Thursday, March 22, 2007

Aleena's Courage

Hello and welcome to the liver blog. I'm so glad you could come over. Today I just wanted to show you a few pictures that I thought were pretty amazing.


These first two are dedicated to Aaron Bonds, Elaine Hente, and Ruth Wagner, if you're out there. Courage over cancer X three. Please meet the beautiful Aleena, a classmate of Amanda's. Her mother gave me permission to lift these pictures off her caring bridge site, which I thought were rather inspritional. This is her string of Beads of Courage. A bead for every hospitalization, transfusion, surgery, tube insertions, radiation, chemo, each time she lost her hair, etc, etc, that now totals seven and a half feet long. We are looking at one strong little girl, my friends.

Aaron, Elaine, Ruth, Aleena, and those who love you -- may you gain even more courage in fighting the invasion of the body snatchers. May they all go away. May you all be healed.

And then there's the Dinner and a Date with God. Lonna says that's what they're calling the Lenten suppers and services at Redeemer on the northside, where Bob gave his homily last night. Elegant white table candles in the church basement and all. Very adorable! So here they are: Cheryl Chatman, the pastor's wife who also missed American Idol; Lonna the youth director and Bob's basketball colleague who wrote all those nice notes on Bob's care page that uplifted his spirits so much -- and by the way, speaking of courage, don't let Lonna's sweet face from Iowa fool you, Bob says she gives it right back when the tough guys from the neighborhood give her attitide; Jeni from Campus, you may remember who does a whole bunch of stuff for us and even our Donald Rumsfeld gravitates towards her; the Rev-to-be in his first diva liver deliverance rev-type appearance; and Amanda. GOOD-Nightshirt, as Mom Speirs would say, I'm so glad for times Amanda can spend with people like Jeni and Lonna and Cheryl.

Wishing for you all an Aleena-like courage.

With love, T

P.S. I almost forgot this one. A 2 for 1 liver transplant. This young woman's liver left the same time Bob's did, last September. But hers never came back. A February transplant. And she shared her new liver with that little baby. That's generous. Don't forget to register your organs for donation. :-) http://www.happynews.com/news/3202007/liver-transplant-saves-two.htm

3 comments:

Sue-s said...

Hi, Guys! I missed some postings, so it's good to get caught up. Our friend Nancy Stelling is in town for a Lutheran magazine advisory committee meeting, so we're having "Nancy Fest" days.
Sending lots of love your way,
Sue-s

Terri Mork Speirs said...

Oh, say hello to Nancy Stelling, if she remembers me. Fest indeed. Take care, Sue. T

Sue-s said...

Of course Nancy remembers you! And Laurel was over for Nancy Fest, too. It felt like an Easter feast: ham, pumpkin pancakes, deviled eggs, fruit salad, and chocolate birthday cake with whipped cream and ice cream. Pumpkin pancakes are easy and YUMMY and freeze well for weekday breakfasts: three boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix, one can of pumpkin, and two cans of evaporated skim milk (or three cups whole milk). Spoon small pankcakes (a serving-spoon size) onto a 375 degree griddle for three minutes on each side. (Best to put a thin film of vegetable oil on the skillet before each batch.)
Lovies to you, Sue