The Reality of Childhood Cancer

As the weekend is ending, we are happy to say that despite the rain, our weekend was filled with much sunshine!! We enjoyed great love, rest and relaxation. Just what we all needed! Thank you Lord! God's love was so evident through the love and actions of friends last week and into the weekend. Thank you God for making your love shine through the love of others!

We have also been thinking...with the anniversary of Olivia's and Elena's diagnoses coming up, the reality of childhood cancer seems to be on our minds more than ever. As you may know, we have experienced many highs and lows over the last seven years. However, every week as we are facing our own battles, we are hearing about the battles of those we have met on this road. Just in the last 16 days, one friend has suffered her third relapse, another friend is undergoing a series of tests to completely rule out a possible relapse and another child in our own neighborhood was diagnosed with leukemia.

A friend recently posted on her daughter's blog her own thoughts about the realities of childhood cancer. I asked her if I could share what she wrote. Here it is:

"The ups and downs of childhood cancer are so extreme. The good news we’ve heard of this week deserves great celebration and joy! The bad news brings tears and reminds me that we are not in heaven yet. It also reminds me to pray even harder for these kids, and that we all need to keep working towards finding a cure! It will motivate me to find ways to raise money and help this important cause.

I know this isn’t the kind of post you want to read when you come to Sarah’s blog. I wish it could have stopped with the good news! I share this to ask you all to pray hard for these kids….pray for those finishing treatment to remain cancer free, for God to bring healing to those beginning or re-entering treatment, for God to guide the doctors and nurses caring for these precious kids. I also hope this post encourages you to think about what you could do to help the world of childhood cancer. Remember – 46 kids EVERY day will be diagnosed with cancer and 7 of those will not make it. Cancer is the number one cause of disease related death in our children. The only thing that kills more children than cancer is accidents."

Thank you Heather for allowing me to share your words!!

You can follow Sarah's journey at www.journeywithsarah.wordpress.com

In case you are now thinking...what can I do?

Heather came up with some ideas. I also added to her list.

• donate time and/or money to CURE Childhood Cancer. They raise money specifically for childhood cancer research.
  
• donate time and/or money to other organizations that support families going through childhood cancer – such as:
• Camp Sunshine - www.mycampsunshine.com
  
• Jay’s Hope Foundation - www.jayshope.org
  
• Lighthouse Family Retreat - www.lighthousefamilyretreat.org
• Brain Tumor Foundation for Children - www.braintumorkids.org
• CURE Childhood Cancer - www.curechildhoodcancer.org
• give blood and platelets – lots of children going through treatment need these! Over the last two years, Elena has had to receive blood 12 times and platelets 6 times
  
• volunteer at a local children’s hospital
• check out Lauren’s Run at www.curechildhoodcancer.org to see about participating in that on May 1st
  
• encourage your place of business to get involved in raising money and awareness
• raise awareness
• keep praying!!!!

Thank you for your prayers not only for us but for every child and family having to make this journey!
In Him,
The Tates

"Against all hope, in hope we believe." Romans 4:18