TIMES MOM STOOD UP FOR ME

Until I could no longer stand myself, I took my divorced mother's strength for granted, as she worked and cared for me as a single parent.  As a healthy high school senior athlete, my focus was on baseball, college, and graduation.  Then, the unthinkable happened, and my life changed forever.  On the brink of manhood and independence, I was literally robbed of an athletic future and a healthy body, leaving me totally dependent on the strength of the most beautiful woman in the world.  Cancer replaced athletics as my focus.  Ewing's sarcoma literally knocked me into a downhill spiral, exacerbated my complications of gastric obstructions as a result of radiation treatments.  Multiple surgeries and infections, with life-threatening results, ut me repeatedly on feeding tubes for months at a time.  Too weak to stand or leave my hospital room, my mom, with her sustaining sense of survival, her eternal spirit of optimism, her never ending encouragement, and her faith that God had a purpose for my life, sustained me through my walk in the valley of death.  Mom stood up for me when I could not stand myself and carried us both through frightening weeks and months, when I was reduced to a mere shadow of humanity.  Everyone else saw me for what I was physically: emaciated, weak, undernourished, facing infections and seemingly unbeatable odds, and fading.  A mother's love made my focus to thrive and survive.  A mother's love kept my focus on possibilities, a miracle, and the courage to never give up on myself.  As others awaited the inevitable, my Mom stood up for me and refused to let me think for a moment that I would not overcome this challenge.  I did survive, I do survive, and I will survive with my Mom standing beside me!  

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