This is my dear friend Kimber and her family. Our youngest daughters have been inseparable since they met in kindergarden.
Kimber has Myelofibrosis and is in Houston at MD Anderson fighting her battle with cancer. She received a stem cell transplant from her sisters matching stem cells last week and is now facing some of the hardest weeks of her life. Living in a hospital, losing her hair, mouth sores, pain meds and missing her kids are her everyday issues. It makes my little problems seem so petty when my friend is fighting for her life. She has to be away from her kids for 3-4 months which would be hard for anyone. So while she is off saving her life, and while she is missed so much, we all know that she is doing the most important thing. Fighting for her life and beating cancer.
It has been so awesome to watch our small town love Kimber and her family so well. We have had many fundraisers, prayer meetings and encouraging words/texts/messages to continuously help her in any way that we can. Our tiny one stoplight town raised almost $40,000 for her family in ONE week in our A Week of Love contest. I was blown away and oh SO teary at the tremendous support our little town has shown her and her family. I am so grateful to call this place home.
I chatted with her two nights ago and she sounded down and sad and so the only thing I could think to do was make her look like she isnt missing a thing back here at home. SO… I decided to print her face on hundreds of popsicle sticks, make up a unique hashtag and pass them around our community. She is having to miss a lot of her kids events and if anyone knows Kimber the ballfields are one of her favorite places to be. She has three kids… one in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary and they are all very active in sports. SO while I wish she were sitting beside me eating sunflower seeds and cheering for our daughters team- her little “flat stanley” popsicle stick will be sitting in a chair with me this season. Her son is going to the prom this weekend and we just so happen to be prom chaperones so Kimber will also be “with” her son at his junior prom on Saturday! I hope this catches on and lots of her friends and family take pictures with her “flat kimber” stick so it looks like she is here with us- even while she is away! Anything to make her smile and keep fighting this stupid disease!
Would you say a prayer for my friend Kimber today?
* For those of you who know Kimber and want to participate… Think of it like a “flat Stanley” and take pics with her whenever you want and wherever you go. All you have to do is get a “flat kimber” from me or from Lacey Wade’s preK classroom. Take pics with Kimber doing any and all things and use the hashtag #kimberstrong on fb, IG and twitter. I just know she will love looking thru the hashtag and feeling like she is still a part of things even while she is in TX.
* For those of you who dont understand hashtags…
Hashtags are often used for funny references to things but their actual purpose is to group similarly tagged messages. It also allows an electronic search to return all messages that contain it. SO… Kimber or anyone can search the #kimberstrong hashtag on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. and find all of the pictures that every person has posted with that hashtag in the same place. (your pictures will show up as long as your profile is not private) Hopefully that makes sense!
