Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Everyone has them...those take your breath away moments...

Two and a half years ago I had one of those moments; we were pulling into St. Vincent's Hospital parking lot, heart and mind full of panic and eyes full of tears. The calls had been made and the doctors and nurses were waiting on our arrival. The whirlwind that engulfed us was mesmerizing and terrorizing. Needles, tubes, thermometers, chest x-rays and blood. Words spun around us that we had never heard... platelets, hemoglobin, white cells, BLASTs. I will never forget the moments between the hug from Dr. Jacob, both of us trying (unsuccessfully) to hold back the tears for Lauryn's sake ... to looking in the rearview mirror at my weak and fragile baby girl staring off into space ... praying to God for her to be ok ... to the moment the ER doctor was sitting alongside her triage bed spelling C.A.N.C.E.R. Every breath took effort; standing was more difficult than finishing the Chicago marathon. What do you do when your world is crumbling all around you? You pray, you cry, you gather your support and STAND UP and EMBRACE IT.

So what has happened two years after sitting in the emergency room hearing the dreaded C word? What does your life shape into? How do you keep functioning through YEARS of chemo treatments? January 8th is our day of celebration. I have learned over the past two years that every day is about gratitude and turning something terrible into something good. Gratitude for the excellent doctors and nurses that identified the Leukemia and had the knowledge and experience to attack it and bring her into remission. The same doctors and nurses, whom we place our most precious blessing in their hands with all of our faith and trust, knowing that really only God, can heal, but also that God placed them here in our lives for a reason and that she will get better. Gratitude to our family and friends, without all of you we would wouldn't have made it this far. Gratitude for such a wonderful, strong, resilient, amazing, strong-willed, happy and loving little girl that has endured more than any child should ever have to endure. Gratitude for the cancer for bringing us closer, showing us the hidden strength that we never knew we possessed. Gratitude for the new friends that we have been blessed to meet and know over this past year. Gratitude for the renewed faith and strength in God that was not always as strong and constant in our lives.

Lauryn has touched so many people, she has inspired parents to hug and play more with their kids, she has helped raise a lot of money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and she continues to show everyone what it means to EMBRACE LIFE.

This February, I started another journey. In honor of Lauryn completing her chemo treatments in May, I decided to fundraise and complete The Steelhead Half-Ironman with Team in Training on July 31st, 2010. I will be swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and running 13.1 miles for a grand total of 70.3 miles in one day… all in a row with no break in between! I am terrified and excited but I know that I have the two greatest inspirations looking up at me every day (ok, Jordyn looks almost eye to eye with me but we are not going to talk about that!). I also have enlisted Mom Gohlke into completing the race with me. So it is officially a family celebration of life and Lauryn’s future!

The second event that I will be completing this year will be the Apple Cider Century ride (100 miles, one day, bike ride) in Michigan on September 26th. I am completing this race in honor of Lauryn and my Aunt Patty (my dad’s sister) who, last year was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was supposed to train and complete this event with my dad (Rushworth) who just completed his first triathlon in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Many of you may have heard, that not only did he finish this race, but he did it with a torn aorta (he didn’t know it at the time). Forty-eight hours after completing the event he was in the ICU at St. Vincent’s hospital recovering from emergency open heart surgery. The doctors believe that it is a miracle that he is alive let alone that he finished that race. Nothing would stand in his way! He was 100% committed to finishing it for Lauryn. One hundred people were at that finish line waiting for “Grampie” to cross with Lauryn in his arms. IT WAS A TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY MOMENT THAT WE ALL WILL CHERISH FOR A LIFETIME. He is at home now, recovering, his hopes of completing the Century ride with the TEAM crushed. So to honor him and his amazing accomplishment, I am now riding and fundraising for both of us (only 100 miles, not 200). I have made a goal of raising $13,000 in 2010. 13 being significant because in 2013 Lauryn will be considered cured! Right now I am at $8,000. I have completed fundraisers to get this far but now I need some help to get to the goal.

Will you help me by creating some breath taking moments? Help me raise money so that someday when a child is diagnosed, they will not have to endure what Lauryn has suffered through. Would you please donate a dollar for at least half of the miles that I will be completing? Help me to raise money to fight blood cancers so that families and children diagnosed with cancer will have a lifetime full of "take your breath away" moments.

Thank you in advance for your continued support!

Dea