Remembering Uh...

This isn't as widely known as it should be, but September is Ovarian Cancer month.   My Aunt Mary Etta was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004...she fought hard against it & then left her pain behind on January 2, 2006.


As a way to honor her and raise money towards research, every year we put on a golf tournament.  The money raised is donated to Duke University Hospital specifically for Ovarian Cancer research.  Not including this year's tournament, $124, 000 has been raised and donated.  Each year, Mary Etta's doctor from Duke (Dr. Berchuck) joins us at the tournament.  It means a lot that he would drive to little Cheraw, SC each year to support our family. 

Mary Etta is not defined by cancer...I like to believe that she was so strong, that God knew out of my whole family, she could handle it the best.

& she did...she kept fighting.  I have so many memories and pictures engrained in my mind of her during her fight.  One that makes me smile is of her walking down her stairs with a huge camouflage coat on because she was going to ride fourwheelers...now, surely this wasn't a great idea...but, she didn't want to miss out on the fun.  I can hear her telling me to get the ice cream out the fridge or to eat this or that...I think she enjoyed it through us when she got to where she couldn't eat.  She went through a magazine and circled all the prom dresses that she thought I would like because she wasn't able to go shopping with me like she did the year before.  She fought through her bad days and never missed anything special...like my sister's wedding or my high school graduation.

She was so many things...she was my 'cool aunt Uh' who wouldn't tell my momma that she caught me riding on a motorcycle, who would let me come 'bake brownies' so I could go with her to where everyone was camping out, she showed me life in Savannah through Johnny and took me to a concert in Atlanta, she cut flips on the trampoline at my 16th birthday party (I sure couldn't do that), she taught me how to do the electric slide and tried to teach me how to do the watermelon crawl...

...she liked the rain, she liked to shop (& return most of it...I'm pretty sure I inherited that from her), she had fun ideas...like opening a burrito place in Hartsville, 

she didn't care for sweet tea, she always had a 'World's Finest' chocolate bar in her cabinet, she made great mexican cornbread,  she always dressed up at Halloween...

...she liked animal print clothing, she saw the best in people, she was a wonderful nurse--she was the only person I wanted when I had to be rushed to the doctor when I was five (I just knew she wouldn't let the doctor give me those stitches I heard my momma & daddy talking about), she was creative--she helped me decorate for my 18th birthday party, she had a good taste of music, she wasn't scared of anything (except for maybe the old house behind MaMa's), she knew how to love each of us...

...and we all miss her dearly.

My daily prayer...

"Today, O Lord, I yield myself to you.

May your will be my delight today.

May your way have perfect sway in me.

May your love be the pattern of my living.

I surrender to you

my hopes,

my dreams,

my ambitions.

Do with them what you will, when you will, as you will.

I place into your loving care

my family,

my friends,

my future.

Care for them with a care that I can never give.

I release into your hands

my need to control,

my craving for status,

my fear of obscurity.

Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish your kingdom on earth.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen."

--Prayers from the Heart by Richard Foster

A good for the soul reunion.

Soooo...I've been a little MIA lately.  Many exciting things have happened since I last blogged.  The most important happened about a week ago...a much needed reunion with my best friends!

I always love when we all get together because it's like we never ever left each other.  We sat in this booth at Olive Garden for several hours...the manager of course thanked us for choosing his restaurant as our meeting spot:)  

What made this evening even more special is the birthdays we were celebrating!  

Chafin, Mary Ann, and Maeg's birthdays are all very close in September (9th, 10th, & 16th)....what a joy it is to walk through life with these beautiful women year after year. 

Over the years we've had a great time celebrating these birthdays....

"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth."

We all bring something different to the table...yet we were brought together by a Savior who knew that we needed each other & for that I am very thankful.

Ocean Baptism

Last Sunday, Bradley and I were baptized in the ocean at Isle of Palms.  This is something I'd been wanting to do for quite sometime.  I was baptized when I was younger, but I didn't really become a Christian until later.  You can read my story from an earlier post here.

It was so awesome for Bradley and I to get to do this together!

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.  We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin." ~Romans 6:3-7