Birthday wishes

Six years ago life seemed perfect.

Our little miracle arrived.

And now, for the fourth year in a row, Oct. 12 is bittersweet.

Today, Dominic would've turned six. I see the friends he made having parties and inviting each other over for cake and presents and lots of fun. I think maybe we could invite some of those friends over, but would that be too morbid? Maybe not then. Who knows.

What we will do is let Samantha know it's someone special's birthday. There will be a cake, but I'm not sure what else. We can sing Happy Birthday but it's not because today is necessarily happy. It's because Oct. 12, 2012 was.

It was happy this morning when she woke up - Trish took the day off work - and we all cuddled in bed. Then I turned on music and we danced.

She still doesn't know who Dominic is but she sees pictures of him all over. On the screensaver on our TV. On a calendar we made which is forever stuck on him wearing a Santa hat for December 2015. Family pictures of mom, dad and a baby.

She's learning lots of words but doesn't quite have the thumbs-up figured out yet. We're working on it though.

Fundraising update

What do you get for the child who's not here? We parent him through our charity efforts now and it was another successful finish for the #Dominicstrong Facebook group's online auction Sept. 30. We wound up with 132 items and raised $9,877 for the Alberta Children's Hospital. Most of the items have been delivered or picked up, and we are so thankful for all the individuals and businesses who made contributions again.

I went live online to do the announcement and almost immediately someone in the comments asked if they could donate so we reached $10,000. I told them go to the Extra Life page and donate there, at least that way you get a tax receipt! And he did - an extra $150.

Then another friend got me to do about five seconds of Baby Shark for $20. I see more of these shenanigans coming - stay tuned. What would you pay for a whole song? I hear Wal Mart is selling shark hats...

Overall our team of gamers has raised $12,199 as of my posting this blog. Our stated goal was $15,000 for the year, far less than the $27,132 we raised last year. I knew it would drop off but not this much. I'd assumed the auction would bring in far less, so the goal would've been at least $20,000 if the auction did close to last year's total.

So now, with our 25-hour game day Nov. 3-4 rapidly approaching, we have to get back to raising more money. And what better a gift for Dominic than on his birthday?

With the announcement last month that Extra Life now accepts donations in Canadian dollars, it's easier than ever to help out. All you need to do is go to the website, hit the big green DONATE button and go from there.

Since I've raised more than my individual $10,000 goal, I'd like to see Trish's page get more donations. Not that it matters - it all goes to the same place. Her stated goal is $2,000 and she's at $955. Visit http://www.extra-life.org/participant/trish.

I'd also like to see Krista, Jordan, James, Brandon, Caleb and Cam get more donations. They've all joined our team and have pledged to play. And I'd love to see more people join up in support too, and ask their friends and family (and complete strangers) to donate to their pages. Go to https://www.extra-life.org/team/Dominicstrong and get started. You don't have to play 24 hours straight, and it doesn't have to be Nov. 3-4 necessarily. Just let folks know what you plan to do, and why, and don't hesitate to ask for their support.

He would've been six today. This is my sixth year doing Extra Life. It'll be a lot of fun but always tinged with a bit of sadness.