Olivia's Special Request

Olivia Haveri is an eight year old girl that lives here in Goldsboro and goes to the same church as me (Stormy).  Many of you reading this probably already know Livi's story, but for those who don't, here's a brief version:

Last summer, on July 5th (the day before my birthday) to be exact, Olivia was diagnosed with Stage III Burkitt's Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer.  She was only seven at the time. The third of four children, Olivia is a middle child who loves horses. dancing, singing, anything blue, and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  During her battle, Olivia underwent four rounds of chemotherapy, a few spinal taps, and lots of tests and scans at Pitt Memorial Children's Hospital in Greenville, NC.  This all took about two months, and Olivia had scans again to see if her treatment was working.   On September 1st, ironically the first day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Livi's scan results were in and miraculously showed NO CANCER!  She completed one more round of chemo as protocol, and it is now May and the cancer has still not returned! Praise God!


So anyway, Olivia and her family go to the same church I go to, so I know them personally.  Last night at church, I took Olivia her Awareness Beads.  She absolutely LOVED them!
When service was over, Olivia came over to the Carpenter's House, where we have teen church, and she came and talked to me for a few minutes.  She told me how she was doing and how her horse was and how much she loved her necklace.  Then she got quiet for a minute just looking at her beads.  Finally. she looked up at me and said that she was going on a beach trip this coming weekend with her mom with a bunch of other kids from the hospital and she just knew they would love to have some beads and she would love to have some more to pass around to them.  It was a great idea and the way she smiled and her eyes lit up I just couldn't tell her no.  So, last night when I got home, I started making beads!  I beaded until I fell asleep.  I ended up having a little less than 20 necklaces to take over to Olivia for her to take with her to the beach.  All of them had yellow to represent childhood cancer and another color, and they all said either "love", "faith", or "hope".

There are about 100 kids going on the beach trip.  I wish I could send a necklace for all of them, but there isn't enough time to get them made, and Mrs. Emmy, Olivia's mom, said they probably wouldn't see all the kids anyway.  This was a wonderful idea that Olivia had and I am so glad I was able to make the ones I did for her to take.  The lives and hearts of the kids and families that get those few necklaces will be touched, and that is our mission; to touch lives and hearts and make kids smile.  Thank you Olivia for having that awesome idea and for having the courage to ask me about it!  I hope you have a great time at the beach!

Olivia (right) and little sister Natalie (left) with the beads for the kids going to the beach!