Believe in yourself and great things will follow.

Shania wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. But I don't think you have to be grown up to qualify as one. Shania taught us so many lessons in life in her short time here. And one of these lessons was that you have to believe in yourself. Even when things in life seem to be at there worst. You have to find it within yourself, it's there if you look hard enough. This is where your love, strength, courage, passion is. Shania was an example of all these traits even when she was at her sickest moments, she never gave up. Shania taught us that you have to live every day like it is your last and don't hold anything back. She did this and then some from day one when she came into this world this 11lb bundle of joy. Shania's passion was to find a cure for Neuroblastoma so that no other children have to suffer from this horrible disease and this she still is doing through us and the love we have for her. Another one of her passions was hockey, which we both shared together. She loved to play it and she loved to watch her beloved T.M.L . (The. Mighty. Leafs.) Shania's love for hockey has inspired me to start playing hockey again. I haven't played since I was 16 years old (which was 27 years ago) for the Flamborough sabre allstars. I am thoroughly enjoying being back on the ice again, I proudly wear one of Shania's grey Sunflower of Hope t-shirts under my equipment. The name of our team is the Ice Pirates, which I know that Shania would have loved, The Pirates of The Caribbean were some of her favorite movies. It's amazing what we can learn from kids, if we let them teach us how to enjoy life like it's supposed to be lived and just have fun. On Nov 5Th Reesor Park School had a tree planting ceremony in honour of Shania. We brought some sunflowers and roses with us, Shannon and Karen placed them at the tree base of the tree. We also released some balloons. A large engraved garden stone was supposed to be coming on Friday. Thank you to Mr Green thumb landscaping for volunteering to plant Shania's tree at no charge. Also a sincere thank you to Nitsa Mangos and everyone else involved in doing this beautiful tribute to our Shania. Wednesday Nov 7Th was Shania's birthday and we went down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We brought Shania's favorite meal with us Loblaws chicken and wedgies which we ate in our van when we got there. After that we went for a walk through the trails down to Cootes paradise and along the board walk in the marsh there. It was cool with a few flurries flying, but it was nice because we had the place to ourselves except for all the birds and squirrels. They are used to being feed and came running and flying from every direction. We had lots of bird seed and peanuts with us so we were ready for them this time. hundreds of them, Blue jays, Cardinals, woodpeckers, little black and white chickadees, morning doves, mallard ducks Grey squirrels black ones you name it, they all gave us a warm welcome and chowed down on the goodies right out of our hands . We ran out of peanuts when we were heading out and one Squirrel just kept following us. Shannon had a little bird seed left in her bag and the squirrel climbed up her leg and onto her arm and stuck his head right into her bag of seed looking for another peanut. It was good to see Shannon laughing and having a good time. Next we headed over to the Rock Gardens just up the road. They are closed for the season but the fence is close to where Shania's Fairy Princes Falls are. We had brought some balloons with us. One was a Tinker Bell balloon which Shannon wanted to release so we sang Shania happy birthday, Shan wanted to count are you one, are you two, are you three ......up to nine and then we released the balloons, which we had attached little notes to Shania from each of us. We stood there watching the balloons until we couldn't see them anymore. It was a sad drive home, but we are definitely glad we went. The Kids Believe in Sickkids award ceremony is this Tuesday. Shania is being honoured with "Top individual fundraiser". Karen and I will be on the radio stations "EZ rock" and "The Mix" around 8:30am to talk about what Shania has done for this great Sickkids Hospital. I just wish so much, she was here to except this award herself. Shania believed in herself and others, this is just one of the great things that have followed.
We do believe in Shania and her T.M.L. we do we do!!!!
We do believe in Shania and her T.M.L. we do we do!!!!!!!!
We do believe in Shania and her T.M.L. we do we do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our hearts are with you J.B. keep strong.
Sincerely,
Shayne,Karen and Shannon