Saturday, June 05, 2010

Riley on a Moose-ions Trip

Riley is back again! Here are some of his adventures this past winter.



Riley had a very snowy winter - so much snow he and Sophie had trouble finding playtime after all the shoveling was done! They were usually too tired or too cold.


Riley really likes to play in the winter, after all, he is a moose!

Like any girl in a young buck's life, Sophie is a pest and she always wants to do everything Riley does.


For those of you who are new to my blog, I will give you some background on how and why Riley came about.




In July, 2008 when my nephew, Nate, had just turned 15, he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphona. At the time his doctors said his treatment would be at least 3 years. My sister and her family are very staunch Christians and sent out prayer requests to everyone they knew and everyone continued asking their groups. There was prayer going up for Nate nearly around the world.




As can be expected, Nate was very ill for several months. I had this brainstorm that maybe some funny cards from a moose might help him feel better, at least for a few minutes. So the anonymous cards from Riley Moose began. My brother-in-law mentioned the card in one of his Caring Bridge posts for Nate and said the whole family enjoyed the card, but the sender "forgot" to sign it. At this point no one knew who Riley was except my daughter and husband.

Just before Christmas, 2008, my daughter found a stuffed moose that looked just like the Riley stamps we had. We got one and sent it along with a card and small desk calendar to Nate for Christmas from Riley.

When I didn't see any mention about it on the Caring Bridge posts, I called my sister to ask if it had been received. I can still hear her laughing when I told her I was Riley!! Yes, it had been received. When she looked in on Nate at bedtime the night he received it, she said he was sleeping on it like a pillow. Well done, Riley!
Over the next year Riley sent Nate a few more cards, and it was driving him crazy trying to figure out who was sending them.

At our family reunion the summer of 2009, I told Nate's dad, Kenny, that I was Riley.

At this point the trick was to keep Nate guessing which meant that I would have to continue having the post office smear the postmark. Kenny suggested that I send the cards to other family members or friends who lived in different states and have them mail the cards for me.
That is what I've done!

The card in this post was sent last week with a smeared postmark. Nate is going crazy trying to make out just enough to see who sent it.The fantastic wonderful report is that Nate has responded so well to the chemo that his doctors are taking him off chemo this summer - a full year earlier than at first expected.

He has also been cleared to go on a 10-day missions trip with his church group June 10 - 19, 2010. So of course Riley wants to help out as much as he can!

I know this post is quite long, but I hope you have enjoyed getting to know Riley and Nate a bit.

If you would like to see more of the Riley cards, please check out the older posts on my blog.

Thank you for taking time to read all of this and for looking at my blog!

Huggeroonies,

1 comment:

Peggie said...

What a wonderful idea and so much fun to keep Nate guessing. Praise God that he can come off chemo. Good is good all the time.