Malia

I am a believer in shared experiences. I feel that knowing people are thinking about you, caring about you, sending you prayers, positive energy or thoughts, and all of those things eases difficult and trying situations.

For awhile, I have been following the Caring Bridge site of a little girl from my hometown. I've never met her or her family, but a high school friend posts links to Malia's site on her facebook page, so I began checking on them. I found myself drawn to this little girl and her family.

Malia is a nine-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with Stage Four cancer, and at this point, the doctors believe they have done everything they can for her. I feel compelled to share her story via the Caring Bridge site her mother so diligently updates.

Malia's Caring Bridge site can be found at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maliapeterson. They ask that you register and provide an email address and create a password for the site, but in my past experiences with Caring Bridge, I have had no issues with junk mail or spam.

I think about how much it has meant to me during these past days to know that people have thought about Lydia, have empathized with the things that were so difficult in this blip of a medical difficulty. As this family deals with something so potentially catastrophic, I can't imagine that the same empathy would be appreciated by them.