The 3rd Day of Christmas—Holden Underwood
This story is a part of Layla Grace’s 12 Days of Christmas. Get the details on a chance to win a $250 Target gift card while helping advance new discoveries in cancer treatment.
Our 10-month-old son, Holden Thomas Underwood, has acute lymphoblastic leukemia with MLL gene rearrangement. This will be his first Christmas, and our first time having a child with cancer over the holidays. We made it through Thanksgiving with cancer and found much to be thankful for, despite the situation.
Holden Underwood, 10 months old
Since Holden is so young, we are not so much worried about how he will feel about spending his first Christmas in the hospital, but we are worried about the amount of visitors the hospital will allow on our floor. This is a time of the year when a lot of people are sick and carrying viruses, which are bad for children with low blood counts (ANC), so I am concerned with the unusual amount of traffic.
Despite that, Christmas seems to be even easier to cope with while dealing with the fight against cancer because at Texas Children’s Hospital, there seems to be a true spirit of Christmas. There is none of that mega-mart hustle and bustle or mass consumption that Christmas has become. Here at Texas Children’s, I have seen such kindness and selflessness, and it has rejuvenated our spirits in this holiday season. This spirit that surrounds the hospital in these times has helped us adjust to our new life here in the hospital, and has lifted our hearts in a time where it would be easy to sulk or indulge in self-pity.
We have definitely changed from our normal holiday traditions since Holden was diagnosed. My wife and I are using our time in the hospital with Holden as an opportunity to open the eyes of our 12-year-old daughter, Jordan Nicole Weaver, and 5-year-old son, Trey Underwood, to the true meaning of the holidays. We’ve kept them heavily involved with giving projects in the hospital because we want to make sure they understand how important it is to remember others and not to be selfish as many are during the holidays. As a result, our children feel like they are a part of the process and not a victim of it. It has also increased our time together as a family, which is so important.
I will be spending most of my Christmas right here in the confines of Texas Children’s, giving to those who are in need both physically and spiritually. These children are so wonderful and so strong. They have more character and strength than the majority of the adults I know. So our new tradition will be to help them feel as loved and understood as humanly possible. No matter what happens to Holden, there will always be a need for kindness and understanding.
Follow Holden on his page, Holden’s Hope.