she herself is home working remotely. My heart went out to her as she