You know how you become friends with someone and you just know that you will be friends for life? Well that is Stephanie to me. One of my best friends. We started to become inseperable in junior high and it hasn't changed to this day. She is someone I can always pick up the phone and call and someone I always see when I go home. People come and go out of your lives and there are the select few that stay forever and she is one. Maybe our mom's had a feeling about us at birth and that is why they both named us Stephanie. Right from the start we had that bond. Then we also had the bond of being born 8 days apart. (She is the older one). So growing up, we liked to have our birthday parties together and our birthday cake would say "Happy Birthday Steph & Steph!" We went through many milestones together..high school graduation, community college, her wedding, and I was there for the birth of her first child. Now she has four boys and I couldn't love them anymore if I tried. Our lifestyles are completely opposite of each other but that's what makes us work. Life hasn't been the easiest for Steph and her husband but they take what happens to them and build from it and grow. Having FOUR boys in itself under the age of 6 is just a lot of work, but they make it look pretty damn easy. I give Stephanie tons of credit because she has always been a girly girl (In softball she would always have makeup all over her jersey) and now she's adjusting to having all boys and even moving to a farm!! I'm always prepared to hear the boys screaming or crying or demanding something from her when we are trying to have a conversation on the phone, but it just makes me smile. She went with the "K" theme with her boys. The oldest is Kaedon, then Kalen, then Krue and the newest addition is Kinnick (yes, Go Hawks). All spitfires with different personalities.
Now for the serious part and the reason I'm writing about Steph and her family. The second oldest (Kalen) has chiari malformation. For those of you that aren't sure what that means....Chiari Malformation (Arnold-Chiari) is a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both the brain and spine and causing many symptoms.
Kalen is dealing with many symptoms and Steph and Jake are trying their best to get him to the best doctors and to get done what needs to get done to help him. She was telling me about a doctor in Chicago they are hoping to take him to and she seems really excited about it so that is a good thing! The poor kid is 4 years old and having MRI's done when he shouldn't even know what an MRI is!
They were looking for ways to help or certain things they can do and they came across a Conquer Chiari Walk Across America. It is an annual fundraising event that consists of series of local walks on the same day. The walk is next weekend (September 17th) and I am flying home for it because of course I wouldn't miss it for the world. The goal is to all raise money for this event that goes towards the research for chiari malformation and helping people, just like Kalen. Anyone can make a donation, even if you aren't doing the walk. So if you are reading this and are feeling charitable, please make a donation! It's so easy to do...just go to this website http://www.conquerchiari.org/index.htm and once you are there, on the right hand side click sponsor a walker. The location is Iowa, Burlington then scroll through until you see my name-Stephanie Smith. Any donation would mean the world to me and of course to the Maine's!
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| With the Maine's (I'm holding Kalen in the middle and Kinnick wasn't born yet |
Have a great weekend!!!!! I am going back to Jacksonville tomorrow so we will see what this weekend has in store for me. :)
:) love this.
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