SATURDAY IS COMING!!!!

Quite simply I have been blown away at the support that friends and strangers alike are showing us to get the word out about the bone marrow drives in Newton and Wichita.  I have been left speechless and tears in my eyes many times in the last two weeks.

Saturday is the big day here in Newton.  Are you coming???  Have you told your friends??

 

Here's what you can expect when you show up at either drive.  There is no need to do anything in advance, and we promise there will be no drilling for bone marrow!!!

 

In addition to these 2 community wide drives, we have had people step up and take the lead for bone marrow drives and swab parties all over the place.  

Here was a post of mine from Facebook a few days ago...

I am SPEECHLESS!!! A friend of a friend answered the call when asked who had connections at colleges...she is RUNNING with this and doesn't even know us!! And several other friends of ours at K-State and in Manhattan have stepped up and wanted to help too! If you know ANYONE at K-State share this!!! There is a drive NEXT THURSDAY, NOV. 21st going on there for ANYONE and EVERYONE to get swabbed!!! Tell everyone you know who is there!! Thank you Morganne Wiltse (and our other friends helping there), Kansas State University, and the Greek community, from the bottom of our hearts from the entire Balzer Family, for rallying behind us as fellow Wildcats and proving that K-State really is ONE BIG FAMILY!!!

Check out this flier they had made...

In addition we have friends doing a drive at Tabor, possibly being opened up to the entire Hillsboro community....and Hesston College.....and more!!

We are so grateful!  And humbled.  So many friends who aren't organizing drives themselves are posting fliers, sharing anything and everything they can on FB, writing blog posts, calling banks and schools, and organizations and news stations...pretty much doing everything they can to help us educate the masses and get people added to the national bone marrow registry, in hopes that ONE of them (and hopefully a backup too) is Sydney's match!

 Words don't really express our gratitude.  And I know that Sydney's parents feel the same way. 

Today this picture was posted on the Team Sydney Facebook page.  It brought tears to my eyes.  That is Sydney's best friend, Ruthie.  She and her family were on Sydney's Celebration Cruise this past summer.  We watched them dance and twirl and laugh at the private party we had...you could see the sparkle in their eyes...they had many many years of fun ahead of them after that first victory over Leukemia. 

And here she is....just a few months after that celebration cruise.  Sitting at the bedside of her best friend.  Laughing and just being normal 9 year old girls.  9 year old girls who have had to live the reality of cancer.

The last thing I'll leave you with today is a beautiful write-up of Sydney's journey through Leukemia.

Click here.

A reminder of all that God has brought our sweet niece through.   

 Isaiah 43:2 says,

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.

  

I used this to pray many many many times through her first fight, and we continue to pray it now...

pleading with the Lord to allow Sydney to walk through this fire without a burn mark on her body and not even a trace of smoke in her hair.