The Big Give!

(which happens to begin on a Thankful Thursday!)

Today, Chad & I prep and pack to jet to the airport for our flight to Asheville this afternoon. Why, you wonder? Oh, just to deliver a little something we like to call The Kyrie Foundation's $50,000 Research Grant!

Can you believe this?

Moments arrive when I gush in disbelief: we thought this day would never come. There are other moments when I come to a complete stop, thinking I never knew we'd have to come to this day.

Just two years ago, we were nursing an emotional amputation, putting hope ahead of hurt and taking a giant leap of faith with a few, especially brave friends. We had no idea how to make $50,000. We brought no clout nor any particularly easy connections to corporate giving or to wealthy endowments. We just accepted this assignment to not only make something from nothing, but to make something nearly impossible happen from a deficit.

I flip through my worn pink notebook, a notebook that my husband gave me to support my unshakable call to compose, a call which I regrettably have shelved in order to make time for this work. In this book are notes, lists, business cards, ideas, priorities, phone numbers, scratchings and tangents that sing in chorus the harvest of each Kyrie Foundation event, meeting or get-together. A friendship bracelet braided by my friend Madison serves as my bookmark.

It's hardly the book I thought I would write; no one would publish it, and certainly no one would pay to read it. However, this book holds the sketch that turned into the Twilight Walk logo ... the name of our BabyWaves friend we made at the Wichita BabyFare ... notes from a plethora of art auction meetings. More than entertaining thoughts in a reader's mind, these writings became real.

Have you ever given away $50,000?

Well, you're about to!

And not as in some bureaucratic transference between banker and mortgagor. I mean $50,000 to give away. Fifty-thousand dollars that morphs into science. Science that distills itself into a cure.

On one hand, our small piece of paper, known as a check, could have flown as a paper airplane or maybe would have been gnashed into a piece of construction paper. I like thinking that maybe the hands of a child would have touched these papyrus fibers if gone another direction at the paper mill. The ink on our check could have been pressed into a love note or a grocery list. Ordinary items have been called to an extraordinary task. Kind of like us.

We have been bowled over and blown away by this short journey with you. You made this possible. You have gently stood alongside us, cried with us, given us your time, your talent, your treasure. We could even take the "foundation" part out of the mental equation because really your have given your time, talent and treasure to help small, sick children and worried families.

When Kyrie was sick, I remember thinking about "them" and "somebody." Why aren't "they" closer to a cure? Why aren't "they" doing more? Don't "they" know how fast this cancer works? "Somebody" should speed this research along. "Somebody's" probably already taking care of these things, right?

Little did I know that we would become "them" and the "somebody."

I wish I knew how to calculate the number of times I have used the words "thank you" or "gratitude" here on Kyrie's blog. We can't say it enough, we can't say loud enough or big enough or piercing enough to truly convey how it feels to be humbled by your goodness. Every time you've come to an event or told a friend Kyrie's story or typed in something on GoodSearch or commented here on the blog—it has all mattered. It did not go unnoticed. Honestly, we really could use a volunteer whose sole purpose is that of Thank You Director!

You know, we all have different gifts, different ways of processing information, different ways of expressing ourselves, different faults and challenges. So to be able to come together as a group, to work beyond those differences, is, I believe, one of Kyrie's miracles.

Think about it: little Emma & Abby, Frosty and Elf Rita, Terry the Bead Queen, Dr. Rosen, Stephanie Murrell and her Girls Day Out, Jo Degner, the Andover Central Girls Softball Team, Kyrie's Gift, the Wilkinson family, Brett and his braided bracelets, Amy Nelson and her Kyrie's Fighters, Londoners Julia Pott and Robin Bushnell, the Friend family, Making Memories, Bill with Accent Mobile Music, Singer Sewing, artist Keri Smith, Bonnie and her smoothies, the 10 people in Maryville, Missouri who bought t-shirts at our very first outing (Relay for Life), the Nienke family, the Swob family, Kathi Wilkin whose friends donated as her birthday gift, the Stolz family, Bobbie who donated from her Premier Jewelry party, Christy Freeman and Cara with Scrappin Boot Camp, artist Tuesday Schmidt and her creativity, Kelly Jackson, Julie Reed who designed our logo, Sue Martin who printed our t-shirts, all of those businesses that have donated in sponsorship to the walk, to the art auction, the Twilight Walk's silent auction, the krop's silent auction, those who have managed to juggle life, grace and this leap into philanthropy, Trish, Lacie, Jordan, Danny, Melissa, Chad and of course, so many, many more who have been angels along the way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do no great things. We can only do small things with great love.
-Mother Theresa

What are you thankful for today?