Happy Birthday Singapore!

YES! Charmaine and her 3 warrior friends gotta watch NDP Flypast and Fireworks THANKS TO

The Kind Soul ~ who contacted NDP Committee
I wish I knew who you are, nonetheless, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts, especially for the mommies and daddies who saw the excitement and happiness on our little ones' faces.

NDP Fireworks Committee ~
Chairman Sean Tan
Soon Mong
Shane Mok
Harry

Branding, Publicity and Media Engagement Committe ~
William
Sheng Yang

Marina Bay Sands ~
Serena

Volunteers ~
Rachel and Family
Thank you for volunteering to take care of us.


As Charmaine suddenly complains of tummy pain, I am not able to write a full entry so I shall just post an extract of the email I wrote last night.

Hello Sean, William, Soon Mong, Sheng Yang and Shane,

WOW - that was impressive fireworks! Beautiful and the kids were just in awe! I wish I had captured those moments but I was 'in charge' of taking the fireworks pictures for my little bosses. :-) Haha.

All the other mommies and daddies are also very touched and thankful that you have put this together specially for our little ones! 2 of the kiddos, Gabriel Liam and Janelle actually has an immune below 1 which in medical terms means no immunity and also their platelets are 30 on Friday - anything lower than 20 means an immediate transfusion. (And the trend is such that it will go lower instead of higher)

BUT THEY ALL TURNED UP! YEAH!

Because its something that we wouldnt miss for anything else! An experience so priceless and a memory so special and beautiful. Frankly, I am probably more happy than anyone else. Charmaine has been blessed with many angels in her life but unfortunately not many others are as lucky as her. Hence, I am just SO GLAD that her friends got the chance to experience this along with her! And all these coordinated and made possible within a span of less than 24hrs! You guys are fantastic! I dont think I can put down adequately in words just how much this means to us.

My 2 little ones are exhausted by the time we got into our taxi but I heard Janelle and her sister were just talking all the way non stop until close to their bed time at midnight. :-) I'm sure when Charmaine and Jase wakes up tomorrow, they are going to start talking non stop abt it too. :-)

I want to apologise for causing quite a bit of hoo-ha with my last minute request of allowing Gabriel Loh and Gabriel Liam's family to cut queue for the taxi. I'm so sorry, I should have thought of that earlier and mention it beforehand to you guys rather than making such a last mintue request. SORRY.

Nonetheless, THANK YOU to Soon Mong, Harry and Sheng Yang for rushing here and there and making countless phonecalls to coordinate to my last minute request. YOU GUYS DID IT AGAIN. :-) Gabriel Loh and Gabriel Liam were allowed to cut the queue after sometime and we all made it home safe and sound!

And I realised that I made Sheng Yang's entire family volunteer to take care of us! They took such great care of us I literally mistook them for trained volunteers! THANK YOU Rachel! Charmaine loves YOU! :-) Without Rachel and family taking care of us, I would definitely be overwhelmed.

Also, not forgetting sweet Serena from MBS! She is so thoughtful in our needs despite our last minute addition and took extra care to make sure we didnt have to stand under the hot sun to queue for long and also made sure we were escorted off before everyone else once the parade ended. Please convey our appreciation to her.

And this is wonderful hospitality, Sean! Definitely comparable to New York! I was very impressed with how children with cancer were taken care of in New York when we were there. (They had police escort for every trip planned for the kids, even if its just a movie premier and our most memorable experience was this once where the police officer arrived late and in order to make up for lost time, he literally sounded his siren and bit every traffic light down the entire trip. Did I mention him honking all the way? Haha.) AND YOU GUYS WERE JUST AS AWESOME, IF NOT MORE! I am almost certain that they wouldnt be able to fix up something like this in 24hrs. :-) SO KUDOS to everyone of you!

We are simple average folks, fighting a different battle. And tonight, we felt like royalties. :-)

For that few hours, your show and hard work took our minds off the battle we are all fighting. Its just us celebrating Singapore's birthday!

Please pardon my long windedness. Keeping short and sweet isnt exactly my forte if you guys read Charmaine's blog. :p
But can anyone sense my happiness here? YES, still so happy and still so excited!

Please do take heart that whatever you have done for us and our little ones will be remembered for a long long time. Maybe some of the little ones may forget when they grow older but most certainly, us mommies and daddies will always look back to this treasured memory fondly and will not forget your kindness, your big heart, and the fantastic show you have put up tonight!

What may seem to you as a 'little gesture' is a huge gift to us, so once again, THANK YOU. :-)

Charmaine, Jase and myself will be flying back to New York by end of the month for further treatments not available in Singapore and I am going to have to switch to the 'mad preparation mode' for the next 2 weeks to try and settle everything in time. Hence, I may not be able to keep in touch as much as I want to. And probably, I may not get a chance to meet up with some of you personally to say a word of THANKS so please forgive me.

Tonight's excitement and happiness has most certainly given me the boost I so needed to recharge my mind and prepare for our next battle ahead. I was actually rather drained from these few months of treatments and am very scared to return back to New York all alone, with a much more weaker body of Charmaine. I dont even have any idea of what her treatment in New York is going to be, unlike last year where I had a somewhat clear direction and plan. Tonight miraculously brought back my determination and focus. Not sure if its the fireworks after-effects or just the love we received to remind me of how wonderful life is. But something did it and I'm all ready for tomorrow!

I cant speak for others but my heart tells me that if I could miraculously recharge my mind tonight, I'm sure the other mommies and daddies also had their little reboot in their own ways through your gift and show. :-)

Alright, I think I better end it soon. :-)

May each one of you finally get your well-deserved rest after all these months of hard work. And may all of you be blessed with abundant happiness and great health. (Because you all truly deserved it!)

THANK YOU ALL!

Love,
Cynthia

I also like to take this opportunity to thank a few other people who went the extra miles to call and enquire around to ensure that Charmaine will get a chance to view the fireworks she missed so much...

~ Chwee Teng for so kindly offering to pay for a hotel room for us but I have to humbly reject because I didnt want money to be spent unneccessarily. THANK YOU so much! I know I must have made you anxious for awhile because you so desperately wanted to help fulfil Charmaine's wish. I cannot say enough thanks. :-)

~ Ronnie Ang for contacting the various hotels to check if they can accomodate Charmaine's wish. You are an angel to us because frankly with Charmaine being inpatient, it was rather tough trying to put together something. Without the presence of big hearted people like you, the experience last night would not have been possible. (I almost wonder if you were the one who called up NDP Committe!)

~ Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Miss Usha Brockmann, Marketing Manager and Mr Amit Majumder, Front Office Manager
THANK YOU SO MUCH for putting in so much effort to try and accommodate to our every request. I appreciate your kindness and would like to say sorry that we could only choose one venue. Nonetheless, we are truly amazed and very thankful.

~ Lilin and Husband
THANK YOU so much for offering your house to us. I'm sorry that we couldnt go but its really a pleasure to have made a new friend in you.


I am sure that there are many other kind souls out there that has helped in one way or another to make this possible for Charmaine, Janelle, Gabriel Liam and Gabriel Low. I may never know who you are individually but your contribution and 'little gestures' have touched our lives and brought on the biggest smiles on the kids' faces.

SO THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU! WE HAD A BLAST!


Love,

Cyn mommy,
on behalf of all of us who benefited through all of your kindness.