"Feels good to still be part of the team."

Rowan misses a lot of things from back home in Texas, one of the biggest of those things is Soccer.  He has played for the past three seasons, and loves it so much.  He misses his coach, his team, the practices, the games, the fields, etc.  We knew this would be one of the hardest things for him to be away from during his transplant here in Seattle, so we asked the league if we could still register him under the same coach, get a uniform and have him cheer them on from afar.  They were so nice to agree to that, but two weeks ago they took things a step further than what we had even hoped for.

Rowan received a FB Live video from the coach, of all of the players at practice, signing a soccer ball for Rowan.  The message included footage of them rooting Rowan on, wishing him well, telling him they missed him, etc.  It was so special!  It included both the boys and girls teams together.  Then, a week later a package arrived in the mail from Coach Conder and the NBYSA U11 Thunder.  I don't think they had any idea how much this package would cheer him up.

Most days lately, Rowan has barely had the energy or strength to even stand up to be weighed twice a day.  His knees buckle easily.  He has lost nearly all muscle tone in his legs.  He uses a walker to walk even short distances.  He has had falls in the hallway.  And it has become nearly impossible to get him to his feet from a bathtub after his bath. It has been a heartbreaking transformation. But when these jerseys arrived, he immediately knew that he wanted to do laps in the hall wearing each of them...

the blue jersey...

and the red jersey...

He was proud and he was motivated, because he felt loved and missed by his team and his coach.  As he looked over the ball and the jerseys, he smiled and said: "Feels good to still be part of the team." 

Thank you Coach Conder, and all of your players, on both the Boys U11 Thunder (Rowan's team) and your girls team.  Thank you NBYSA for letting Rowan still wear his uniforms, even though he is representing you over 2000 miles away from your home fields, and only in the hallways of the Cancer Care Unit of Seattle Children's Hospital.  This is one little soccer player who cannot wait to get healthy, get strong, and make it back out on that field.  Thank you for accepting him two years ago, and for letting him "still be part of the team".

Home...

Away...

and far, far, away...

Love you Coach Conder...

can't wait to get home and play for you again.