T-Shirts have arrived and are on SALE!!!!

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!! Our NEW tshirts are here!! If you are viewing on a mobile device, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Web Version, then click on SHOP above. Today through Cyber Monday, buy more, save more! One for $20, Two for $30 or Three for $40. We have ladies cut, which I'm wearing a Medium here, youth sizes and men/unisex sizes. SUPER soft, this will become your favorite shirt. Kids sizes run a little big, all else is pretty true. All proceeds go to our foundation! Local pickup is available or shipping is $3 per shirt.

Monday Inspiration

10 sessions of radiation down, 23 to go!

 

 

Why do I have that old song from Smokey and the Bandit in my head, "I've got a long way to go and a short time to get there....."  but that's how I feel right now with this radiation, WHEW!  33 sessions, Monday through Friday for six and a half weeks total and I've got 10 down!  So far, so good, I'm seeing some minor skin irritations but nothing serious at this point so we're thankful for that. 

 

Lainey is doing SO good right now, her hair is CRAZY, I call her Richard Simmons because she loves wearing her headbands right now and she has this huge mop of blonde curls, it's AWESOME!  She is loving preschool and is the best napper in her class, ha!  Sundays are her favorite because she really loves going to church and "talking to Jesus."  We are looking forward to the holidays this year with lots of fun stuff planned. 

 

Obviously I've been keeping myself busy with all of these Wallet of Love applicants.  I can tell you though, I wasn't prepared for the mental part of absorbing all of these stories.  When I started this journey to start a non-profit, my goal was to help people financially but even more so, just to say to them, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  When I read through every application we've received and I meet some of these families, my prayer seems to be, over and over again, "God, please give me the STRENGTH I need to see this through and help these families."  I have NO doubt that this is what God meant for me to do, so I know that He will give me what I need, not to just see this cancer fight through, but to be a voice of hope for these families.

 

As we enter into this wonderful holiday season of giving, please keep us in mind if you are having a holiday party of any kind, tell your friends about us.  If you have a company that supports non-profits, tell your boss about us.  Know of a friend that has lots of connections who could help us spread the word, send them an email with our blog and/or Facebook link.  I know we need all the help we can get fundraising and I'm also trusting that God will send us in the right direction to connect with people that will help us.  As always, THANK YOU, for praying for Lainey and I, for opening your hearts and your wallets for these sweet families and for showing the world LOVE IS LOUDER THAN CANCER!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet sweet Kambre and her strong daddy....

In the words of Kambre's daddy, "Through several attempts of going to the doctor trying to find out what was wrong with my daughter's very bad headaches and vomiting, she was admitted to the ER and had a CAT scan performed.  A mass was found on her brain, which was one of the worst times in my life to hear something like that, you never expect to hear that about your daughter. She was then transferred to Children's Medical Center Dallas, they did an MRI on her and found a lime sized tumor. After removal, the pathology came back that it was cancerous, grade IV Medulloblastoma. She was also diagnosed with hydrocephalus and she had to have a permanent shunt put in. After our 30-day stay in Children's hospital, we are now undergoing chemotherapy." 

Friends, sweet Kambre was diagnosed just 4 days before her 5th birthday, when this baby should have been playing with Barbies and eating her birthday cake, she was starting the fight of her life instead.  Kambre and her daddy are a two person team. In addition to helping his daughter fight cancer, he's a single parent.  I can tell you, it takes a STRONG family to fight cancer, so this single dad needs prayers for strength as he starts down this journey with his sweet baby girl.  As you're at church today, please say some extra ones to cover them in prayer and send all the extra love you have today their way!

Meet Derek, another wallet of love delivered!

When I finished up radiation Friday, I had the pleasure of meeting this family and personally delivering their wallet to the hospital. Derek was diagnosed with Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in October. He is currently a senior in high school and excels in his academics.  He plays tenor drums in the marching band and is active in Robotics team and UIL math and science competitions.  He's busy now trying to get caught up on missed class work (HS and community college courses) and his college applications.  He's interested in Computer Engineering and looking at University of Texas and several other fabulous schools.

 

We shared some cancer humor and stories. I continue to be thankful God has chosen us to help families in this way and will continue to pray for God's healing and strength for all of them.

 

Hook 'em Horns Derek or whatever school is lucky enough to have you join them! Thank you to mom and dad for trusting us to share your story and your time Friday.

 

More wallets of love DELIVERED

I think I've slept 8 hours in the past week, or at least that's how I feel, but it's all for a GREAT reason!

WE ARE HELPING PEOPLE!  

God has given us this amazing opportunity to shine a light for families that are fighting cancer.  

In the past week, we've given away 5 WALLETS OF LOVE!  

We had the amazing opportunity to personally deliver one of them yesterday to this sweet gentleman.  Friends, meet Esteben and his amazing mom Amanda!  He just turned 9 (happy belated birthday!), is in 3rd grade and was diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) in June of this year.  You can read more about it here: http://www.histio.org/lchinchildren.

Some of his FAVORITE things:
Movie: Godzilla/Jurassic Park
Sport: soccer/football
Team: Brazil and Dallas Cowboys/Seahawks
Toy: action figures 
Board Game: LIFE
Video Game: Yugioh and Pokémon

I also love that he told his older brother ALL of the gift cards in the Wallet of Love were just for him! :-)  

Lainey went with me on this delivery and LOVED Esteben's dinosaurs!  

Please keep this sweet family in your prayers.

                  Love is LOUDER than cancer!

Mark those Christmas cards off your list, donate instead!

It's about to be the HAPPIEST time of the year, right?  

So let me guess, right now the words CHRISTMAS CARDS are on your to do list??!!  

I've got great news, you can take them off your list NOW!  

Here's how:

1.  Just click on the DONATE link above, make a donation
2.  Choose one of the cards below and share it on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram
3.  Invite your friends to click the share button on your photo and join you
4.  MARK CHRISTMAS CARDS OFF YOUR LIST and pat yourself on the back for being smart AND pretty (or handsome) along with helping families fighting cancer.

World Kindness Day + RAK Cards

Today, November 13 is WORLD KINDNESS DAY...what will you do TODAY to put a smile on someone's face...maybe its a loved one or possibly a stranger?  Either way TODAY is the perfect day to SPREAD THE LOVE and show the world that LOVE IS LOUDER THAN CANCER.

We are also happy to announce that our Foundation is ready to start taking donations regularly.  We have a safe, secure way to DONATE.  You may do so by clicking the above "Donate" button and it will take you directly to the secure EFT website which accepts credit, debit and echecks.

We are also overwhelmed that so many of you have responded to our Random Acts of Kindness Cards.  We would LOVE for you to help us SPREAD THE LOVE and help others learn about LILTC.

Now that our donation page is up and running - if you donate a minimum of $10 we will send you 15 RAK cards.

Remember your gesture of KINDNESS doesn't have to cost money...you can simply  hold the door for someone, help load their car with groceries, roll up their trash bin...anything to help restore a little more humanity in today's world!

"Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14"

Meet Tina, our very 1st "Wallet of Love" Recipient

LILTC friends, meet Tina. She is a busy single mother to three amazing children including one with autism. A breast cancer survivor who is cancer free (can I get an amen??!!) but has gone through SEVEN reconstructive surgeries (most recent one was just Oct 2nd) in the past 3 years to rebuild her breasts from the radical double mastectomy that saved her life. She will still have at least one more surgery in 2015. Due to numerous complications, which are unfortunately a big reality for breast cancer survivors, she is struggling to make a steady income and obtain promotions. 

Somehow through all of this though, Tina works full-time as a special education assistant, working with special needs adults and works two other jobs, including working for an autism waiver provider helping those on the spectrum. Tina has remained positive, gracious and is clearly an amazing example of strength to her children. 

It is with GREAT pride that I announce Tina will be our first "Wallet of Love" recipient! Tina's wallet is given in memory of the extraordinary husband and father, Edward M. Stuhl. A huge thank you to the entire Stuhl family and their friends for their generous donations to make this possible. 

Thank you Tina for sharing your story and your wonderful family with us! 

Please include Tina and her beautiful family in your prayers and join me today in showing her that love is so much LOUDER than cancer!

Announcing...Wallets of Love!

I am SO incredibly proud to be able to announce this, I have tears in my eyes.

We are officially kicking off our core assistance program from the Love Is Louder Than Cancer Foundation which is called "Wallets of Love"!

We had a wonderful community that came together after Lainey's leukemia diagnosis and donated gift cards to us.  Everything from Chickfila to CVS and they were incredibly helpful. So much so, that we decided we wanted our core program to be modeled after it. 

I am proud to announce that one of the ways we are putting all of your hard earned money to work is by providing families who are fighting cancer and dealing with cancer related surgeries our "Wallet of Love" which will be full of gift cards for gas, groceries, pharmacy and restaurants to help them with their basic needs during this difficult time. Our average wallet will include around $300 in gift cards that will be customized for each family's needs. They also include our story and a list of helpful online resources that helped us through our fight. 

We are currently working with several DFW area hospitals to connect with families needing assistance and will be introducing some of them to you very soon. 

I couldn't have done this without all of your love, support and donations and ask that as we enter this fabulous holiday season you keep all of these families in your prayers. 

Thank you to my husband for countless nights of giving baths and putting our girls to bed, so I could work on foundation things and Dianna Bacon for being the best board VP a girl could ask for! We have several other board members you'll be meeting soon too! 

This is my purpose, THIS is why God chose our family to go through these trials, so that we could turn all of this bad into something powerful and good and to show the world that love is and will always be so much LOUDER than cancer! Amen!

"Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14"

Granny Warner and Building a Legacy

Meet Granny Warner.  Today is her birthday and even though she's gone, there's still lots of reasons to celebrate.  I have had the unique pleasure to have two amazing grandmothers the majority of my life to learn from.  We lost my Granny two years ago and each year on her birthday, I want to honor her and what she stood for.  

Nobody loved babies more than my Granny and this is a picture of her holding our Avery with that perfect familiar smile she always had when a new baby was around.  She was so much more than a grandmother to just her own grandchildren, she was everybody's 'Granny Warner'.  Sometimes it seemed like she raised half of our small town and I'm sure there would be a few who said she did.  

My Granny was old school, full of lots of "bless your hearts", "gimme some sugar" and "y'all get you somethin' to eat".  She loved Jesus, her family, cooking and her community, in just about that same order.  If she wasn't crocheting a blanket for a new baby about to be born, she was canning apple butter, beans, cooking up something in her small kitchen or going somewhere to help a friend.  She was everything to me, the quintessential grandmother that you wish everyone could have.  Make no mistake though, Granny Warner wasn't a softie, she kept us in line and ran a tight ship.  She could raise a finger at any of us, no matter our age and you'd better believe we would pay attention and answer with a firm, "Yes ma'am."

When I went away to college, I wrote her a letter and told her I was homesick, she wrote me back directly (true southerners will understand the use of 'directly' here :-) and her advice was simple.  Find yourself a good little Baptist church, go when the doors are open, read your bible and everything will be just fine.

After Lainey got diagnosed last year, I felt my Granny so many times.  I asked her to be Lainey's angel and watch over her and somehow to send me the strength I needed to make it through all of this.  I had a particularly hard day at the cancer clinic last fall when Lainey was at the top of her weight gain and steroid treatments.  She had gained 8 lbs in three weeks, 30% of her body weight and it had taken it's toll on her, she could barely walk.  I was trying to be as strong as I could, but it was SO hard that day.  Then, in walked the doctor/clowns at Children's who visit sometimes to cheer up the kids during treatment.  One of them pulled out a ukulele and they started singing, "You are my sunshine." I lost it, the tears started flowing.  That was one of my Granny's favorite songs, she sang it to us all the time and we had them play it at her funeral.  I just knew it was my Granny's way of telling me to hold strong in my faith and it would all be ok.

I tell you all of that, to tell you this about my Granny.  At her funeral service, the preacher reminded us that we each preach our own funeral through our actions each day, because those are the things people will remember about you when you're gone. Nobody had to think up good stories about my Granny to share that day, there were so many, it was hard to decide what to include. Each and every day we're all deciding what our legacy will be, through our actions, how we treat people, so choose wisely. My Granny came from a time when if you gave someone your "word" it meant something and we helped our neighbors, everybody pitched in if times were hard for one.  I've spent a lot of my life not being as focused on building a legacy, I was more focused on building a bank account. Don't get me wrong, we all like nice things, me too and that's fine, but I want to be remembered one day for what I did, NOT what I had. 

I'm so thankful for my family who have taught me through leading by example, my girls who I try to pass that on to always and all of you, who teach me something new everyday. I am so incredibly proud of the Love is Louder Than Cancer Foundation that we are building, with your help, and I have no doubt that Granny Warner is smiling down on me today saying, "You've done good Kelly D, you've done good."

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