Relay For Life

I went straight from Church Camp to Relay for Life, which kills me because when you stay in a cabin for five nights with nine girls who are 11-14 you don't get a whole lot of sleep.But to anyone who knows me well, they know that Relay for Life is a big event for me.My mom was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago.She has been cancer free for a year, but to anyone else that knows me, one of my biggest fears in life was that my mom would get cancer.My mother's father died of cancer on her 21st birthday, so I have always worried that the same thing would happen to me.Luckily, God saw fit not to let us find this out on my 21st birthday, but a few weeks after.When i found out my mother had cancer, it was literally something that just blew me away.I wasn't sure how to act, or react.I literally felt like the worst thing I could have possibly imagined was happening, which is part of why Relay for Life is such an emotional thing for me; the reminder that I could have been one of those people there without a loved one who had had cancer; I could have been one of the people who did the caregivers lap alone.Relay for Life has been an emotional event for me since my mom found out she had cancer, and will probably remain an emotional event for me the rest of my life.Don't get me wrong; Relay is not something where I am only sad at...on the contrary, I almost always have a blast.For me what is emotional is when they give the speech about those who are not with us any longer and when they call the survivors names.
This year was a big year because my brother, who was 13, came and walked the caregivers walk too, and even though he acts like a hard-ass, I know it is an emotional event for him too.This was also a fun year because you could pay money to have someone "thrown in jail", which my mother and I did to my brother(he was not to happy about it), and of course the Mr.Relay event.
For those of you who do not know, Mr.Relay is a beauty contest type thing in which men dress up like women and walk around and ask for money for Relay.Now my mom gave me a handful of change to give to these men.I was also walking with my mom's friends daughters, River and Laycie.Now, I am a pretty ornery girl...so when we would see one the Mr.Relay men I taught the girls that they had to make the men dance to get money.Literally, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Caregivers lap with my mom and brother

My brother and his friend being "arrested"

My fiance,my brother, my mother and I