October 12, 2010

#12/31 Awareness and Advocacy--that's what it's all about

See these good people?  They are friends of mine.  Stephanie won her age group at the BuddyWalk 5K on Saturday!   Ed, her husband, placed second in his category!

There are several things that make them remarkable.   Ed has been working very hard to lose weight this year.   By eating healthy and exercising he has lost over 100 pounds in 10 months!  At his first race back in the spring, he had to walk for a good part of the race.  Now he's coming in second place!   He's been chronicling his weight loss at his blog.

They also are smart, funny people who like to laugh.

They're from Texas, and they are surviving--and thriving in--the culture shock of central Virginia.

They home school their son.

I don't know if they've ever had any personal experience with Down syndrome before they met Hannah, not that it matters.  

Saturday was Stephanie's birthday, and she chose to spend it running to support the Down syndrome community.  How cool is that?

What is even more cool is the comment she left me yesterday:
Great pics from the Buddy Walk. Sorry to hear that Lois has a viral infection. Ed and I sent our swabs back to the Be The Match registry last week, so we should be official as soon as they're processed. I didn't know anything about the bone marrow registry before I read Lois's mom's blog, so I know there are lots of people who will register once they know it's there. Sending lots of prayers up for Lois and her family.

The power of Blogging thrills me! 


(In related news, Lois is home from the hospital and does not have a virus.  She had a reaction to a medication which mimicked an infection.   She's still struggling to recover from the effects of both chemo and the reaction, but no fever right now.  Lois, please sleep so your parents can rest as well!) 

2 comments:

Catherine said...

Speechless. Send them my thanks.

Lois is Lois again. Itchy rash gone. Happy, happy, happy. Once again, it's seems she didn't get the memo that she's critically ill. Gotta love that kid.

Stephanie said...

Beth, Ed and I are honored to appear in your blog! Thanks for the mention and for the kind words - and thanks for all you do to make people like us aware of things going on outside our bubble.