Cancer

It's October and Breast Cancer Awareness month. So of course I think of Melinda.


The Race for the Cure is on Saturday. I'm not running this year, since I just had a baby 2 months ago. I think my body would have collapsed if I tried to run it. So Russ is representing our family this year. He has been doing great. He ran home from church Tuesday morning after going to Men's Fraternity. That's over 3 miles. I'm so proud of him.


I watched Christina Applegate on Oprah yesterday. Wow. She's so brave to come forward and talk about having breast cancer, and a double mastectomy. And Susan G. Komen's sister was on talking about starting The Race for a Cure and how they've raised over a Billion dollars for research.


But another type of cancer has now touched our lives. Our friend, DeWayne just found out he has cancer of the esophagus. He's just a few years older than Russ.


DeWayne and Stephanie were some of our first real couple friends from church. Russ and I lived in Moore when we were first married. We met DeWayne and Stephanie at church and were excited to learn that they lived in Moore too. (Unlike now, there was no one our age who lived in Moore) So we would ride with each other to Life Group, hang out and go to the lake where they tried to teach us how to water ski. They eventually taught Russ, I think I was just better at tubing.


For years, Carla, Russ, DeWayne and I played volleyball together. We were actually pretty good. Mostly thanks to Russ and DeWayne. But I do not have one single picture that documents this part of my life. In fact, in all of the years of being friends with DeWayne and Stephanie, I found 10 pictures involving them. Five of those were either me or Russ water skiing with them.


So, my friends, I am tired of not having pictures of you all. So when you see me armed with a camera, just smile and laugh it off. I WILL have pictures of you. I have many pictures of my friends that live out of state. That's because I see them so rarely, so we are always taking pictures. But for my friends here, get ready. I'm going to be carrying my camera with me almost everywhere.


But seriously, please pray for DeWayne and Stephanie. They need many prayers for healing right now.

Thank you.
DeWayne and Makenna at a pool party.
DeWayne, Makenna, Stephanie, Mark, Russ and Kim at Russ' 30th birthday party.
Me trying so hard to learn how to water ski. DeWayne and Stephanie are great teachers, I'm just a bad student.
Stephanie on the boat. We all got very burned that day because it was a little overcast. And if I remember right, Stephanie was pregnant with Makenna here, but just like 8 weeks along. She still got out there and skiied and tubed.