One day your life changes. And one day, you need more people - doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals of all stripes - in your life than you ever dreamed.  It is the day your child is diagnosed with a serious or life-threatening illness.  You can never be prepared for that moment.  I was just reading the bios of children who have been treated in some of America's children's hospitals. For some families, more than one child is affected by the same illness.  In other families, lightning struck twice, two children or more with serious and yet unrelated disease or illness.  This is where families must rely on the kindness of strangers - the folks at the clinics and the hospitals, the non-profits and associations - and, of course, the insurance companies and medicaid to help their families fight whatever monster they are fighting.  But for too many families, the stress of a sick child is compounded by the gap in what is insured and what is not, plus the enormous cost of care, when one parent needs to commit full time to the child both at home and in hospital (especially when they hospital is in another state or half-way across the country). There is the lack of income, the cost of transportation, care of other children, take-out food and other expenses that are hard to enumerate. 

Join with us and Speak Now For Kids, to tell Congress that one of the best ways to spend the stimulus package is on the care of our children.  Earmark the money for children's universal health insurance, for research and national research data bases, the expansion of children's hospitals and special satellite clinics where hospitals are not available.  We need money for nursing education and scholarships in all levels of the medical profession.

The National Association of Children's Hospitals is hosting Family Advocacy Days, where some of these challenged families I was reading about will have a chance to go to Washington and meet with their representatives in Congress to remind them that children need special care, and despite the economy, cannot be forgotten.