My Answer....Finally! (Lulu)

Sorry this took so long but for some reason my computer would not let me log on. I had to do some major cleaning on my computer before I could get anything to work.

I knew right away who influenced me the most but I really had a hard time figuring out a way to explain it. My brother, Mark, has definately influenced me the most even though he was in my life the shortest amount of time.

Mark was 16 and he passed away from Leukemia right before Christmas and my 12th birthday. Watching him go through all of that over a years time and seeing how he dealt with life really made me start to look at things differently.

He always had a smile on his face and never, EVER, complained. Right before he went into the coma for the last time we had a really long talk because we both knew it was only a matter of time and we decided it was time to say everything we needed to right then and there. I remember asking him if he was scared to die and the following was his response:

No, I am not scared. Everything happens for a reason. When I am gone, I don't want you to focus on the bad....I want you to look for that silver lining. There is a reason I got sick and you may not find out why for a long time but if you are patient, eventually you will see that some good will come from this. God will not give us more than we can handle so just remember that. As you grow in life I want you to hang on to that. For every bad situation you come across there will always be something good that comes out of it so just keep looking for the good things.

After he died my parents donated his body to leukemia research. And ya know what....they ended up finding an abnormality in his chromosomes that no doctor in the world had ever seen before. Because of that they came up with new treatments and have a much higher success rate now. When ever I start forgetting to look for the positive....somethings always happens to remind me.

About a year ago my mother and I met a man who survived the leukemia. He had the same abnormality as my brother. He also has 4 beautiful little girls that may not be here today if my brother had not passed away.

Now I live my life looking for the good in things. I also remember to be brave. If he could go through all that pain and keep on smiling than ya know what....so can I!!


Ok...so my question for Zaad!

You have gone through soooo many changes in the last year or so. I want to know which one you are proudest of and why? You cannot say the quitting drinking though because that would make this question to easy...And we are all proudest of you for that!! Part 2 (yes you have to answer 2 parts), what do you think you still need to work on and why?