None of us know how or why this has happened but it is amazing. I know it warms all of our hearts to see the support our Aidan is receiving and we can never thank you enough. Although I have quit actively posting on this blog many people keep asking the same question, “When will Aidan’s art be available?” While we do not intend to sell any more prints Aidan’s parents will make several original drawings available in the very near future.  I will be sure to update here when that takes place.

As far as Aidan’s health he is doing very well. He takes his chemo in pill form now and has not had to spend time in the hospital since November, his treatments are going great.  His hair is finally growing back and getting longer and longer every day. (Aidan says he wants rock and roll hair, haha. )

If you would like to follow regular updates on Aidan you can do so at Aid for Aidan on Facebook. 

Love,

Aunt Mandi

Thanks!

Aunt Mandi

Getting started

As Mandi has stated in the past her goal was 60 prints by Christmas.  However, we received 7,684 donations through Aidan’s Monsters, and we are all incredibly grateful for your support.  These past few months have been overwhelming at times, but the support from people across the world was an amazing boost to our efforts.  We have been working on Aidan’s Monsters everyday for months now, and I am proud to say we have shipped every order out.  This was a daunting task to manage, but Mandi was determined to keep her promises to all of the people who requested a print.  Our dining room table was converted to a packaging station, and our garage was full of envelopes, paper and mailing labels.  We developed product codes to be printed on the mailing labels to help speed up the process.  In spite of our efforts, we do recognize that some people did not receive their print in less than 8 weeks, and for that we are very sorry that we didn’t meet our commitment.  Please understand that we made every effort to deliver without “short cutting” or “modifying” the end product.

A weekend’s work

Given that our initial purpose and goal has been greatly overachieved, Mandi has elected to discontinue her management of the Aidan’s Monsters Etsy Shop, and we will be transitioning the shop to Aidan’s parents if they so desire.  We both felt it important to thank everyone who helped make Mandi’s idea into what it became.  I know we will never forget this experience, and I am especially grateful for the notes of support that Mandi has received.  I have a new level of admiration for my wife, and she has learned that she is capable of doing amazing things.

May God bless Aidan and all of his supporters,

Sincerely,

The Ostein Family

I know Aidan put a pretty good list in to Santa. I have a feeling between Santa and all of the gifts you all sent he will be having a pretty awesome Christmas!

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As far as Aidan’s Monsters I will be taking a few days off to spend with family. If you have any questions concerning your order please direct them to my etsy or aid_for_aidan@hotmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you so much for your patience and your contributions! You have touched all of our hearts in ways unimaginable. We can never say thank you enough!

Another point I want to mention is that Aidan is not signing prints at this point. We all need to remember he is still sick and he is still 5. Right now drawing is a fun hobby for him and the last thing we want to do is take that away and turn it into a “job.” I apologize for any inconvenience this may be to anyone.

Again thank you SO much for all of your support!

<3

Aunt Mandi

A monster with a chainsaw of course!

Once I was there I realized that Aidan is so silly there is no way I could spend any time being sad. I was too busy fighting off the monsters and listening to little boy giggles. No one would have ever guessed that this was just a few days after having his second Hickman surgery.

Playing at “Gramma Toome’s”

I think every moment we spent around Aidan we were laughing. It reminded me although Aidan has leukemia, he is still Aidan. He is still silly, loves his monsters, never breaks character and HATES saying goodbye. <3

<3

Aunt Mandi

Aidan at the World Treasures Museum

This past couple weeks has been pretty good. Aidan was finished with his antibiotics bag on Tuesday. He was so excited he ran around the house for a good 15 minutes. It is nice that he gets to be him old self for awhile. He definitely is back to being Aidan. You can see video of Aidan here! (he cracks me up!)

I think we are all glad to see him being his silly self again. We have all definitely missed that side of him. He even talked to me on the phone last night because he HAD to tell me someone sent him a Sleestack costume after this article was posted. He has promised to wear it for me when I visit for Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to see what he does with that one. I will be sure to get pictures . 

On Tuesday Aidan goes back to the hospital have his Hickman line replaced. Keep him in your thoughts and your prayers that all goes well. It breaks my heart that he has to go through it again but he has proven to be pretty resilient. I have to remind myself to be thankful that we have technology like the Hickman to help him make it through this.

The Reed Men

The family has had TONS of interviews in the past couple of weeks. Aidan has been LOVING the cameras. I hear he has been quite the ham. The Reeds have been in the Huffington Post, TODAYshow.com, ABC News Online, The front page of their local newspaper, and they should be in this weeks issue of In Touch Magazine.  But the biggest most exciting/nervewracking interview was with John Berman for ABCs World News. There is a good chance their interview will air tonight (5:30PM Central), if not tonight early next week. I am pretty excited to see what they do with it!

<3

Aunt Mandi

I never got to share any of Aidan’s halloween pictures here. If you follow our facebook I am sure you have already seen them but for everyone else here they are!

Jigsaw!

Despite the few setbacks he has had Aidan was able to go trick or treating. We are glad he got to keep a little normalcy to his favorite holiday. The celebration was not nearly as big as previous years but he seemed to enjoy himself.

Aidan has been recieving gifts from some of you and he thinks it is pretty cool. I know they put a smile on his face, which is something we all love to see!

Aidan loves every single one of his gifts but here he is posing with one of his favorites. An autographed picture of “Micheal Myers!” (I know the entire Reed family was pretty excited about that one.)

However, due to the tremendous outpouring of support we have received; the family has been able to offset current medical and loss wage expense. Given the demand for Aidan’s art and the uncertainty that awaits us on the road to curing Aidan from leukemia, we have elected to continue to offer his art for sale. All of the proceeds generated from the sale will still go to Aidan and his family to prepare for future medical expense. Our family felt it morally important to share that your support has been more than we could have ever anticipated, and we wanted to thank you for everything.

While the donations and financial support have been an amazing blessing, we would like to especially thank everyone for all of the letters and support. Your words have been uplifting and inspiring to the entire family. Your words and support for Aidan have helped us in ways unimaginable. Aidan has been drawing more than ever, and we do our best to share all of your words with him. Your support has been keeping Aidan’s and our family’s spirits up. Again, we sincerely thank you for this.

Thank you,
Aidan and family