Will You Please Try???

Where do I even begin? My sister Melissa is in increasing pain from the growing tumor and lymphoma. She sounds weak when I speak to her on the phone...possibly from the pain, or the pain meds, or the lymphoma itself, or a combination of the three. She said she literally feels like she is waiting for a new heart or a new lung....that's what it is like to be dependent on the generosity of donors.

I'm not just trying to encourage you to join the National Bone Marrow Registry because it's a wonderful, humanitarian thing to do.

I'm asking you this because I don't want to lose my sister.

Out of the 7 million people in our country on the registry, only ONE appears right now to be a possible match for her. And that's not even definite yet. Her nurse just told me that yesterday.

THAT is why it's so imporant that I get tons more people to join for her sake right now.

Most people hesitate to become a donor because they think either--
a) it's painful (No pain involved--it's a simple cheek swab.)
b) it's complicated (It's 30 seconds on the internet. We easily spend 30 minutes just here on blogs or email.)

Here is the SIMPLE process:
1) Go to www.marrow.org
2) Click on "Join Registry"
3) It will ask you to agree to terms, give your name, email address, create a password, and give your mailing address.
4) They will mail you a cheek swab kit. You collect the cells and mail it back in.

Once they receive and test your sample, it AUTOMATICALLY goes into the system. Then it is immediately checked to see if it is a match. If you have any questions at all, call 1-800- Marrow2. They are very kind and helpful there. Feel free to message me too.

The registration process usually costs $50 for that initial testing, but is FREE now until June 22nd.

There will never be any other cost for you. If you are a match for my sister, her insurance will cover it.

Please take a moment to do this for my sister...
for her husband who is so in love with her...
for her 3 smaill kids who need their mommy...
for the rest of us, as her family and friends, who want nothing more but to have more years with her.

Thank you BEYOND words...

Jenn

My Sister's Appt...

is tomorrow morning at 9 am at Sloan Kettering in NYC. She is getting a second opinion. Please pray the doctor there will present some more options for her!

Can't thank you enough for taking time to pray for this!

Read more here.

You may remember this picture on my sister Melissa's blog. There's a story behind it. I didn't want to share it on her blog, as I want to keep her blog about her and not about me.

When I was in Indy for a couple months, we were walking through a "Hobby Lobby" store. They have every decoration known to man in that store. I told her that I wanted to get a sign that said the word faith on it, and I wanted to set it next to an empty picture frame in my living room. For me, it signified holding out faith for our future child, a child that would actually live here on earth with us. I really felt like I should do this. We saw this sign, and I loved it. Miss, being the kind person she is, wanted to buy it for me.

So after she went into the hospital, I took the sign in for her room. This picture of it was in her hospital room when she had her chemo and bone marrow transplant.

When I returned to PA in March, I put the sign in my living room next to the empty picture frame. Some of you may have noticed it there. I placed a small empty picture frame next to it. It stayed just like that for the next two months, then we found out that another little one was on the way.

There is not power in the sign itself, but faith the size of a mustard seed goes a long way. And encouraging sisters are priceless! I hope I have and can continue to extend that same encouragement to her!

Sisters

My two best friends in the world are my sisters. In my mind and heart, we three have always been, and we three will always be. Michelle and I are 6 years apart, and Missy and I are almost 2 years apart. There is a special bond that is very unique to sisters. We still tell secrets, and I can trust them with things that I would tell no one else. They have both laughed endlessly with me, cried with me, prayed with me; and while we are blessed with many priceless friendships--it just doesn't compare.

When we were little and were caught bickering or fighting, Dad would make us hug each other. Yep, that's right...we were forced to hug. Little did Dad know that I was pinching Missy's arm really hard where he couldn't see. He would always tell us how one day we could be living far apart from each other, like his own siblings...and that we needed to love each other and our times together. Of course, I wanted to roll my eyes at that. Now, as I'm 8 hours away from Missy and 10 hours away from Michelle, I realize even more what a treasure they both are. Our times together now are that much more awesome, and we don't take those get-togethers for granted. Yes, we've had our moments as all sisters do, but we will always be just that...

Sisters.