Our Journey of A Lifetime of Memories

HADLEY HOPE

Our friend’s and family ask how the children are doing, but we can’t remember who we’ve told “what”, and this is a great way for us to communicate and keep those concerned, updated.  We thought it important to include some of our travels and fun experiences we have shared together as a family. 

 

Those surrounding us, have blessed us with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for our family, and below you will find a glimpse of some of those beautiful experiences.

 

 

 

AT & T Park: Home of the San Francisco Giants

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Giants:  5    Dodgers:  4

One of Peyton’s favorite baseball teams is the Giants, and he was beyond thrilled to meet one of his absolute favorite players, Omar Vizquel!!   Omar was so kind and attentive to the children, and mentioned he had a daughter named Kaylee.  The kids also got to meet Dodger’s Manager and future Hall-of-Famer, Joe Torre.  Jonah didn’t seem to care, but the other two were happy to meet just about anyone on the field.  Joe had a nice conversation with Peyton, and asked

him who his favorite team really was.  He responded to Joe with all honesty, saying, “the Giants aren’t REALLY my favorite team.  The New York Yankees are!” and he continued by rattling off Torre’s previous team’s top second, third, and fourth batters.  Joe was a bit impressed, and Peyton was “all smiles.”  It was close the entire game, and in the last inning, the Giants won by one!!  That was an extra treat for Peyton.

In our never ending investigation of treatments for our children we began searching for other families that sought ethical treatments related to stem cells for their children. We quickly came upon Joseph Pang’s site.  We had been seeking information on the idea of cord blood as a possible treatment after stumbling upon an article from a scientist at Seoul National University who had been having positive results with cord blood and

NP-C.   We further contacted Joseph thinking there might be a reason we came upon both he and Dr. Kang. Shortly after, we contacted him and mentioned we were coming to San Francisco in just two weeks and would like to meet him.  This is how we came to know him.

 

Our family had the great honor of meeting Joseph Pang on August 9, 2008, (exactly nine months after our children were diagnosed with NP-C.) We shared a beautiful mass at St. Peter & St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then engaged in amazing conversation over dinner.  (To our surprise, Peyton pointed out that Pope John Paul’s picture from his visit to SF in 1987 was hanging on the wall in Capp’s Corner Restaurant behind Bryan.)

 

Joseph has taken on the awesome task of developing the first public non-profit cord blood bank in San Francisco, while teaming up with UCSF.  The vast majority of cord blood stem cells available from the approximately 100,000 births annually in the Bay Area are discarded as biological waste.  The goal of the NCUBB is to capture these life saving stem cells and bank them for future use. We feel Joseph’s mission is a mission from God that helps promote the sanctity of life. 

 

Through prayer and perseverance, he was inspired to begin this mission after his daughter, Joanne fought bravely, her two year battle with leukemia.  Sadly, she would have likely survived if a minority match had come in time for an earlier cord blood transplant.  Read their amazing story at www.joannepang.org, and/or listen to the very touching and inspirational “miracle” they experienced a little over nine months after Joanne had passed away.  Click on the link below to watch the You Tube video, and please pass around to ALL your friends:

 

A New Kite in the Sky - The Joanne Pang Story

 

 

joanne pang foundation  cord blood for life

The Carmel Mission

We attended a historical tour of the Mission the morning of the Feast of the Assumption; August 15th.  To our great surprise, we learned that Pope John Paul II had visited the mission on September 17, 1987.  See below plaque.  He also had gone to San Francisco and Los Angeles on the same trip. 

 

We shared the mass with family around, including Peyton & Kayla’s second cousins: Juliana & Victor, Great Auntie Donna, and Nicole and Alex.  We then went to Point Lobos for a short hike and picnic, and then tried to make it into the Caremelite Monastery with all the bells ringing, before it closed at 4:30.  We missed it by a minute, and were worried the gates would close, and we’d have to bother someone to reopen them.

Peyton, Victor, and Kayla sharing a smile on the beach @ Capitola.

Statue of Blessed Juanipero Serra  - founder of nine California Missions

Juliana, Kayla, Peyton, Peyton, Julia, Victor, Tessa, & Brianna

The kids enjoying the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  We couldn’t hit every ride, but we sure tried.  Peyton’s favorite ride on the Boardwalk was the Bumper Cars.  Kayla & Jonah’s favorite ride was the Logger’s Revenge, in which dad got soaked from being right up front.  Any volunteers?