mama is BAWLD!

today, more than 250 people in portland shaved their heads and raised more than $100,000 to support kids with cancer. the st. baldricks foundation has these events all over the country and it gives people a chance to raise money for research, and show kids they care. as a cancer survivor myself, i know that one of the most difficult parts of a diagnosis when you're young often doesn't revolve around mortality, but centers around other concerns that are of the more psycho-social variety. for me, it was, "can i still compete in tennis?" "how will i ever BELONG?"and, of course, "am i gonna lose my hair?" the latter seemed to be the most horrifying and alienating at the time. today it was incredible to see so much hair in the air as people validated both the fears and strengths of the kids who have been faced with the life-altering reality of cancer.

for the past few weeks we've been talking to adah about how i was going to be bald soon, and how i'll look different and it'll feel funny for awhile. she listened, mentioned that afterwards i should "put the hair back on," and we kept wondering how she'd react. at the event itself, besides being induced with a bout of claustrophobia like the rest of us, she ignored me completely and seemed incredibly unphased. on the drive home, she kept repeating, "mama's bawld, mama's bawld!!" i took a video, but we lost the cord, so forget about me posting that cuteness. during the bedtime routine she started rubbing my head and telling me my head looked like a house, the straw house that the wolf tries to blow down. she then proceeded to try and remove my eyebrows.

the end.