Taking Flight

I do hate these posts.. never quite sure how to begin, just have to go for it I guess.

This one if for sweet Jessica Easley. I have posted about Jessica several times over the past month. Last time, a couple of weeks ago, they didn't think she would be with us much longer.
But true to fashion, Jessica still fights. Fighting to live, fighting for her angel wings.

Mom says her favorite saying is "i'm a rule maker, and a rule breaker". She's one tough 10 year old.

These past few days have been very hard. Jessica has been totally bedridden and unable to move her body for weeks now, but in the past few days the beast has grown drastically. The tumors in her chest and neck have begun to expand rapidly and spread upward into her face.
She has developed immense swelling in her face and throat. Although she is now on oxygen continuously, breathing is a fulltime struggle. Her fear of suffocation continues to be a constant.

She has been sleeping much of the time, when she is awake and lucid she is still giving Mom instructions about how she wants her celebration of life to be carried out. She is hoping to make it another few days to her 11th birthday. She says her one true wish, other than to die in her sleep, is to go to Heaven at 11 years old, not 10.

Wtf..

How on earth can there not be anything left to fight with for these precious babies?
How can we possibly be forced to stand by and do nothing but watch as the beast overtakes this child and devours her?
Where's the sense in the fact that it's been 20 YEARS since a new drug was approved to fight childhood cancer?

When we all tuck our children into bed tonight and give thanks to the Almighty for their health and safety, please remember that Jessica is fighting still..

..and that there are seven other children fighting the beast somewhere tonight that won't live to see the sunrise. And as those children end their fight on this earth, tomorrow, 46 more children will just be beginning the fight.

Spread the word.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicaeasley