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Marissa Faith Miao Burghart 9/19/95-9/20/03 Marissa was diagnosed 12/21/02 with a diffuse pontine glioma, an inoperable brain stem tumor. She went to be with Jesus on 09/20/03. Her favorite color was Purple & she loved the Lord. Marissa was an amazing artist & she loved to draw. Marissa means: Wonderful Gift from the sea, but we have always said that she was and is, a wonderful gift from God. Her Chinese name is Guo Miao & means: wonderful, beautiful, great & she is this & more to those that knew & loved her.
Pictures in the photos section to Celebrate Marissa's Life! See her art work to help orphaned and abandoned children in China at: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/
Sale of her notecards help to pay for medical procedures and foster care for children waiting for their forever families.
Journal
Saturday, September 13, 2008 3:44 PM CDT Today, September 13th is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. Children all over the country are dying every day from cancer. Those that live deal with life long effects from chemo. Every day. Cancer does not discriminate against race, gender, or social status. Cancer happened to us. It could happen to you, too. Cancer doesn't just happen to one family member. It happens to the whole family. It affects parents and grandparents, and it affects siblings. With one diagnosis a whole family's lives are changed forever. Cancer sucks.
On September 19th we will celebrate what would have been Marissa's 13th Birthday, she would have been a teenager and in middle school this year. Instead, she is in heaven and we are here with our memories, unable to hold her in our arms, so we hold her memories in our hearts and share them with everyone, so that no one forgets our brave, beautiful, loving, talented, daughter, who gave us and everyone she met, so much joy, love, laughter and unconditional love. She did nothing to deserve the suffering she endured from the beast we call "cancer". She loved LIFE, FAMILY, GOD, all living creatures. September 20th will be a bitter sweet day, as we remember it as the 5th anniversary of our precious Marissa Faith going home to the arms of Jesus and also our daughter Jalin's 5th birthday. There are many other kids still here, still fighting... there are many who won their ultimate battle and are now in Heaven with Marissa.
So what can you do? There are a few very easy things!
1. Become a Bone Marrow Donor. Many times the only way to save the life of a cancer patient is through a bone marrow transplant. Now through September 22, The Nascar Foundation is paying the $50 fee so you can sign up for FREE! Be a hero. Be a Bone Marrow Donor.
2. Go out to eat! Seriously! On September 29th Chilis restaurant will be donating 100% of their proceeds to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. What better way to help cancer research?!
3. Go sign the petition!!! e-mail me and I will send you the link.
4. Check out It's 4 the Kids. Bookmark it and visit often. There are LOTS of ways to help on there!
5. Go to Complete The Cure and watch the videos. For every video you watch sponsors will donate 25 cents to the Children's Cancer Research Fund. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it adds up quickly!
6. Most importantly, spread the word!!! Talk and talk and talk until someone HEARS us.
These facts deserve being posted again and again and again until someone GETS it and changes things so a cure is found.
Did you know?
*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.
*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.
*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS combined.
*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.
*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.
*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.
*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.
*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximiately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.
*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.
*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won't live through the day.
Cancer is a terrorist to our children and to their families & friends. A terrorist that kidnaps our children and terrorizes them at every turn. They try and try to fight back and just when they and we think we are winning the fight and the battle is over, they grab our children again and they relapse and the battle starts all over again. Parents stay awake watching their children's every breath, they read all they can about new trials, anything to save our children's lives, we learn how to function on little or no sleep, to keep our children here with us, we watch them suffer more and more pokes, MRI's, CT scans, transfusions, we watch them lose their hair and we see them trying to be so brave as we try not to show them how afraid we are. We try to hold onto Faith and hope, until you cannot bare to see them suffering any longer and we tell them it's ok to let go, words NO parent should ever have to say to their child, but we and many others have and it kills a part of us and our entire family, to let them go. We need an army to fight childhood cancers, so no other parent has to say those words to their child and no child has to be trapped in horror, in their little bodies, from the beast we call "cancer" again.
September is childhood cancer awareness month and September will forever be a painful month for our family. It is only fitting that September is the month we remember and do all we can to let people know about the beast we call cancer, so they will join the army and fight to end childhood cancers once and for all, so September is not a horrible month for another family. So the children fighting cancer now, have weapons to fight back with and WIN once and for all, with no more relapse. So they are not looking over their shoulders, for the beast we call "cancer" to be back, ever again.
We love you Marissa and we miss you and always will until we can hold you in our arms again. Watch over these children and help them fight the beast, We know they cannot fight it alone and neither can their families.
Blessings,
Kim
Forever mom to Angel Marissa Faith Miao Burghart 9-19-95 to 9-20-03
5=4-96 God placed an angel in our arms in Dianbai, China and 9-20-03, He took her home again too soon. Cancer CAN happen to anyone, it happened to our beautiful Marissa and it can happen to you or your child too, if we don't find a way to stop it. Thank HIM for your children every day, do not take anything for granted and pray for good health for your precious children on a daily basis. We are blessed to be her forever family, our hearts are forever changed from having her in our lives and she will be in our hearts forever and one day she will be in our arms again.
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