I have had a very difficult last 3 weeks. I have come away from the entire experience a very grateful wife, mother, daughter, and sister. Lets start from the beginning. Ben and I made the extremely hard decision to change daycares. It was one of the hardest things I have done. We are very happy at the new place, but miss our old sitter as well. The new daycare has kids closer to Gracelyn's age and it has been fun to see how she has adjusted. She is loving it. So while this was a very tough ordeal, it has turned out well.
The next weekend we got to surprise my brother at the Wilderness in the Dells for his 30th birthday. It was a super fun weekend filled with water and great times with our family. Gracelyn LOVES water, so even though she was under the weather she had a great time!
We got news Sunday night, the 25th of April, that my cousin Kjersten was in the hospital again. On July 28, 2005 Kjersten was diagnosed with gastro-esophogeal cancer. She has been battling this for almost 5 years. She is now 30 years old. There was a period in there that she was in remission, but unfortunately the cancer returned. We were told on Tuesday that all the chemo had permantly damaged her heart and her organs were shutting down due to the fact that her heart was only working at about 10%. She was given days to live. All of her friends and family rushed to La Crosse in order to say goodbye to her. We also prayed, and prayed, and prayed that she could get more time. More time with her husband Travis, more time with her mom and dad, her brother, her sister, her nieces, her nephews, her family and friends. We were not ready to say goodbye to her. Let me just tell you that my cousin in no ordinary young woman. She is a superwoman. Seriously the strongest, most positive woman I know. Never did she accept that the cancer would ultimately take her. She has fought extremely hard and everyone keeps saying that it is a miracle that she is still with us on this earth and seeming to get better each day. I think they are right. I think that God has given us a miracle. I also believe that Kjersten is an amazing person. And if anyone in this world could beat the odds it would be her. She inspires me to hug my husband more, enjoy Gracelyn (every little bit of her) crabby or not, savor each conversation I have with my family,and be so very, very grateful for the life that God has given me. Thank you Kjersten for all that you have given us, your friends and family, you have given us strength, hope, love, and inspiration beyond anything I could have ever imagined. And thank you heavenly father for showing us how POWERFUL you are. Miracles happen every day!
As always I need to end the post with pictures. The first is of my beautiful cousin. The rest are Easter and Justin's B-Day... Tell someone you love that you love them...now!
