Happy 3rd Birthday!!

I know what you're thinking - Wow! She's updated three times in almost a month span! She's on a roll! Yeah, I guess you could say I'm on a roll - there's just a lot that has been going on in our lives. First it was preparation for the benefit and everything that goes along with that and now comes a birthday. Joaquin Zion Rubin has officially been earthside for three years or 36 months at exactly 2:53 p.m. on June 15th. We held his birthday party at Idlewild Park, the same place we held it last year.

At one point during the day I was reflecting on how three years ago at this time we, he was in the hospital. I thought about how different it was that we were celebrating a birthday in the park and what a stark contrast it was to being in a hospital. And being very thankful that we were at a park instead of in a hospital.

So today we celebrated three years of Joaquin. Three years seems like both a long and short time. A long time in a sense that he seems like he's been here forever, like I can barely remember what life was like before Joaquin; and short in a sense that, holy guacamole! (in the words of Joaquin) he's been here for three years already!

Joaquin is in a rapid period of growth right now. In pictures taken of him only three or four months ago he has made this leap from baby to boy. Even when I look at his little body I see the changes. Usually when you are with a person on a day to day basis it's more subtle but it seems like there are mornings when he wakes up that he literally looks bigger than the day before.

We haven't had a blood draw in about three weeks. It's time, not only because it's been three weeks, but because he needs his monthly labs drawn. With monthly labs they draw a lot of blood, pretty much the limit of what they are allowed to draw. He does well with it. It's been nice not having to go so often.

We are having another fundraising event for Joaquin. I was approached by a couple of people, one of whom owns a salsa dancing studio. Every Saturday they have salsa dancing where people pay $10 at the door and receive a free lesson and then every dances the night away after that. The nice thing about this event is that we have had to do virtually nothing. All we're responsible for doing is spreading the word. Today Kassia, the person who's helping to put the event on, dropped off some flyers for us to pass out. I'm looking forward to the event, I haven't ever salsa danced before so I figure not only are we raising money - we're also learning to dance and just dancing!! I love to dance.

Benefit!

The benefit we held for Joaquin on Sunday June 8th, 2008 was a success! We had a good turn out and raised good money. Joaquin was a little late showing up and when he did he was a little intimidated because of all the people. He sort of knew that everything was for him and I think that was a little overwhelming for him. Thankfully, his good buddy Ranon was there and so they ran around playing together.

Sol Jibe and The Mark Sexton Band were great! Both bands were very enthusiastic about being there and played great. We're looking forward to working with them again in the future.

All in all, we raised about $2500!