Another Christmas season has come and gone. I absolutely love Christmas. It is a time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, to spend time with our loved ones, and to take a step back as the year closes and a new year prepares to begin. This photo was taken on Christmas Day 2012. We were at a condo in Denver that we stayed at when Olivia had chemo. We had a beautiful Christmas together (our first with our twins) and the very next morning at 8 a.m. Olivia began her next round of chemo. Cancer doesn’t give you a break no matter what time of the year it is. I told myself that Christmas 2013 would be much better. Olivia would be healthy and cancer-free and we would be able to be home together. I was right that she would be cancer-free but I never imagined that she would be spending the rest of her Christmases in Heaven.

Now tomorrow begins the year 2014, and thus we begin a new year that didn’t include my daughter, Olivia. That breaks my heart. I’m so grateful for the amazing 20 months, 3 days, 4 hours and 5 minutes that I had with her, but I wanted so many more. I hate cancer! It stole my angel and 91,000 other kids just like her this year.

And so this new year begins. I hope and pray that 2014 brings forth a cure for childhood cancer. My greatest wish is that the Olivia Caldwell Foundation in my beautiful girl’s honor will be a great contributing factor to finding a cure for pediatric brain cancer. We have already raised over $50,000 in just a little over a month and a half, which I am thrilled about! We have the chance to save a lot of lives by funding research and I hope that you will join us. You can donate to our foundation today by clicking on the Donate Now button on this post or by visiting our website at http://www.oliviacaldwellfoundation.org.