Today’s motivation Monday is going to be about my cousin Stacey. For people who know Stacey, especially her family, they can’t help but to be inspired by her. Life has thrown some serious obstacles at her throughout the years but nothing can stop her from pushing through. Someone could write a book on all the things that life has thrown at her and most people would have a hard time believing that it all happened to one person.
Stacey is a few years older than I am. She was the first grandchild and I am the second. So just that fact always made me look up to her. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend together growing up because our parents lived in different states. When we did get together I loved being with her, she was always so funny and very blunt. By blunt I mean she tells it like it is, which, is something I admire about her. She’s a very real person, which most people have trouble doing. I’ll never forget her love of broccoli, her first car had a personalized license plate that said broccoli in fact.
I will just share a couple of things that she has been through just to show you her strength! The first thing I remember was when Stacey was 16 years old and a junior in high school she got in a horrible car accident. We didn’t know if she would make it for a while. She had so many injuries. She had to relearn to do almost everything. But she did it and still graduated high school and went onto college too. She now works as a mental health professional. Over the years she has had many things happen to her body because of that accident. She often has internal bleeding and was told she would never be able to have children. Well God had other plans and blessed Stacey and her husband with an amazing little boy, George the third otherwise known as G3.
Stacey is an amazing mom to George, she is always posting about these great crafts or projects that they are doing together at home. George is such a smart boy and I know she adores the time she gets to spend with him. I love that I get to keep up with them on Face book, but I wish we lived closer so our kids could play together. I know they would be the best of friends.
About three years back another obstacle jumped into Stacey’s life. She found out she had Lymphoma. This truly devastated her as it would anyone. She never gave up for a second, she went through chemotherapy and prepared George all along the way. She made him a therapy doll and tried to really help him deal with all the changes that she would be going through. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for a three year old to understand that their mommy is sick but that it would take a long time before she would be healed. She went into the process so strong and was very brave about losing her hair and had fun finding wigs and even named her wigs.
Throughout this time Stacey has met some amazing people who had different types of cancers. I’m sure she motivated them to make it through this even when they didn’t feel strong enough. Since then she has gotten much stronger and continues to encourage people in her survivor group. She also belongs to a Live strong workout group. She has completed a mud run and every year does a race for colon cancer, called the Undy 5000.
She is the true meaning of a survivor, she is still going to have more surgeries and obstacles but she will not stop fighting or give up! I admire her strength and the light heartedness she seems to have when facing these huge mountains. In her own words she said, “For some reason, I’m still here.” I don’t doubt for a second that God knew when he gave little George to Stacey that he knew that they both would need each other so much throughout the years. I’m so glad that she has been given this blessing to help her push through the times when she may not feel like she can take it anymore.
I hope that this encourages some of you out there today who may be struggling with whatever obstacles you have in front of you. My very brave and courageous cousin Stacey has had more than her share of hardships, but she keeps on going and you can too. Even if you aren’t facing cancer we all have struggles and moments of weakness when we feel we have more than we can take. Just keep on going and take it one day at a time, you will find a reason to keep fighting, just like Stacey has done and will continue to do for years to come! I love you Stacey, I am so glad God made us cousins. You are an inspiration to all who know you!