Our family sends a huge thank you to all of you who continue to offer your love, support, prayers, monetary contributions and happy thoughts on behalf of my mom Gwen Drechsler. Tomorrow is race for the Cure day in Cleveland and we are excited to get up bright and early in the chilly weather to walk for our "Cookie"!
Gwen had surgery last week and found that the cancer has travelled to her lypmhnodes so it looks like there will be chemotherapy in her future. That is a bit discouraging but we are all doing our best to remain positive and be hopeful for her cure.
Last year we ached for our young friend Teague May as he battled (and so far has conquered!) cancer in Washington State. His family adopted a motto from the Book of Mormon, "Be of good cheer...". We share this sentiment as we are ever grateful for our blessings and ever hopeful for peace and comfort for our mom, grandma, daughter, sister and friend Gwen. Many kind acts have been sent our way and I am personally so appreciative of friends that have shown love and support in the sweetest ways.
To highlight a few that have taken place:
Kristi C. auctioned one of her adorable handmade Pockets and Posies bags on eBay as part of our fundraising efforts to support our family goal to raise $500 for our Race for the Cure fund.
Another friend, Emily G. made a last minute bid to win the bag and her contribution of $63 will go into the fund.
Amie A. (whom I have never met) sent me a very kind "Good Pink Mail" package full of pink goodies including cozy pink ribbon flannel pajamas, pink ribbon Race Day socks (which I will of course be donning tomorrow!) some fun pink ribbon sticky notes and of course chocolate. Amie's enclosed note shared a personal survival story from her family that instantly brought me "good cheer" and tears to my eyes to realize that we have many supporters all around us who care deeply even for virtual strangers.
Many friends and family members have made financial contributions to our Race effort online to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Foundations like these need our support to continue the fight against many cancers affect our friends and family members. It is hard to feel like one in a sea of many but when we look around there are a whole lot of fish swimming right with us.
Evan T. my starving artist little brother in CA has made it a personal project to contribute the proceeds from the sales of his work to support our effort. As a point of interest and to let you know how much this means to me, Evan and I share a biological father. He is doing this for MY mom not his (even though his is wonderful as well!). That is how sweet his involvement is to me.
I can't even name all of you who have promised prayers on our family's behalf but those are perhaps the most needed. We won't understand the why but we trust that there is a reason to draw on our faith and our friendships. Thank you all from my heart of hearts.
4 comments:
Good luck doing your Race For The Cure, I'll be thinking about you. I've had your mom and your family in my prayers and really hope you're all doing as well as you can while dealing with such a hard thing. Take care my friend!
I hope you don't mind me looking at your post. I am Amie A.'s sister and just wanted to let you know that your mom and family our in our prayers! I know that Amie told you that our mom went through breast cancer so my heart goes out to you and all that you are going through. My sister and I ran the 5K here in California on Sunday morning and I thought of you and your family the whole time! Just wanted you to know you are in my thoughts and prayers!
I hope the race went well. I have been thinking about you and your mom so much, what a difficult thing to endure. I love that you are using "be of good cheer" as your motto. Finding things to be grateful for always helps us feel better when things are hard. Good luck to you all!
I love the motto "be of good cheer..." that is inspiring. I hope your mom will continue to do well through her treatments.
I am glad you got my thinking of you package. Thank you for the sweet thank you note.
Your family is in our thoughts and prayers.
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