Time out for a note of thanks. Thanks to all those of you who visit here and prayed for my granddaughter Julie.

I followed her dad Pete to the hospital through the snow on Jan 5 2008. She had passed out and fallen down the stairs in her house. She was diagnosed and confirmed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. This disease is a progressive illness. The doctor shocked us with that diagnosis and told us she may have 2 days, 2 months, 2 years to live. We were devastated.

Today my fingers are cramped from keeping them crossed. Julie’s schoolmates and her church along with people we don’t even know, collected money and sent her and the family to Lourdes, France. Like many of you they all prayed for her. After the trip to Lourdes, Julie's health has improved dramatically. I credit all of you and all your prayers. Mary's Son is being very gentle with our Julie.
 

Twelve-year-old Julie Brock-Garcia took a long, slow breath before she tried to describe her illness.

How could she explain it? One day she was healthy, and the next she had perhaps two weeks to live.

The yapping of the family dog interrupted her. A UPS man had a delivery — a brown envelope.

She fumbled a little opening it and pulled out a gold ticket.

“Is this the ticket to the Buck O’Neil seat?” she asked, eyes wide. Her brother Peter Jr., 11, craned his neck to see it.

“Gosh, it looks like a Willy Wonka ticket,” said her mother, Pam Garcia.

They laughed together, still marveling at how they had been invited to sit in the best seats at Kauffman Stadium (the delivered “ticket” was a parking pass), all because a homeless man was hungry and an ill child noticed.