She Made It

It wouldn't be the truth if I didn't say I had my doubts! It seemed it was going against all odds, given her own health issues, but that amazing Olivia ran the entire race and raised over $1,000! It's hard to see, but on the bottom of her race number, she wrote "For Christi". God bless sweet Olivia! We are so very proud of her and so grateful!

In honor of Christi, I am going to be running a 10K in NYC. All funds will be donated to the Christi Thomas Memorial Fund and the Kids Cancer Crusade. The organizations were established in honor of Christi and her love of learning, of the arts and of helping those most in need.

Olivia said: The 10K was great! It was a great experience, and while I was one of the more errr.....unfit (cough), of the crowd, I did not come in last! (Shocking, I know!) When I crossed the finished time and looked back at the clock, it said 1:19:09, which I thought was a very appropriate number given the inspiration.

I always look for "signs", I suppose they are somewhat like the orbs of life. The first one hit me as my mom and I were driving up to the run entrance. The run started at Central Park's East 102 Street entrance which most likely means nothing to anyone except that it is across the street from Mount Sinai, where my brother treated for 18 months. As we were looking for parking, which was surprisingly hard to find on a Sunday morning, my mom turned onto a nearby side street and said "Maybe we'll find something here, I used to always find parking here when we were here with Manny". And if you guessed that it took us a second to find parking there, you're right!

I would lie if I said the run was easy; it wasn't, but I did run the entire thing without stopping which made me very happy. At the half way mark, I passed the park where we had the Kids Walk for Kids event last May 12th (Christi's birthday). And then towards the end, as I was running up one of many hills, and considering the possibility of taking a little rest and walking some, I saw a bronze statue of a *cat*. Well, that did it. If I had needed any additional motivation, I didn't any more. It was a really great day, full of all of the little signs and signals that helped me remember why I was there in the first place.


I have to laugh at this picture of the girls with Paw Paw. Christi went through a short phase where she squeezed her eyes shut everytime she smiled for a pic. What a hoot! These are some of the photos I recently found and scanned at my mom's house.
Open your eyes, Christi! We want to see those pretty blue eyes, goofy!

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST: After school on Monday, I received a phone call which started out, "You don't know me, but I met you at Kings Island a few years ago while waiting in a food line. I followed Christi's website and had to introduce myself." Actually, I remembered her. (Perhaps only because my teenage niece asked me who it was I talked to and when I explained that she muttered, "Internet Stalker" and I laughed so hard!) This sweet mother told me she called because her 12 year old daughter died on Thursday and they buried her on Saturday. Tears came flying out of no where and I had to sit down as my heart went out to this mother. I really wish she would not have apologized for calling me and I truly hope I was able to help her and that she calls me again. I am so grateful she called and if she happens to be reading this, please know I didn't hang up on you, but my phone battery died. Please call back any time - day or night!! I ask for prayers for this family dealing with the unthinkable.

GOOD NEWS: I must share my great news! All three of my autumn quarter professors have now posted my grades and I'm thrilled to report I received all As in my classes I took. Whew!