Today’s thoughts from Mr. Whiskers
So on this day last year Kayleigh wanted to see Christmas lights on the house and have the Christmas tree up. Not knowing how much longer she had with us, ‘Carrow and I had already removed the word no from our vocabulary for Kayleigh in her final days. All of this happened before Christmas, Thanksgiving, and even Halloween thus giving birth to Happy HallowThanksMas. I told ‘Carrow that week that I may never put anything but purple lights outside from now on for Kayleigh. Soon we found out that our closest neighbors on our street along with many other Prayers for Kayleigh followers were doing the same with purple Christmas lights and purple light bulbs. Kayleigh loved her lights and Christmas tree and left us a few weeks later.
Fast forward to October 20, 2017 and I begin the process of digging out all of our purple lights and by Saturday night our house was back to glowing Purple in honor of our girl. To our surprise, one by one we have watched our neighbors this week start to put out purple lights as well. That is a pretty awesome sight in my opinion. I did ask ‘Carrow to make a post telling why we were decorating with purple this year but it appears that everyone already knew.
During the process of decorating we found out about the passing of seven year little girl in Mississippi that we had mutual friends with named Sophia. We had been following Sophia’s journey earlier this year and learned very quickly that her parents were quick to give glory to God in the good and the bad days. Angel and Joshua certainly have my respect and my heart hurts for them right now. Please cover their family in prayers this week and during the coming holidays. Today I was able to livestream part of Sophia’s Celebration of Life and needless to say I couldn’t watch much of it. All of the emotions from this time last year began to rush in. This time last year was the start of the major decline for Kayleigh’s condition. She struggled the more in October and half of November than she did during all of her time after diagnosis.
“Love for Sophia” is an appropriate name for her Facebook page because this sweet girl is loved by so many. Sophia was one of around 150 that were lost to DIPG so far this year that we knew about. There are some good results coming from a few trials and out of Mexico but we still need more treatment options and funding. The Prayers for Kayleigh Foundation will be hosting our 1st Annual Butterfly Ball in November and the proceeds from this event will go directly to DIPG research to help give our DIPG kids and families more options than what they have currently.
I’ll end tonight by bragging on some special people that have been overly generous towards PFK and our family in general. We have been planning the Butterfly Ball really since January of this year. We have thrown out ideas for Silent Auction Items and things we needed to be donated, etc. . My family includes quite a few fishermen and in the last few years some of us have taken to Kayak Fishing. Yes, we bass fish out of Kayaks and it’s a blast. When we fish, we will fish competitive tournaments from time to time and you always make some good friends along the way. One friend in particular that we have fished will for a while now had a really good year and won a new kayak for how well he fished for the year. We found out a few weeks ago this person wanted to give his prize kayak to PFK as one of the silent auction items. We were blown away and grateful to this individual for his kindness and generosity. Another call we received earlier this year was from a local High School football Coach that honored Kayleigh last year during one of their home games and raised money to support Kayleigh. The coach told us that this year his team was having a “Kick Cancer” game and could our PFK Foundation be the fundraiser recipient. We graciously accepted. All of the players wore pink jerseys with the name of who they were playing for on the back of the jerseys. At halftime they honored all those who had either fought, beaten, or fallen to cancer. Cole was honored to wear the #14 jersey for Kayleigh. Falkville High School raised over $5000.00 at the first “Kick Cancer” game this year benefitting The Prayers for Kayleigh Foundation. Thank you to Coach Schrenk, Donna Schrenk, Officer Sully, Falkville High School, Falkville High School Football Team and everyone who participated in this wonderful event. PFK was honored to be a part of this wonderful event for a great cause. And last but not least, another fisherman that I have yet to meet but has sponsored the Kasting for Kayleigh fishing tournament two years in a row and has had a successful turnout two years in a row. Last year , of course , Mr. Myles and Heartland Anglers helped us support Kayleigh. This year the proceeds went to The PFK Foundation to Support DIPG Research at St. Jude Hospital. Thank you Myles for all that you do.
I’ll leave all of you with this verse that I keep coming back to:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Goodnight and have a Happy Hallowthanksmas!!
