Monday, March 26, 2012
On the Move!
Emma is starting to figure out the whole crawling thing. It is so cute, she pulls her legs up and scoots forward like an inchworm. My words can't describe how adorable it is, so here's a video! (Emma is almost 7 months old!)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Optimistic- A story about a girl named Anna
Last night, a girl I knew in high school passed away from a ten year battle with Neuroblastoma. You can read more about her heroic battle here. I knew her pretty well in high school, we swam together for a few years and senior year we were both in a group of about 5 students who were voted on by our class as "most optimistic" in the yearbook.
I lost contact with Anna, like almost all of my high school relationships, almost immediately after high school. This is something that happens not by choice, but simply by life circumstances and the fact that I am not one to just pick up the phone and re-connect with someone. But, like almost all of my high school relationships, I occasionally check up on people through Facebook identifying where our lives now intersect even though we are not now, and not really ever were, that great of friends. Unlike other relationships, I had one more way to connect with Anna and that was through the website I linked to above. I read over the past few years as Anna would get better and the inevitably worse as the cancer spread and progressed.
All I could think about was how we were lumped into the same category of "most optimistic" in high school. At that time, Anna had been recently diagnosed and so she seemed like the perfect fit for that category. She was always happy, never complained, always had a smile on her face. I, on the other hand, was pretty optimistic but not by Anna's standards. Over the past ten years she has struggled day in and day out fighting to gain awareness about this disease, all the while staying positive and keeping God central in her life. What have I done these past ten years? I have worried a lot about a lot of things that don't really matter. I have become more pessimistic than optimistic even though my life has brought me incredible blessings like my amazing husband and beautiful daughter. And health. Let us always be thankful for our health.
I want to strive to be more like Anna, sharing the glory of God simply through living life every day with a smile on my face. I want to raise a daughter like Anna, who will put a smile on the faces of strangers in good times and in bad. So Anna, even though we haven't spoke in nearly ten years, you have done a lot for me and I thank you for that. I look forward to catching up in Heaven.
For more information on how you can help kids fighting neuroblastoma please visit www.annabanana.org. You can find a link to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation by clicking on "Anna's Hope".
I lost contact with Anna, like almost all of my high school relationships, almost immediately after high school. This is something that happens not by choice, but simply by life circumstances and the fact that I am not one to just pick up the phone and re-connect with someone. But, like almost all of my high school relationships, I occasionally check up on people through Facebook identifying where our lives now intersect even though we are not now, and not really ever were, that great of friends. Unlike other relationships, I had one more way to connect with Anna and that was through the website I linked to above. I read over the past few years as Anna would get better and the inevitably worse as the cancer spread and progressed.
All I could think about was how we were lumped into the same category of "most optimistic" in high school. At that time, Anna had been recently diagnosed and so she seemed like the perfect fit for that category. She was always happy, never complained, always had a smile on her face. I, on the other hand, was pretty optimistic but not by Anna's standards. Over the past ten years she has struggled day in and day out fighting to gain awareness about this disease, all the while staying positive and keeping God central in her life. What have I done these past ten years? I have worried a lot about a lot of things that don't really matter. I have become more pessimistic than optimistic even though my life has brought me incredible blessings like my amazing husband and beautiful daughter. And health. Let us always be thankful for our health.
I want to strive to be more like Anna, sharing the glory of God simply through living life every day with a smile on my face. I want to raise a daughter like Anna, who will put a smile on the faces of strangers in good times and in bad. So Anna, even though we haven't spoke in nearly ten years, you have done a lot for me and I thank you for that. I look forward to catching up in Heaven.
For more information on how you can help kids fighting neuroblastoma please visit www.annabanana.org. You can find a link to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation by clicking on "Anna's Hope".
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