Real People #2

There are certain topics I view with compassion simply based on my own experience. One of these topics is cancer. Not only has cancer taken the lives of some family members, but it also attacked my husband when he was only 23 years old. If you've read my "Diggin' up the Past" series, you're familiar with this part of my life.

While the hubster was going through chemo, I was right there taking care of him when he was sick. This was not the easiest thing to do all of the time but it was the ONLY thing for me to do. Looking back on it, I can't imagine how I would have done that if we would have had Alex at that time in our life.  That's why I was so moved by Katrina's story.

Katrina is a member of the Mom Bloggers Club. I was bouncing around the website one day and saw her prayer request in the Christian Moms group. Her husband had just started a very aggressive round of chemotherapy to treat spots on his lung and liver. This was not the first time he had been through this, though. In January of 2007, he had been hospitalized for intestinal bleeding and diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

Katrina and Brent have 3 children together. With his return to chemotherapy, I'm sure that Katrina is busy caring for her children and her husband. She shared with me that after his first treatment he was already pale and in pain. It can't be easy for her.

Katrina is someone I would ask you to pray diligently for. Her husband needs healing and she needs strength to get through each day.

I found out that she has been making bags as a means to raise money for colon cancer research and to help make ends meet. Her bags are hand-made. She told me that she never uses the same fabric in the same way twice on her bags. She's all about using the colors of your choice paired with her creativity to give you a custom bag. Here's a photo of some of the bags she's made.

She's asking $25 a piece for these. That is MORE than reasonable. $5 of every bag goes straight to cancer research in her home state of Arizona. So far, she's raised $400 for research just by making these bags.

I decided that these would make great Christmas gifts if I stuck a card in each one telling her story and what the gift was actually supporting. I ordered 4 bags from her. (One for myself, of course). If you would like to order one...or two, simply e-mail her at bagsforbrent@yahoo.com . She would be so excited to hear from you.