Bridger Gustafson and the number... 5

Bridger

playing in EmRee's backyard during our Moncur Reunion last June.

5...

The number of earthquakes I have felt in Alaska. The biggest being a 4.7 that scared the snot out of me and the latest being a little shimmy about an hour ago. That would be the second I felt since yesterday, but apparently there were several others yesterday that I did not feel. Check out the USGS site and see how many earthquakes Alaska gets on a weekly basis.

It is also the number of kids in my family.

It is the number of people in my family with JaDee.

It is the number of siblings JaDee has.

It is the number of the month Ethan was born in.

It is the number of weeks Bridger Gustafson, our nephew spent in the hospital this past October and November

It is also how old my nephew Bidger is and he is a very sick little boy.

He has Chronic Granulomatous Disease. I took the advice of Dr. Ben and used Dr. Google and his Nurse Wikipedia to give you the links rather than explain it all to you. It is quite a complicated little disease and Bridger is lucky to be alive. In a nutshell Bridger does not have the capabilities to ward off the basic bacteria that our bodies naturally fight. It is extremely rare, in fact only 200 new cases are reported every year. However, the only way to keep him alive is with a bone marrow transplant. This can only take place after he undergoes intensive chemo and will have to live in Houston for 6 months for this entire procedure to take place.


Anyway, I am also including a link to the Walk for Bridger that members of his ward are doing for him in Dallas (where he lives with his parents). Now obviously most of my readers are not going to make it to this walk in Houston, and neither am I. However I signed up and plan on mailing my check as if I were going to be there and plan on running/walking that day with my kids in honor of their little cousin, whom we all love so much.

I am asking all of you to do the same.

Sign up at http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?walkforbridger and pledge to donate $15 per adult and $10 per child. I can't promise a T-shirt so anything will be helpful. And walk a mile, run a 5K or heck run a marathon on May 23 in honor of Bridger and his fight to get better.

To send payment, e-mail me moncur1@juno.com and I will have more details. (I will post them as soon as I get them too, but I just had to get this post up as soon as I heard about the walk).

JanaLee is JaDee's youngest sibling. She married Blake 6 years ago and had Bridger a little over a year later. They are the sweetest family. Truly, JanaLee is a selfless human being. But from the beginning Bridger has been in out of hospitals in 3 different states. The last being in Dallas, TX for 5 weeks in October where he ended up on life support with only his heart and brain functioning on its own. It was in Dallas that they finally got the CDG diagnosis and hope to make Bridger well.

His 5th birthday was spent unconscious clinging to the machines that kept him alive.

Since his stay this past October-November, Bridger has been on a countless number of prescriptions. He is unable to go to church, pre-school, or the park for risk of the slightest infection. Infections that most of us fight off automatically have the potential to kill Bridger. So we call him our Bubble Boy, because that is what he essentially lives in to prevent exposure to the outside world. A bone marrow transplant has been proven as an effective way to cure him of this disease. A team of doctors in Houston have been working with the developer of this procedure for CDG, and have seen success in a number of cases of CDG treated with a bone marrow transplant. Bridger already has 6 positive matches for bone marrow waiting to make him well.

Our family has seen incredible miracles. I could write a book on the number of miracles we have seen in Bridger's case and others. But ultimately we have seen the power of prayer work towards this goal of making Bridger well. We have seen his cousins, our children, pray for his health, for JanaLee's strength to endure, and for Blake to continue being the support for his family. We desperately want this to work.

And we have faith that it will.

JanaLee and Blake, Bridger's beautiful parents.

JaDee, JanaLee and AshLee.

Poor Jana has these guys to put up with. When she was little JaDee used to stick her on the flat topped banister and leave her there because she was too little to get down on her own.

JanaLee, CaMee, EmRee

MitChell, JaDee, AshLee

The 6 Moncur kids. Look at all that red hair! They could be the Weasley's from Harry Potter! Now you know who I mean when I refer to a "red headed sister/brother." I couldn't ask for better in-laws. Seriously, I love this family and consider it a privilege to be a part of it.

UPDATE....

Here are ways that we can donate to Bridger.

1-I posted a Pay pal Button in the top corner of my blog. Click on this link and follow the instructions using a major credit card.

2-go to any Wells Fargo and ask to deposit in the Bridger and JanaLee Gustafson account

3-mail me a check to PO Box 771668

Eagle River AK 99577-1668

and I will get it where it needs to go

If you want a T-shirt commemerating the Walk for Bridger on May 23 we have to have these ordered by May 8. Leave a comment on my blog with desired sizes (S/M/L for adult or youth)and an e-mail address where I can contact you. We are having all out of town shirts sent to the Farm in WY and will distribute them from there. You will probably not recieve your shirt until the middle of June.

$15 for adult sizes

$10 for kids sizes

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY A SHIRT TO DONATE!!

any questions e-mail me at moncur1@juno.com