Oh! What a Night!!

I am beyond exhausted, but I just can't sleep. I mean, I crawled into bed at 7:07am, and that was 4 hours ago. I've had 4 hours of sleep. That's enough, right? Yeah, of course it is.

Relay For Life was FANTASTIC!! I am totaly wiped out: my eyes are bleary from leaving in my contacts, my feet are aching from being in my shoes, my knees are throbbing from that last extra lap around the track, my back has popped too many times to count, and I've really NEVER FELT BETTER.

The night started with the Bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace". The bagpiper was followed by way too many things to try to remember, but I'll give you some highlights. My babies did a Teddy Bear lap. Jordan played Bingo and WON. A LOT. Gret knew the words of the "old" songs they played. Mathew said "Mom, I thought this would be boring, but it's really FUN!" Michael disappeared for most of the night, playing soccer. My older girls donated almost 24 inches of hair to Locks of Love. We saw friends that we haven't seen in ages, including Gret's 4th grade teacher than almost cried when he saw Emile.

Jordan had one sad moment. We were walking around the track together, and she just started crying. Looking at all of the Luminarias was very over-powering for her. She looked up at me and said "Mom, each one of these lights is for SOMEBODY. A real person. It's just so sad. There are SO many lights". I'm getting choked up thinking about it now. So we stopped, right there on the track. I turned her to the rows of Luminarias that was paving the track. I showed her how some of them said "In Memory" and some of them said "In Honor". I explained the difference between the two. I told her that 25 years ago, there weren't a whole lot of "In Honor" lights, because not a whole lot of people made it. She looked and realized that there were "In Honor" lights all over the place. But she still adopted the slogan for the night :

“There is no finish line until we find a cure”.

We lit an "In Honor" Luminaria for Michele. I'm hoping to be able to get the picture uploaded. They did these cool white bags, with a little sand in the bottom of the bag, and a cup of sand, with a white candle. Our campsite was just a little down from Michele's light. The teens, and my own kids, all knew exactly where her light was, and checked it out on every lap to make sure that it stayed lit all night long. At the end of the night, we brought the light back to our campsite. I have the bag with me. I'll be happy to send it out to Michele if she wants it (minus the sand and candle, of course!).

Basically, we have a great group of teens that had a blast doing something that was very worthwhile. Everyone had a lot more fun than they thought they would have. The weather cooperated all night. It got a little chilly, but it never poured like it was suuposed to. It sprinkled on us a few times, but not bad enough to make me take the wee ones away. Thanks for all of the prayers and happy thoughts. I could feel your love keeping us dry!

Now that this night is finally wrapped up, the only left to do for Relay For Life is...

START PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR!!!