The Fundraiser

Wednesday afternoon/evening my family loaded into a bus and headed off for the northern portion of Indiana to attend a fundraiser. By 'my family' I mean my whole family...minus my sister-in-law (who was sick in bed) and her one year old son.

At 2:30 in the afternoon we all piled in and settled in for our three hour ride. It was long. My dear middle son kept asking, "Are we about there yet?" Seriously. He was able to ride in an airplane for a grand total of 20 hours one way and really didn't ask that more than a couple times. A mere three hour ride and he was asking every 15 minutes.

We stopped for supper at McD's. Dad went in and placed the order. Multitudes of cheeseburgers, multitudes of chicken sandwiches (all from the dollar menu, of course), and waters for everyone!! Ais had brought a pan of cookies for dessert.

We arrived only a few minutes before the fundraiser began. Then we settled in on our backless benches and waited for the curtain to open.

Open it did, and for three hours we were blessed to be watching about 40 folks sing, do skits, and perform plays. I have no pictures because pictures in a place like that were definitely not welcomed.

You see. The fundraiser was for my dad's cousin's wife and her family. They just so happen to be Amish, as many of my dad's cousins are.

This cousin's wife has cancer and the prognosis is not good. They have ten children...the oldest is about fifteen and the youngest is two. The youngest four happen to be two sets of twins, ages four and two.

Can you imagine?

Ten children. That part alone is hard for me to imagine, but add some cancer in on top of that. Then do the imagining.

It would not be pleasant.

I know how it is around here when I am sick on the couch for a day or so. And I only have three children and my illness has never been anything serious. This mother has cancer. It's serious. She has ten children, all of whom most definitely still need their mother in their lives. All of whom are still at home. Some of them are my children's ages. It's gotta be an extremely busy household.

The fundraiser is going to go on for a few more days yet. All Loretta's brothers, sisters, and cousins are the ones doing the performing. For a couple months they have met two evenings a week to practice. Wednesday night was their first real 'show time'. It was for family and friends. They were doing the program again last night, and then three more nights following. Tonight, Saturday, and Monday. They will be tired.

I can only pray that the financial support they receive will make a dent in all the looming bills for this family.

I know that they would appreciate prayer.