The only thing seizing today are my girls after they discovered they are going to Disney World in a month!
Today is their birthday (Marian is 5 and Viola is 4) and we thought this would be the perfect time to tell them. We never would have been able to do this, but our dear friends Seth and Chris invited us and HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU SAY NO TO THAT?! So we'll probably be spending the majority of the next month showing them youtube videos of all the different things they will get to do there.
This trip reminds me of when I went to Disney World when I was in 5th grade and my dad FORCED my sister's and I to wear fanny packs with my parents' contact information in the pockets. I thought he was crazy then, but you better believe I'll be doing THE EXACT SAME THING when we go (and I'll also be wearing a fanny pack on my own volition).
This month has been unbelievably crazy. Lori sold The Sparrows building (coffee shop is still there) on Wealthy St. to help repay the debt we acquired from opening (and closing) our second shop on Bridge Street. I swallowed my final chemo pills last week on the same day I was being interviewed for a quite interesting (part-time) job, and yesterday my doctor reported that my MRI shows that my tumor is just hanging out which is fantastic news!
But I feel like I'm caught in a whirlwind right now. My girls continue to grow with marks on the wall to prove it, my wife is doing amazing things to "up" her business, but I feel like every day for the past year has been such a struggle for me to get out of bed due to these chemo meds. The only thing that has saved me is my doctor prescribing me with Adderall right before I took my trip to Japan. Hey cancer folks! If you are on chemo, ORDER YOUR DOCTOR TO PUT YOU ON ADDERALL. Sure, it may be low dose speed, but it's the only thing that saved me over this past year.
I'm still trying to focus on Bent Not Broken, but it's just so hard to raise money for an event that nobody has ever seen before! The event costs $25,000 total and it's such a struggle to raise that money. Now I'm officially positive my spiritual gift is NOT to raise money, but to spend it in awesome ways! Ha! If you have a person with cancer in your life, it would be amazing if you could donate $1,000 to pay for them (and their personal supporter if they choose to bring them) to attend.
YOUR donation will include lodging for two nights, amazing vegetarian food, cancer survivor stories, lessons in stress reduction, cancer-friendly exercise including yoga, watching a fantastic documentary named, "Heal," comedians who have been through cancer, musicians who have been through cancer, and enough marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers to keep us up all night sitting around a campfire laughing and crying as we share our stories.
Go here to learn more about sponsoring a survivor!
It's a TRULY magical event. Something I needed SO badly when I was initially diagnosed, but could never find. I was going to find an inspirational quote to go here, so I looked and found that T-Pain says it best, "Once people tell me I can't do stuff, I'm going to go and make it happen." Stay tuned and see what God can do when His people take risky chances in His name... I'm scared as shit, but I refuse to back down.
But before then, we will be hosting a gathering at The Old Goat here in Grand Rapids. If you have cancer, we are welcoming you and your family to join us for an amazing night of vegetarian food and music by, "Third Coast Dgypsy Jazz." If you'd like to sign up to come, go here. If you want to just show up, please do! This event is for YOU and we are counting on our local businesses to make it FREE for you!
And also! We will be holding my 10th cancerversary party on June 7th at Sandy Point Beach House! Again, feel free to show up after 5:00-ish as we celebrate my "I Am Still Alive" victory by flipping off a lovely cake!
Great to be back here writing, throwing up my guts for you once again. Need to do this more often. Until then, I'll be working on my Mickey Mouse voice to appease my daughters for the next month.