Cranes for Jayson

Lazy Saturday afternoon with Mocha 

Saturday, Oct. 26th, was a quiet day for our family.  Jayson did his daily routine which included exercising in bed, walking using his walker and spending time with visitors and family.  His good friend Esther came over once again and the two of them watched "Tangled" on his computer.  Even though Jayson fell asleep twice during the movie, Esther didn't mind. She just treasured the time she spends with him.  Esther was picked up in the afternoon by her mom & brother who prayed over Jayson before they left.  In the late evening, our relatives from West Covina, the Escobar family, came by to see Jayson once again.  It had been about 2 weeks since they last saw Jayson and so they were pleased to see him at home and comfortable.






Sunday was a much busier day for Jayson. After eating breakfast, Jayson wanted to go to the living room to rest.  He was able to walk with the use of his walker and some assistance from his dad. It's amazing to see how much he's improved since his first physical therapy session at the hospital. Jayson gets very tired after his exercise but he is still determined to walk on his own in November. It is obvious to us that Jayson has a strong drive and will to walk.  We just hope that his body will match his determination.

Sunday brought more visitors and surprises for Jayson.  Jayson's high school in Rancho Penasquitos, Westview High School featured an article about Jayson and his battle in their newspaper, The Nexus. The article by An Nguyen titled "Cranes for Cancer" described two students goal of making 1,000 paper cranes to show support for Jayson.  According to the article, "A thousand origami paper cranes held together by strings is widely known by ancient Japanese legends to grant one wish to those who fold them; a wish that could mean a longer life or even successful recovery from illness or injury." The two junior students were Julia Pene & Karina Lin. They were inspired to make 1,000 paper cranes for Jayson, after visiting Jayson at the hospital.  Karina was the older sister of Jayson's close friend, Janessa.  Julia turns out to be the daughter of one of Jayson's oncologist at NMCSD.

Covered with cranes!

Karina & Julia present Jayson with the cranes

On Sunday, just before noon, the two girls arrived with Janessa, her family and Mila Stojkoski.  The girls surprised Jayson with almost 2,000 cranes! Jayson was surprised and speechless.   The girls introduced themselves and explained the story behind the origami cranes they brought. They wanted Jayson to see how much support he was getting from friends and strangers.  They gave Jayson a list of the people who had helped them make cranes. They said there were many more people that weren't on the list.  Friends from New York and UC Berkeley made some origami cranes then mailed them to the girls.  This was just truly amazing!  To see Jayson's face light up as they placed the cranes on top of him was priceless. Now, he can look at these cranes hanging in his room to visualize the many people who are praying and supporting him.

With Karina Lin and copy of "The Nexus" paper

The girls also gave us some copies of The Nexus newspaper that featured the "Cranes for Cancer" article. I will try to put a copy of the article in a future posting for you to read or add a link to this article.

Happy Birthday Janessa!

Sunday was a special day for Jayson's friend, Janessa. It was her 15th birthday and her wish was to visit and spend time with Jayson on her birthday. She wasn't the only one who was happy with her wish. She also made her birthday a special day for Jayson.

Meeting Julia Pene for first time

With cousin Mila

With Lepule Family and their penguin gift

On Sunday was also visited by the Lepule family. They have been a close family friend for years and had visited us while we were stationed in Hawaii back in 2008. Little Tana was only about 5 years old at the time and Jayson had introduced him to video games (Club Penguin) during their visit. Ever since then, Little Tana has been hooked on video games. As a token of their appreciation, Little Tana and his family gave Jayson a penguin hat to keep his beautiful head warm. They also brought us some fried chicken and side dishes for lunch. Thank you Lepule Family!

Hanging out with cousin Matthew

Jayson was also visited by his Uncle Jerry and his two little cousins, Andrew and Matthew.  They spent time playing video games on the computer and on the XBox.

Taryn and her mom also came by during the late evening bringing us some dinner - chicken apertada and homemade banana bread! Jayson enjoyed spending time with Taryn while her mom and I chatted. We discovered that we had attended the same high school, Sweetwater High School in National City.

Monday, Oct. 28th, was another quiet day at home. Not much to report today. It's been almost a week since his last fever and Jayson continues to do well.  He just had a couple episodes of vomiting right after he ate and we are making sure he doesn't get dehydrated. Jayson did his daily exercises and spent most of the day in the family room with his dad and grandparents.

Jayson is scheduled to go back to the NMCSD tomorrow morning for check-up once again. Based on the past few check-ups, he'll most likely get more blood transfusions tomorrow after the results of his labs.  We hope that we get more good news during tomorrow's visit.

In the meantime, we'll continue to count our blessings and pray for Jayson's full recovery from cancer.  We will continue to focus on the positives and take things day by day.  Thank you always for your thoughts and prayers.  God bless you all.