Wednesday, May 30,
2012
This morning I went back to the school for the school wide
assembly. They wanted to present the check to me again in front of the entire
school and announce which classes raised the most money in the ‘Penny War” for
Mrs. Jacobs. I had prepared some thoughts to share with the school after I was
given the check:
"Good morning! It is so wonderful to see all of you. You are a
sight for sore eyes! One of the hardest things that I had to change when I was
diagnosed was to tell Mrs. Stephenson that I couldn’t come to school and work
in the classroom with all of you wonderful students & teachers. I’ve missed
you! I want you to know how much I appreciate all of your letters, your cards,
and prayers and posters and positive thoughts that have been sent my way. I
have felt that strength in my life and I want you to know that it is making a
difference in my recovery.
A few weeks ago, I had an CT scan or x-ray of my chest to see how
my body is doing in battling the cancer and the doctor told me the great news
that the tumors are shrinking! Things are going well and I feel very at peace
that I will win this battle. I look forward to the day that I will be cancer
free. I know that there are many more people who are becoming cancer survivors
these days than those who are not. There are wonderful things taking place as doctors
continue to work hard to find a cure for this disease.
I want to thank you for all
of your efforts to raise this incredible amount of money for me & my
family. You may just be elementary school students, but when you join together
in a cause, you can do amazing things! Please always remember that. Words can’t
express what this means to me. You are a very special group of people and I am
truly blessed to have you in my life.
One thing I’ve learned recently is that “Happiness is a Choice.”
No matter how old you are, whether you are in elementary school or a grown up,
you will face challenges and hard things in your life. It may be trying to get
along with a difficult person in your class or with a teacher; it may be
something hard that is going on at home within your family. It doesn’t matter
what that challenge is, but it does make a HUGE difference on your attitude as
you go through that challenge. You can choose to focus on the bad &
negative things or you can focus on the positive good things that are going on
in your life.
Cancer isn’t easy, in fact sometimes it’s pretty hard. The day I
was diagnosed, I decided right then and there that I would do my best to be
happy & positive and to look for the good in my life. Every day I see
wonderful blessings and tender mercies happening all around me. You too can do
hard things and you can find joy in the journey and happiness as you work
through those challenges.
Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you’ve
done to strengthen me and make me feel so very loved. I truly am the luckiest
girl around!”
It felt so good to see the kids and the teachers, and staff again.
I have missed them all. One 5th grade teacher, Mr. Alder,
stopped to talk to me for a moment. I subbed in his class this past year many
times. He told me that his class chose to vote on the number one news story of
the year and they decided that “Mrs. Jacobs” was the number one story of the
year. He said they really love me. I told him that I loved his class too and
that I have every intention of getting better and coming back to teach at the
school. He said he was going to hold me to that promise! J I made the office ladies promise that
we’d get together after the wedding and go out to lunch and catch up on life.
They agreed. I was sent home with the big ‘fake’ check. I still can hardly
believe that the kids raised just under $3, 000 for me in about 4 days.
Unbelievable! What an a amazing
community that I live in.
Me, Mrs. Willis & Mrs. Davis
'Penny War' Check
Later I went from being on ‘cloud 9’ to feeling sad and a emotional. The only thing that I can figure is that I have felt so good the
last 2 weeks and now I’m getting ready to take my ‘pre chemo’ drugs tomorrow
and will get my chemo and go through the yuck ‘post chemo’ week coming up.
Today I saw the school community that I love and I realized how much I miss
interacting with the people and kids down there. I don't want to do the chemo again. I don't want to feel sick again. I don’t cry sad tears very
often, but tonight I did.
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