Now that the academic year is over, I treated myself to a few extra days off this week.  On Saturday I drove five hours to Vestal, New York to visit my dear friends Scott and Kim King and their five children (pictured above).

I was amazed and overjoyed watching Scott and Kim with their children.  Their love for one another and their kids is so evident.  I told Kim she is my heroine.  She’s supermom: both days she was up for an early morning run, and her energy never waned until she put the kids to bed, all the while staying cheerful.  Scott is such a great father.  He was an able assistant in the kitchen—he makes an exceptionally good gin and tonic—, and he readily obeyed Kim’s orders to get little Sam out of her hair when he was becoming a bit too much to deal with.  Little Sam is very mischievous, but oh-so-adorable!

The Kings have not had it easy.  In December 2006, Macey, their second oldest and only daughter, developed Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.  Twice she went into remission, and twice she relapsed.  She’s gone through countless rounds of chemotherapy, a number of surgeries, and just more pain than a little girl should have to experience.  Scott and Kim have endured many sleepless nights, hours on the road back and forth to the hospital in Syracuse, and many flights to and from Houston for Macey’s visits to MD Anderson Hospital. Read more »