Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Life Isn't Always A Party.....

One of my wonderful blog followers, Air sent me an email today. Here it is:

Hi there Kim.........I was reading this sweet little girls story today and realized that she is in your part of the country. I wondered if you could read it over and be kind enough to maybe post something on your blog. I would like to do something for the family but have not decided what yet. So if you have any ideas please let me know. As a parent I am counting my blessings today that my children are all healthy and able to do normal everyday things. Seeing this sweet little Kate suffer and her parents as well just broke my heart. I cried through reading the journal. How could you not? Thanks for your time. Aaron

I clicked through to read about this sweet little girl, Kate (cute & blonde just like my own Kate) right here in Phoenix and how her family recently found out (June 29th) that she has a major brain tumor. I immediately got the chills and tears sprung to my eyes, as I read her story. To read her mom's posts, makes my heart ache. After reading every post on the site, I realized that this story is really close to home. The McRae family is a part of the Cornerstone Christian Church in Chandler, AZ (where we live). I haven't been to this church yet, but we have friends who are members and last night I signed up to participate in their Holiday Boutique.

What can we do to help? As far as I can tell, they aren't asking for donations (except to donate to the CaringBridge website to help other families in need), just lots and lots of prayers. So if you have any ideas about what else this beautiful family needs, or what we could do for them, please share your ideas!

At the very least, please take a moment and appreciate your happy, healthy children and give them every ounce of love that they so deserve. This is taken from one of Kate's mom's posts, and really puts things in perspective:

Do you know those days where your kids are endlessly calling "mommy"? I have had many of those in the past. My kids are 6 (she will be 7 in 2 weeks), 5 and 4. There were many times I would say "okay no one can call me mommy for 10 minutes, I just need quiet!". How many times did I complain about how it seemed like they were always pooping and I was always wiping. How I loved those days where I could lazily stay in my pjs and not wear any makeup. One word can change all of that. Cancer. Now I beg for my daughter to say mommy, just once, just for something for me to hang onto. I don't care if she screams it, slurs it, anything, just say mommy.

I cannot imagine what this family is going through. Please visit Kate's site HERE & keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

If you have time to leave some words of encouragement, here is Kate's Mom, Holly's email: hollymcrae@gmail.com

Love,
Kim

{photos by Promise Tangeman}

7 comments:

Andra said...

Hi Kim,
I go to church with this precious family. Thank you for posting their site on your blog! Right now, we are supporting the family through prayer and we are collecting gift cards to grocery stores and restaurants for them. Please feel free to contact me and I can get the donations to the family. andragood1@cox.net
Love,
Andra

Live.Love. Photography said...

I go there too. Here is a link for Brian Wurzell who is the worship leader at Cornerstone. He and his wife Promise are good friends with the McRae family. Promise his wife was the one who photographed Kate. There is also a video link interview with her parents. Amazing strength these two have. Please pray for their family.

http://brianwurzell.wordpress.com/

Aaron [air] said...

Kim - I was beyond excited when I saw that you posted this. I really just thought everyone needed to know about this little girl and her family and that they need prayers. So thanks for taking time to read my email ;)

I was thinking of some thing that I could do for all the kids because I know in the journals the mom really expressed how hard this must be on them. The post from her mom that you put up was one of the ones that really hit home for me because how many times have we all been there just wanting silence....well I will think twice about that now.

Anyway thanks again and if you find out of anything else that I can do please let me know. I am in Utah but really want to help!

Air

Meredith said...

This totally brought tears to my eyes. Two years ago when Drew was having dizzy spells, he had an MRI to rule out a brain tumor. For a moment in time I had to digest how that would change us forever. Luckily he is healthy and for that I am forever thankful. I will certainly pray for this family, what a beautiful little girl.

Anonymous said...

That whole "I'm tired of hearing 'mommy'" thing...I've totally been there. I have to think about situations just like these where they would do ANYTHING to hear it.

Thanks for posting about this, and they'll definitely be in our prayers.

VICKI LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY said...

WOW! I can't even imagine what this family is going through right now. Obviously with three little kids of my own, I can totally relate and understand the hardship but can't even grasp the emotions they must be feeling. They are definately in my thoughts and prayers.

Heather @ Glitter and Gloss said...

Oh wow. They will all be in my prayers!