Relay For Life-Team Bubbles!

This year, on behalf of my mom, our family is helping to save lives from cancer by taking part in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives people in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length.

In addition to helping people celebrate, remember, and fight back, Relay For Life also helps raise much-needed funds and awareness to help the American Cancer Society save lives from cancer.

Please support me and our team by visiting my personal fundraising web page to make a donation. Every donation really does make a difference. I know that times are tighter than normal for many of us, but any amount you can give truly can help save lives.

Thanks to your support, the American Cancer Society can:

* Help people stay well by helping them take steps to prevent cancer or detect it early, when it’s most treatable
* Help people get well by being in their corner around the clock to guide them through every step of their cancer experience
* Find cures by funding groundbreaking research that helps us understand cancer’s causes, determine how best to prevent it, and discover new ways to cure it
* Fight back by working with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities worldwide to join the fight

Each of us has our own reasons for caring about the fight against cancer … whatever your reasons, I hope you’ll choose to make a difference by making a donation online to support my efforts. I’m so grateful to have people like you in my life who want to see an end to cancer in our lifetime. We are so excited to participate in this event, walking together to celebrate my mom's journey and raise money to save lives.

To learn more about Relay For Life, check out our team's progress or make a donation please visit my personal fundraising page at
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Tanis.SmithForMyMom

Thank you and I will keep you updated on my progress. Go team BUBBLES!!

Great MRI news!!

God has heard all of our prayers and granted us a huge blessing this week. My mom's first MRI scan after completing her first round of treatment came back clear with no sign of a tumor! They are continuing to watch a certain ridge of her brain near where the original tumor was removed. This ridge was the target area for her radiation treatment. The MRI also showed that the cancer cells on the ridge have not spread and may have actually decreased slightly. After discussing the results with her many oncologists, they are very optimistic that we will not see another tumor growing anytime in the near future. They truly believe that my mom is going to be one of the lucky people that will fight and succeed to live for a long time after being diagnosed with a glioblastoma tumor. They explained that this is only because they caught it early when the tumor was so small and because she is so incredibly healthy! We do know that unfortunately there is no cure for brain cancer at this time. But our plan is to help my mom fight this off until they do find that cure!

We are so grateful for this much needed good news. And to know that all the doctors and all the treatments that have sapped my mom of her energy and taken her hair are REALLY WORKING! Yes everyday we deal with the worry and the doubts about what tomorrow could bring for my mom and our family. But we are so lucky to be surrounded with friends and family that help us find guidance when we need it. A very dear friend of mine sent my mom and I a devotional book called "Jesus Calling." She herself has found peace in her crazy life after sitting down each night and reading this book, so I am now doing the same. Granted there are some nights I fall asleep without reading, but have I found comfort in the scriptures I have read and reflected on. It's also pretty cool knowing that my mom and I are reading the exact same thing every night and can focus our prayers together. Like many people, I have a hard time accepting the fact that there are things in life that I cannot control, like my Mom's cancer or my boyfriends deployment to Afghanistan in July. These things could overwhelm me with worry and fear if I let them. But my faith reminds me that I am not in control, someone else is. Monday night's reading spoke to me for obvious reasons and I thought I would share it:
When something in your life or thoughts makes you anxious, come to Me and talk about it. Though the lessons of trust that I send to you come wrapped in difficulties, the benefits far outweigh the cost.