A message on your pillow, a tasty meal prepared for you, the smile on the face of someone you love, the support of a person you would have never encountered in your day-to-day world, an afternoon playing frisbee, the renewal of hope.

It's the small things that make a difference, Melinda Mayton, the founder of Marietta's Blue Skies Ministries and a nurse at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, says.

The journey of having a sick child can be difficult and leave you feeling isolated and in need of renewal and restoration, Mayton says. Blue Skies takes families who are walking through the valley of childhood illness on retreats. Families from around the country spend a week having fun at the beach. Children, both sick and healthy, laugh and play, feel cherished and valued, and spend quality time with their families.

"These families are in a dark valley, and we lift the families above the storms of cancer to the blue sky. Some days for these families are not stormy or a tornado, but things are still cloudy with their fears and stress. We want to give them a day where they can laugh and smile."

"Cancer is such a divider because you have one parent at the bedside and one at work and the siblings with someone else, and my thought was let's pull them all together and give them that gift, to come here and feel hope, feel refreshed and feel connected to their family and others," Mayton explains.

Cancer is the second most common cause of death among children one to 14 in the United States, according to the CDC. More than 16 out of every 100,000 children were diagnosed with cancer and nearly three out of every 100,000 died from cancer. There are currently around 50,000 families with a child with cancer, according to Mayton.

Each day of the retreat begins on the beach with chapel. Over coffee and homemade blueberry muffins, parents share their stories in Kindred Journeys. "You can't believe how often these parents have never shared their stories because people don't understand. There's a power that comes from seeing complete understanding on someone else's face."

Kids and teenagers spend their morning in activities such as sports, cooking, art and reporting for the Blue Scoop (retreat newspaper).

"It's therapy just for them to laugh and play. They don't get the chance to cheer for one another; there's not a lot for them to cheer about."

"It's therapy just for them to laugh and play," Mayton says. "They don't get the chance to cheer for one another (at home); there's not a lot for them to cheer about. And at the end everyone gets a medal like kids get medals all the time, but these kids don't get to participate in all that stuff." Mayton notes that she's been to funerals where the kids have their Blue Skies medals in the caskets with them.

"We all show up as strangers, but by the end of one day you're friends and by the end of day five you're leaving your families."

A lot of times siblings of a child with cancer feel left out, Mayton says. "The have to compete with cancer for attention. Here they get quantity and quality time with parents and their brothers or sisters." With Blue Skies, families spend the afternoon playing on the beach, biking, splashing in the pool, snorkeling, shark fishing or taking a nap and catching up on some much-needed rest. 

"These families are in a dark valley, and we lift the families above the storms of cancer to the blue sky. Some days for these families are not stormy or a tornado, but things are still cloudy with their fears and stress. We want to give them a day where they can laugh and smile."

"If a family comes down on a retreat and just remembers the chocolate fountain or releasing lanterns on the beach, we missed it," Mayton says. "We want it to be special and have those things, but it's about people being there to take care of you and listen."

"We all show up as strangers, but by the end of one day you're friends and by the end of day five you're leaving your families."

A lot of the kids are bald, missing an extremity or disfigured, and they don't feel comfortable being themselves around others, Mayton says. On the retreats those worries fade away. One young girl named Bridget who was on a retreat took off her wig and makeup. "When I was at her funeral, she wasn't like that. I was like where is Bridget? Her mother told me that the retreat was the first time she was able to let all that go."

Brian, 19, who went on a retreat with Blue Skies, also passed away. "It was the last time he made friends, the last time he ate a hamburger, the last time he had a vacation with his mother."

On the next retreat a couple whose daughter has a brain tumor and went on a previous retreat with Blue Skies will be coming back to volunteer. "It's encouraging for other families to know there is life beyond cancer. Sometimes families get in the world of cancer and forget it's okay to laugh and smile."

Blue Skies was founded in 2010. During its first year, Blue Skies hosted two retreats and served 21 families from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. It has now reached seven states. This year four retreats, each with 12 families, are planned. Next year Blue Skies hopes to double the number of retreats they hold. Eventually, Mayton wants every family affected by childhood cancer to have access to the program.

Aside from transportation to and from the retreat, families experience no costs. Each retreat takes about $50,000 to host. "It is amazing in this economy that that's able to happen. It doesn't take a few people giving a lot, it takes a lot of people giving a little."

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