Relay for Life...a cause worth fighting for!!

Tonight we had Relay for Life for Clay County. Our team may not have got to do a lot (we decided a little late in the game to do a team), but I am amazed at what Clay County accomplished in the fight against cancer....$68,000!!! My family has been affected by cancer in so many ways....that 6 letter word can cause the worst hardships on a family. When I was little my grandmother fought a cancer battle for 5 years, while I didn’t understand what she went through or what my mother went through for that matter, I later grew to learn exactly what struggles arise in a time when someone you love is told they have cancer. The year Mark and I were engaged his dad learned that he had lung cancer…..for the next two years I watched him fight and boy did he fight hard. He got to be here for Michael's birth (as well as another grandchild from his daughter). Michael and I got to learn a little bit more about Grandpa when we would go stay with him some during the day. I will forever cherish that time and even though Michael was too young to remember I will always be grateful for the short time that Michael got to be with his Grandpa. When Michael was 7 months old, Mark's dad lost his battle with cancer. Being there during that time I soon realized what my mom and everybody else that had or has a loved one fighting cancer goes through, but most importantly, I saw what someone who is fighting that battle goes through. I hope to never fully understand what a person affected with cancer goes through, I saw enough where my wish is for nobody to go through that and learned the hard realization that it’s not an easy battle. Far too soon, about two years ago, cancer struck again on Mark’s family, his grandmother was told she had colon cancer...but praise God, for by Him and Him alone, she is beating her battle, not that it is easy. She has already beaten a battle with cancer once, this was before Mark was born when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Another time it really hit home with me was talking to my mom about her brother that lost a battle to leukemia when he was a week from being 3. I've known growing up about it, but having a child that will soon be 3 I couldn't even begin to imagine going through that battle with my son; even worse is the image of losing him to that battle. There have been so many ways that my family has been touched by cancer and I am so proud of the ones I know that took and faced that battle head on....(love to my Aunt Sylvia)!

Couldn't get one where he was looking!

Sending up a lantern in Memory of Grandpa....

I wish the pictures I took of all the lanterns floating away would've turned out...this was Grandpa's!

A little fun : )

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." John 14:1-4