overwhelmed...in a good way.

This past weekend is always one of my favorites of the year. All the people I care about most getting together and working their tails off for a cause that has affected my family (and many of theirs also) so much. Cancer is a word the Schaar family has heard too much in the past 12 years. It seems like more people I love have it than don't. It is scary. It is painful. It is tragic. It is, however, life.

I have learned, as much as I can, to live with it. To see the good sides, as well as the overwhelmingly bad, and to absolutely cherish everday moments and hold memories close to my heart. Between the pain and frustration, we have always found reasons to smile. We have stuck together and fought as a team. We never leave the sides of those we love.

Through the times of sobbing in the shower, tears streaming down my face in the car at a song that reminds me of my dad, and shifting in an uncomfortable hospital chair being scared and feeling the weight of the world, I also, more often remember the times my friends showed up at my dad's hospital bed. I remember the nights they came to relays of the past and present, drove across states, walked countless laps, and gave moving donations in honor and support of my parents. The calls and texts that pour in each month just checking up on him and the rest of my family. I think a person is lucky to have one friend that caring and selfless. I have several.

Through the years, I have watched their own families suffer through cancer diagnosis and hard times of their own. They have hugged me and cried with me while my parents have walked that track hand in hand for the survivor lap together, they have been the kind of friends that everyone wishes they could have. I have ABSOLUTELY AMAZING FRIENDS. I thank God for them every. single. day.

Here is to another year of great friends by my side. My life is so full and wonderful because of you. My heart is overwhelmed so often becuase of you. I am lucky. So extremely lucky.