"I guess I feel like I jumped in a cold swimming pool. It's quite a shock at first and you gradually get more used to it but the water is still too cold."

"It is just so hard to have doctors tell you they don't know why for everything. That is what I have the hardest time with - why."

"Sometimes kids handle things a lot better than adults do and they are the real troopers."

"I still take things one day at a time, and never take things for granted."

Random quotes from random parents at random times: on-line chats, support group meetings, late night conversations over stale hospital coffee.

Different moms and dads. Different diagnoses. Different circumstances. Different kids.

But one common thread binds them all - each is a parent of a child with cancer. Just like you. Just like me. Welcome to the club.

You should know from the start that we are a very different kind of club. Quite different, I'm sure, from any club you have ever belonged to.

• In this club, we not only discourage new membership, we pray every day that we will cease to exist due to lack of interest and need.
• In our club, we don't nominate or interview new members. We are completely democratic, discriminating against no one. It doesn't matter how old you are, where you live, what you do or what your dreams are - we are the ultimate equal opportunity club.
• As a new member of this club, you have lifetime membership whether you want it or not. You not only pay exorbitant initiation dues, you continue to support our fellowship for the rest of your life.

In addition to all these membership "perks", we offer many special interest groups for those of you absorbed by leukemia and lymphoma, brain tumors, sarcomas, or other teenage cancers.

Sadly, some of you may join the most painful niche group of all —our bereaved parents who must face the ultimate loss. Thankfully, we are in the minority but members for life, all the same.

There is only one eligibility criterion to belong to this unique club —having a teenager living with cancer.

Some of you are just starting out on this tough journey; others have been walking the path for quite some time. Maybe your teen has just been diagnosed; perhaps he or she is in treatment or remission. Your teenager may be a long-term survivor, but still "living with cancer."

No matter where you find yourself along the way, this is a place to share, to question, to be mad at the whole world, to laugh, to cry.

Together we can help not only ourselves, but our kids who define the word courage; who give us the strength to face each day; who remind us to be grateful for the sun, even when it doesn't shine — for we know eventually it will.

Welcome to the club!