A TALE OF TWO MOTHERS

I have been struggling with this blog.

I received permission from Laurie over a week ago

and still have not written it.

The story is such a great one but I

want to write it in a way that I do it justice.

Yet the way my heart is, until I write this blog

I cannot move on. It consumes my every thought

because it has to be told.

If ever I write the book I keep talking about this

story will have a whole chapter,

I pray that I do it justice.

Thanks Laurie for letting me tell "our story"

I love you so darn much!!!!!

A TALE OF TWO MOTHERS

Laurie and I are childhood friends.

Just like all my childhood friends, it is

a wax and wane type of friendship.

Much time can go by where we don't connect but

when we do it is like no time has passed.

Laurie and I both married young.

I was the first to have a baby, she wanted one so bad.

A few years later she was blessed with a most beautiful daughter,

Lindsey.

Like many of these relationships, we got busy raising our families.

Our tale begins in 2003 at baby girl and Lindsey's Jr. High band concert.

I shared with her our struggles with baby boy

that he was addicted to drugs and we were not sure how that

would turn out but we had decided to leave our bayou life behind

to give our baby girl a new start. I explained how

baby girl deserved a life where she did not have to live in

her brothers shadow, a shadow that was not too clear.

I shared that baby girl asked us for a change and we were

leaving the life we knew behind to give her what she deserved.

Laurie shared with me that something was wrong with Lindsey.

She feared maybe drugs were involved but that didn't make sense

because she was so young, an 8th grader and

did nothing without her parents but Laurie was at a loss

as to what could be wrong.

Her 4.0 wonderful daughter was all of a sudden

not interested in school, her grades had dropped

her personality had changed dramatically.

Here we were, in Golden Meadow gym pouring out our fears

to each other.

We didn't speak again until February of 2004.

We both prayed for answers for our children.

We asked God to please tell us what to do.

We both received our answers in Feb.

My answer was a blessing, her answer was not one easy to take.

On the very same day that baby boy went into treatment,

I got a phone call from another good friend, Ann.

Lindsey had been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.

She was to undergo major brain surgery the very next day.

There was no hesitancy when I made my phone call to

my dear friend, Laurie.

This is what amazed me about true friendships.

As we spoke and cried each of us truly believed that the others plight

was worse than the one she was facing.

We tried to convince each other that the fight each of us were fighting

was the worst.

Here she was about to put her baby girls life in the hands of doctors

who were going to open her brain to attempt to remove a tumor

and there were no promises and no way to know how she would be

when she awakened. Here she was hearing of therapy and chemotherapy

and she was trying to make me see that baby boy's drug problem

was worse than that.

My fight came before baby boy's treatment,

her fight was just beginning.

What a fight she battled and still does.

My dear friend fought the good fight.

She stayed with her child through recovery and chemotherapy

all the time struggling with the fact that she left a baby girl, Jessica

home to be taken care of by family.

In the end, what I got was a grown man who was responsible for

his own recovery with nothing I could do to assure he was cured.

What Laurie got was a daughter who survived cancer but in the process

she was a changed child, never to be the child she was prior to

when this terrible cancer invaded her brain.

So many people do not understand just how much fighting Laurie

has done for her child and continues to do so that Lindsey gets

all she deserves for her education.

Yet, I "get it"

You mourn for the part of the child you lost.

You live on thanksgiving and hope.

Laurie is so proud that her baby girl has fought and won the battle of cancer

and never complains for the things she must do to assure Linz

has the life she deserves.

Yet, I know that she has lost a lot because of this dreaded disease.

She would not trade or change a thing just to have our Linz

with her today.

However, the daughter she has now is not the one that she put to sleep

that day long ago in February.

Lindsey in so many ways, is better than she ever was,

but she is also forever going to be her Mothers' ultimate responsibility.

Laurie has accepted the changes in her baby,

held her head up and has been so proud of all she has overcome.

Forever, though, Laurie will be Lindsey's advocate and always

be her voice when Linz cannot do it herself.

My very dear friend, Laurie is a hero to me.

My dear friend, Laurie now has an EXCEPTIONAL CHILD

I had never told Laurie how much I admire her and I wanted her

to know that I see her whole picture even if others may not.

I sent my friend a card and in that card I added a prayer

I say often for both she and Lindsey and the other children

I come across on a daily basis in my job.

I wanted her to know that I stand on her sideline,

silently cheering she and Linz on.

I wanted her to know that I understand her fears and struggles.

I understand her pride when she stands by her

exceptional child and accepts her for where she is

and what she has accomplished against all odds.

I share with her that because of her, Linz has

accomplished so much more than doctors said she would.

Part of the prayer I shared with her"

BEATITUDES OF THE EXCEPTIONAL CHILD

1) Blessed are you who take time to listen to difficult speech

for you help us to know that if we persevere we can be understood.

2) Blessed are you who walk with us in public places, and ignore the stares

of strangers, for in your companionship we find havens of relaxation.

3) Blessed are you who never bid us to "hurry up" and more

blessed you who do not snatch our tasks from our hands to do

them for us, for often we need time rather than help.

4) Blessed are you who stand beside us as we enter new and

and untried ventures, for our failures will be outweighed by the time

when we surprise ourselves and you.

5) Blessed are you who ask for our help, for our greatest need

is to be needed.

6) Blessed are you who help us with the graciousness of Christ,

who did not bruise the reed and quench the flax, for often

we need the help we cannot ask for.

7) Blessed are you when by all these things you assure us that

the thing that makes us individuals is not our peculiar muscles,

not in our wounded nervous system, not in our difficulties in

learning but in the God-given self which no infirmity can confine.

REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDINGLY GLAD AND KNOW

THAT YOU GIVE US REASSURANCES THAT COULD NEVER

BE SPOKEN IN WORDS, FOR YOU DEAL WITH US AS CHRIST

DEALS WITH ALL OF HIS CHILDREN.

BLESSED ARE YOU INDEED

So my dear, dear friend, Laurie.

I sit on the sidelines and know you are the blessed that is spoken

of in this prayer.

I pray I did our story proud.

I pray you always know how much I admire you and that

Lindsey was put exactly where she needed to be on the day she was born.

That you, and only you, could have faced her struggles

with tears only shed alone, in the privacy of yourself

and that no one will ever see your fears and worries

because you keep your head up and keep the smile on your face.

I stand on your sidelines and cheer you on.

You are a true, silent hero and Linz is a true inspiration

to others who fight cancer.

Yet, Lindsey would have been nothing without the love of

her wonderful mother.

I love you and forever will be honored to call you friend.