Happy Birthday Robin

This little sweetheart turns 31 today:

This is my niece, Robin Groff. My brother Richard (who was in yesterday’s blog) and his wife Wendy’s oldest daughter. She is just 2 ½ months younger than my oldest son Brock. She has been an inspiration to all of us. Over 2 ½ years ago she was diagnosed with leukemia. She is presently an outpatient at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. This is her 4^th hospital of treatment. I would like to quote from her blog at www.robingroff.com from last April 4th about her birthday:

“There was a pink, low flung full moon last night out my hospital room that sat in a musty sky. I also saw a big brightly colored hot pink tree full of blossoms falling all over the plush, green grass, and the roses, oh the roses, they had been hacked back for the winter and they are readying to bloom again in a few more months. I see these beautiful creations and I can't help but wonder if this will be the last year I see the roses, my last spring, my last winter? My last full moon to see…………..

I went around the floor and shared my cupcakes with the nurses, doctors and patients. At one point one of my friends who is a patient had heard it was my birthday, so she rounded up about 8 other patients who weren't in isolation and got them out into the lobby on our floor. Roy, a man with multiple myeloma, who has been battling his cancer since 1999, called me and said, Robin come out into the lobby right now. I heard you were nauseated, but just bring your bucket, we all throw up all the time, so we don't care. I went out there with my cupcakes and it was pretty comical to see a big group of patients with their IV poles and masks all worn out and skinny, but with big smiles on their faces. Five of the eight people there are battling the same cancer I have, AML, which is one of the toughest to cure, and many of them do not have very good prognosis’s at this point in their treatment, but they all stood there big smiles ready to sing Happy Birthday. They all had learned the secret, a day is and day, and every day counts…..”

That has become my motto this past year, “A day is a day and every day counts.” No matter what happens, no matter what I am up against on any given day I try now to make the very most of each and every moment.

A picture of Robin and Jason, along with my parents, on their wedding day in 1997:

Here is a picture of Robin, Jason, and daughter Hailey, that was taken, from the looks of Hailey, two springs ago:

You can go to this link and watch a beautiful slide show of their family with music:

http://www.trishreda.com/slideshows/robin/

We are so deeply grateful that we are an eternal family. We love you Robin!!!!!!!