BRAVES GAME INFO

Hi, Friends of Forester!

I’m Katie, Whit’s little sister, and I’m attempting to organize all the details for the September 6th Braves game. We’re so excited that so many of you want to enjoy this day with our family and I want to make sure everyone knows the plan and has all questions answered. If you still have ANY questions after you read through this information, please contact me at FOFBraves@yahoo.com or 678-485-9950. Whit and Pete have enough on their plates this week with Forester's next round of chemo, so I'd like to help with any issues regarding this game.

Here are some of the details everyone should know:

• This game is LABOR DAY weekend (Sun, 1:35pm). We brought that up last night to some friends and they hadn't realized they were going to be out of town. Just wanted to mention that, in case anyone discovers a conflict.

• As mentioned before, this day isn't any sort of official event sponsored by the Braves. Forester will just be meeting the team, getting to see the dugout, and they will give him his own jersey and glove that's been signed by the players. This will all happen before the game and there won't be any special Forester happenings after. It's just a fun day for us all to get together in one place and let Forester know we love him.

• Though not confirmed, Forester (and probably the immediate family) may be sitting in box seats or some type of reserved seating, courtesy of Glenn Hubbard . Forester will not be sitting with the rest of us in the "Friends of Forester" section, but we’ll get him up there at some point so he can say hi to everyone and you can all get a chance to meet him.

• The tickets I will be ordering are located in the Upper Box, (most likely in the 413 section), near the top of the stadium. To improve the seating as much as possible, we've decided to go with $10 tickets. If you'd prefer seats closer to the field, please let me know so I can remove your name from the ticket list. I'll be ordering the tickets the morning of Wed, 8/12, so let me know of your decision by then. Below is a seating chart to give you a better idea of the exact location.

• Children under the age of 3 are FREE, if they are sitting on your lap.

• The T-shirt design is shown below and is available in adult sizes of XXXL, XXL, XL, L, M, S and youth sizes of L, M and S. If you have not let me know your shirt sizes, please email those to me now.

• Review the list below (double click to enlarge) and make sure I have the right number of tickets, the right number of t-shirts and the correct sizes listed. I will need to order the shirts by Friday, 8/14 and they will be $7 each. The $7 is strictly for the cost of the shirt and does not include any sort of donation to the Forester Medical Fund. If you would like to make a donation, just email me and let me know that and we can work that out separately. We just don't want to mix donations in with the cost of the shirts and the tickets b/c it will get too confusing.

• I will be paying for the tickets and t-shirts, so all payments can be sent to me. You can either mail me a check (Katie Swaney, 4020 Andover Circle, McDonough, GA 30252) or send payment through PayPal to swaneyrox@gmail.com. Please indicate very clearly, either on the check or through your online transaction who you are paying for, # of tickets and # of t-shirts so I can make sure everything matches up with my master list. Please make sure I have a return address also so I can mail you the tickets.I will distribute t-shirts at the game. Ideally, I would like to receive all payments by Sun, 8/23.
  

I hope I've answered most of your questions. If not, just shoot me an email at FOFBraves@yahoo.com. As always, thank you for continuing to pray for Forester and being such supportive friends of the family!!

See you September 6th! We'll put our shirts on when we get there and maybe we can figure out a way to get on TV - woo hoo!

Katie Swaney

Round 3 starts off with a breakdown

It's been a long day and I am finally home which feels so wrong. It just can't be right to sleep in your own bed when your son is in a hospital getting chemo. But, I've tortured myself with these thoughts before so I won't continue to do it again.

I have great news to report! Forester had his hearing test today and his hearing is still perfect. Woo-Hoo! Thank you, Jesus just doesn't cover it! 2 down and 4 more to go. Tonight he gets Cisplatin for 6 hours which is the drug that can cause hearing loss. Please continue to pray protection over his ears and every healthy cell in his body. He'll be getting chemo for the next 4 days.

Today was particularly hard. After a long day on the Hem/Onc floor, we finally got a room on 7B. We moved into the hospital "suite" (it's a huge room!) and Forester got settled. Once in his bed and all snuggled down he became very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he began to cry. It was heartbreaking. As I talked with him he said he's just tired of having to do this stuff. Tired of the IV pole, of random people taking his vitals constantly, sleeping away from home, the shots that will start up again soon... Can you blame him? He has been so brave and sweet through all of this. Polite and rarely complaining. He definitely deserves a breakdown. He cried himself to sleep. I felt so inadequate in that moment. Somehow I felt like I was failing as a mom. I felt like I should have had the perfect mom thing to say to make him feel better but there wasn't anything. All I could say was it's ok to be sad. I'm sad too. As I lay next to him in the bed I was wishing I could switch places with him - that I could take it all away. I know that if I feel this way, my God feels that even more. His heart is breaking too. And yet, He is allowing Forester to go through this. His purpose in this must be great! These days are refining us. Ugh. Refining is painful but the result is beautiful.

This weekend April said "I can't believe it's time for Forester to go back in the hospital again. It's going by so fast." It reminded me of being pregnant. It goes by fast for everyone around you but each day seems to creep by when you're the one waddling around with back pain and swollen feet. I'm so glad we're in round 3 but we still have a month before we're half way done with this 6 month cycle. The days seem long. The end seems far away. But, we'll get there.

Thank you, as always, for all your love and prayers for us. Your encouraging words keep us going. God is using you to bless us. And we are so blessed.

All my love,

Whitneywaiting for our room assignment

Slade, happy as usual!

the big roomview of Charleston from the hospital room - it helps!sad but asleep - my sweet baby.

Chemo Round 3 Begins...

Chemo round 3 starts today (ha! it's 1am), Monday.  Please pray for Forester and those nasty side effects.  He has a hearing test today too so keep praying for those eardrums!  Also, the vincristine is taking it's toll on his poor little legs.  They just don't work right anymore.  He can't walk in a straight line and has a hard time climbing the steps...he tends to walk wide-legged and with a foot-slap motion.  It's no fun to watch - breaks my heart.  The solution is to back off of the vincristine.  But we're dealing with cancer here.  It makes it so difficult.  Do we want them to back off the vincristine or hope we can take every dose to give us the best chance that the cancer doesn't come back?  I don't know...  So, just pray as God leads you.  I'll be posting updates from the hospital the next few days and hopefully with pictures too.  Thanks for walking through this with us.

Our love,

Whitney