A Story of Hope

I must say that the title of this post is DEFINITELY a two-fer.

First and foremost, the 13th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was held in downtown St. Louis today.  It is my third year participating, and this year I celebrate 2 years of being in Remission!  Today I celebrated with 70,000+ other survivors, family members, and friends as we proudly wore our pink and talked about our boobies. 

Is there really anywhere else this is acceptable??  Probably not…that’s why it is so much fun.

But back to the race, it was flat out amazing.  I cannot say enough about how great it feels to line up with 4500 of your Survivor Sisters and march in the procession to the main stage for a time of celebration!  There are crazy outfits, boobie hats, painted faces, and number-shaped balloons to represent the number of years of survival.  There are the young, the old, with hair and without, those who are going strong, and those who are doing well just to be pushed in their wheelchair.  There are tears of happiness and tears of loss, there are many hugs and high-fives. 

We are an amazing group of women (and a few men!) if I do say so myself.

But as diverse as we are, we are all there for one common goal:

to lead the charge in the war against breast cancer.

We want to find a cure.  And by raising money and keeping breast cancer awareness in the forefront, we believe it will happen.  We have HOPE. 
 

AND of course, there was that matter of a RACE   Are you wondering how I did?  Well here ya go:

Third Survivor to finish!!  So happy!!!!!  (And tired!)

My family did just as well:

Tyler finished in 26:06,
Zachary in 29:39,
“adopted” son Elijah in a speedy 22:53,
and sister (in-law) Kristy in 31:04!

It was a great day!

And now for the second “HOPE” in the title.  Y'all aren’t going to believe this.

After the race and getting cleaned up and leaving the hotel, we met the family at the Olive Garden for lunch (YUM!).  Afterward, we were all tired and full, and I just wanted to curl up into a ball and go to sleep. 

We weren’t ten minutes out of the city when the hubs said, “Do you need to stop and get some groceries or anything before we head home?”  To which Katie piped up with, “I NEED TO PEE!” [Why kids wait until we are on the road before announcing they have to go to the bathroom is beyond me.]

But we stopped at the same Dierberg’s we always stop at so Katie can go to the bathroom and I can pick up a few things.  Jack and the boys drop us off then they disappear.  When Katie and I are finished in the grocery store, we find all our boys next door at the PetSmart store. 

With this:
 

It was shelter rescue/adoption day, and as luck would have it, Jack has been looking for a German Shepherd pup for quite awhile.  He absolutely fell.in.love. with this dog and all the boys had fallen fast, too.  Katie took her leash and wasn’t far behind.  I took a little more convincing, but after a couple puppy dog eyes [from the hubs and the dog], I was filling out adoption papers for the newest member of our family.

  So, without further ado, meet Hope.

Hope is 3 months old and most likely a full blooded German Shepherd, although we can’t be 100% sure.  We decided to name her Hope because of the nature of our visit to St. Louis, and the crazy chance that we happened upon this dog on such a trip.  I love that she is a shelter dog, not from a puppy mill.  She fits into our family perfectly; she and Princess have already been making nice.  Well, and her and the kids, too.    

So this has been our day and Our Story of Hope.

I HOPE you found something to HOPE in today.  If not, maybe you found something in this post.

Check your ta~tas, girls…it may save your life.

Love y’all.

xoxo

“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the LORD. “Plans to prosper you, not to harm you; plans to give you HOPE and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11