My aunt is cooler than yours (No, seriously!)

Most of you probably don’t know that I have a very small immediate family. I lost my grandpa (dad’s dad) before I was born, my uncle (mom’s brother) when I was 6 months old, my aunt (dad’s sister) when I was 8, and my grandma (dad’s mom) when I was 22. I have one set of grandparents left and my mom and dad only have one sibling left between the two of them. I love my small family because we are so close but I definitely miss the family members that I lost too soon. I would have also liked to have known the members that I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting. From what I hear, they were pretty great.

This post is a tribute to my aunt. She is pretty awesome. My mom always jokes that if she didn’t give birth to me, she would have thought that I was her sister’s daughter. I am honored to be like my aunt. She is truly an amazing person and it is nice to have someone who is as clumsy as me =) She is one of the strongest people I know. She works very hard to provide for her family, she cares about everyone, and has a great sense of humor. She doesn’t let a lot get her down and she continues to praise God through the hard times.

My aunt, Sherri, was diagnosed with breast cancer this past February. It was a very hard time for the whole family. All we kept thinking was “not again”. In March, she began her fight against cancer. She had several meetings and lots of decisions to make about what care she was going to have. She has had many rounds of chemo and is almost done with her radiation. I am very sad that she has to go through all of this treatment and I pray that she can overcome this.

I choose to see a positive side of this. When she was diagnosed, she decided to have her treatments at a facility in northern Illinois. This has given my family the opportunity to see her more. My mom has gone up several times to see her and she has even been able to bring Harper up with her. It has been nice for my family to be able to see some other family members that we don’t get to see so often because we live about 500 miles away from each other. She has even come down to our neck of the woods to hang out with us. She went to the softball game I was helping to coach just to watch the game. She also went and sat at my brother’s soccer game, even though she didn’t know the rules of soccer. It has been so nice to see her and on our own turf to boot.

A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with my aunt and cousin up in Chicago to go to the Cubs game. I just love her spirit and willingness to try new things. I look at that trait and I think, “that’s where I got that from”. I love my aunt and I can’t believe how strong she has been through this whole thing. She is still the bubbly, funny, strong women that I have come to love. I LOVE you, Sherri, and lets kick this cancer where it hurts!

What I wanted people to get from this post is:

1) My aunt is the best aunt in the world =)

2) She is one of the strongest people I know and I am honored to call her my aunt

3) Please pray for her journey. Pray that the cancer stays away and that she will live a long, healthy life

Disclaimer...I got all of these pics from Brittany's facebook so hopefully she won't be mad at me ;)