LET US RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE
Team-n-Training Journal ~ Sherry Perkins
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APRIL 2009
APRIL 27, 2009
HOME! ~ Taking the day to rest, relax, recover.
Ahhhhh ... a glass of Merlot on the deck overlooking Ford Lake with refreshing
warm Spring breezes is going a l-o-n-g way towards my restoration as my
propped-up feet unswell, my hamstring unclenches, and my calf muscles relax.
This leg of the journey has crossed it's finish line, so I'll close this blog here. Thanks
again for following along with such great love and support. Please
continue to keep Adam and his family in your prayers.
Thank you Lord God, my rock and my redeemer.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be pleasing to you.
~ AMEN!
Blessings all ~
Sherry Perkins
APRIL 25, 2009
YES! 13.1 miles and Sherry Lives!!! Not the best
run
time, but still, I finished even after my hamstring cinched up on me.
Definitely God's strength not mine, but crossed the finished line running and
had a greatly meaningful time of it all in the process. Special congratulations to Cliff Heliste who completed
his first ever Half Marathon, and my sincere thanks for being such a great
running partner on this run.
Team-in-Training was GREATLY represented. When I
would see a Team-in-Training runner I would think "there is another supporter for
Adam's healing". An army of like-minded agents of God having assembled in
this place to show their support for the fight/victory cure for Leukemia. We
are so much more all together! It was very powerful, and very moving.
Awesomely WONDERFUL to see such an assembled Army of God purposing healing,
hope, perseverance and overcoming. Very emotional, very spiritual, very
uplifting.
To Adam's Family ~ May YOU feel surrounded and
embraced in faith, hope and love ~ the greatest of these ~ LOVE. God is Love.
Thank you one and all for your heartfelt care,
purposed prayers and generous giving of your gifts, your talents, and yourselves
to me/others.
I Love You,
~ Sherry Perkins
"13Brothers, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind
and straining toward what is ahead,
14I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. "
(Phil 3:13-14)
APRIL 20, 2009
Final Confirmation Sheet
2009 Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Saturday, April 25th, 2009, 7:00AM
EST
(expected finish time ~ 2.5 to 3 hrs)
YOUR RACE NUMBER IS:
24498
APRIL 18, 2009
Tapering down the miles this week. Trying
not to do anything stupid. Keeping to my fitness workouts, yoga stretches,
some hill runs and stair master machine at the Fitness Center. Feeling
good and am "good to go" this Thursday, April 23rd for
Nashville TN
Country Music Hall of Fame Half Marathon.
APRIL 17, 2009 ~ ADAM'S CARE PAGES UPDATE
Adam out of Intensive Care
Adam left Intensive Care
earlier this week and he
has lots of new oral
medicines, along with
the IV medicine, that
are helping him to feel
better. He has been out
of the room a few times,
though he does get tired
right now while his
heart is healing. In the
next few months, Adam
will have some time for
his heart to continue to
heal. His kidneys are
much better. We're not
sure when they are
considered 100% healed
but they have made
substantial progress.
Adam has a good
appetite, especially for
apple pie, skim milk,
and carrots with ranch
dip. We hope to get home
sometime in the next few
weeks and we all plan to
sleep a lot while we
gradually ease back into
what others consider
"normal life". The
hospital psychologist
advises that this will
take a while and tells
us to be easy on
ourselves no matter what
others expect of us.
Thank you for your
prayers and support. ~
(Adam's Family)
APRIL 14, 2009
I got a smile out of the
Team-in-Training Coach's email this week:
"Now that the your mileage
has peaked, we now begin the gentle downhill decent in miles. This stage of
your training is called tapering and it’s just as important as anything else you
have done. Why? Because this the time you give your body to rest, recover,
store energy, and prepare for the long race day ahead. This is the point where
you do nothing stupid. Repeat.. This is the point you do nothing stupid.
Repeat…well, you get the idea. At this point, less is more. Make sure you let
your body fully recover from any injuries or aches and pains. Take this time to
reflect on how far you’ve come and visualize where this is all leading." ~ Coach
Ted.
So yes, trying not to do
anything stupid this week. Lord, hear my prayers ...
APRIL 12, 2009
~ ADAM'S CARE PAGES UPDATE
Adam still in Intensive Care
Adam's kidneys are improving, and the medications have stablized his heart. He walked to the end of the hall today, and yesterday dyed Easter eggs and made a pizza.Cardiomyopathy is even rarer in children than leukemia, so the doctors tell us that we just must wait and see how and if his heart heals.
Causes? A virus, maybe the chemotherapy. No one knows: he doesn't seem to fit the parameters for chemotherapy and it's difficult to know about the virus. Either way, the condition is still treated the same. Perhaps due to its rarity, this is not a well-researched health condition in children.
Meanwhile, as his kidneys improve, he is beginning to take some more oral heart medicines so that he can get off the intravenous medicine and move from Intensive Care. He needs rest right now, but certainly less than he did before he came to Intensive Care.
This has been one of the most difficult times in Adam's whole course of treatment, and we'll continue to make adjustments as we transition to home eventually. We had hoped to be done with the hospital and health conditions last month. Now we have more learning to do.
But I must tell you, Adam still has a great attitude. A friend helped him put together a pizza yesterday (Adam loves to cook.) When she took them to the oven, they got overcooked and burned. Upon learning that they were burnt, he exclaimed: "We practiced making pizzas and "name withheld" practiced burning them!" He wasn't bothered one bit and remains fully engaged in life. Now, if his parents could only be so upbeat at this point.
Thank you for your prayers: we really feel in need of them. Right now, we are grateful that "God is still in the miracle business" to quote Dennis Carter from Northside Community Church, and we pray that our Adam's heart continues to heal. We thank God for the gift of His Son, and for the gift of our son. May you feel God's blessings in your life today. Amen.
~ (Adam's Family)
APRIL 11, 2009
Coming down to
the wire. Two weeks to go until the Country
Music Hall of Fame Half Marathon in Nashville
TN. Long ten mile run today. 40 degrees,
bright blue skies, sunny, but oh that wind!
It is clear it will be God's overcoming strength
in my weakness that will get me across the
finish line. Years ago when I was training for my first five
mile event, Alexa spoke encouraging words to her
Mom: "If you can run 3 miles, you can run
5." She said it like it was gospel
and I believed my well trained awesomely
persevering Marine daughter. I ran, and
finished, my first 5 mile running event in
Chicago with some 40,000+ other runners. I
did something I never thought I could do. Today, in
my heart, I could hear Alexa encouraging "If you
can run 10, you can run 13.1 Mom", and it gave me a
smile. May it be so ~ with God's help.
A song that
grabbed my heart thinking about Adam while I was
running today was "I'm Gonna Fight For You"
by Kathy Troccoli. I couldn't get the song
to play on this page, but I hope you'll find it
and listen to it. The lyrics are below:
I'M GONNA
FIGHT FOR YOU
You are not
alone, He is here
You know you're dear to His heart
I wouldn't lie to you, oh He'll come
He has known the pain you're going through
And faithful is the Lord
In the darkest hours of night
To keep the flame of hope alive
CHORUS:
I'm, I'm gonna fight for you
Lay down my life for you
Cause His love it never dies
And I'll get down on my knees for you
I will believe for you
Oh I'm right by your side
I'm gonna fight for you
He has said His ways are not our ways
And His thoughts are not our own
He's more that just a man, oh He's God
Let Him hold the things we cannot understand
And faithful is the Lord
In the darkest hours of night
To keep the flame of hope alive
CHORUS
No one can ever heal your soul
Like the One who'll never let you go
CHORUS
NOTE TO DONATORS:
I did not make the Team-in-Training fundraising
levels in the time required so they have turned
off the donation function on my team member
page.
You, and others, can still make donations
directly to the Leukemia Society at the
following link:
https://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_donate?item_id=8072
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Running with perseverance
to the glory of God,
in honor of Adam,
in memory of Larry,
in hope for all! |
Bless you and Happy Easter my dear ones!
God's love and mine,
Sherry
APRIL 5, 2009
~ ADAM'S CARE PAGES UPDATE
Adam in Intensive
Care, Stable
After a
frightening few days, it was established
that Adam's heart was not doing its job and
his body was not doing well. Fortunately,
the cardiovascular doctors suggested a
medicine that would stabilize him but it is
given through IV and has to be carefully
monitored, so he was moved to Intensive
Care.
The medicines
will not heal his heart but it is entirely
possible that his heart will improve over
the next 4-8 weeks. He has a few things in
his favor:
1. Children with this condition have a
better chance of getting better than adults.
2. No one knows what caused it: his heart
has decent odds of improving, and he's
already had a treatment of something that
may heal his heart if it's still fighting a
virus.
3. He's Adam, and we've already seen that he
has amazing healing powers, especially with
great medical care and your prayers.
As the
heart has started being able to do its job
with the help of the medicine, his kidneys
have begun to improve. His liver is reduced
in size, and all the extra fluid that had
backed up in his gut seems to be reduced. He
can now eat without throwing up, and he is
awake for part of the day. He is again
interested in things around him and wants to
go outside.
Once he
improves, and they figure out what medicines
he needs for his heart, he will go home.
As far as
the leukemia is concerned, he cannot yet
have the bone biopsy, but we feel fairly
sure that he no longer has any leukemia.
We are
very glad that we still have Adam with us
today. People keep telling us that we're
strong, but it's due to the support and
prayers of all of you. God has given us many
gifts. Right now, we ask God to heal Adam's
heart, and we know that God hears our
prayers.
We also
ask that God give our little boy the vision
to see himself well, and are glad that he
still has the yearning to do fun things.
Amen, and
God bless you. ~ (Adam's Family)
APRIL 4, 2009
Bright blue sunny
Spring morning for a Team-n-Training long run.
GO TEAM!
Only 33 degrees, but the warming sunshine feels
so good! It's been so windy! Truly a
resistive force against the body running. Today
was no exception. Makes for a trade off
between needs for me while I am running.
I work up a sweat, then when I need to
stop for a drink or slow down to rest and let my
muscles relax a moment, the wind chills my moist
frame throughout. However, if I don't stop
to drink
enough or relax my muscles enough on a long run, I can end
up with dehydration, muscle cramps, and weakness.
So, I just try not to slow down for too long,
stay hydrated, and breathe in to my body to make
my muscles relax even as I am running.
All that was
working for me "pretty well" on my run today until I
came upon an interesting integrated community of
water fowl enjoying their Spring Social on "my'
running path. They had gathered to
themselves a wonderfully multi-cultural
community of Canadian Geese, Mallards,
Sea Gulls, Black Birds, Drakes, Toulouse Ganders, many other varieties
of Geese I could not identify, and Swans.
In general, these fine feathered friends will
feel the vibration of approaching runners well
ahead of time and begin to scurry. Gives a
runner a false sense of power to buzz through
bird community socials and make them scatter. But
today, it was evident that one large white Swan was
sticking to their pathway post and had no intention of
moving off "my" running path. In fact, it's intention was
to chase me away as it starting coming after me
with great open mouthed hissing and hunkered
down imitation of the Mighty-Hulk. The
Swan came at me
running at a speed fast enough to force me in to a
wind sprint. Coach Tyrone and running
buddy Amy Golke would have been
so proud. (I really do NOT like wind
sprints.) Boy did I wind sprint!
Eight miles, plus
hill work, and some stairs. Pretty tired on
the way back. I would have liked to have
rested, but that darn chilly wind! I
came up on a lady walking her Rottweiler, only to
discover that she did not have her dog on a leash.
UGH!!! I tried to call out to her, but the
roaring winds swallowed any voice volume I
projected. I had no choice but to stop
next to her with my concerns about her dog.
She apologetically garnered the dog and I
quickly ran on. I assumed she had the dog
under control, but alas, I was soon aware that
the Rottweiler was
chasing after me also! NOT, the time
to do a wind sprint! I stopped in my
tracks. Fortunately, the Rottweiler was of friendly
temperament, and quickly leashed by the again
apologetic owner. Still, it wasn't a
comfortable feeling to be chased by a
Rottweiler. Doberman's, Pitt Bulls,
Rottweiler's, ... though I like dogs, I have an
innate sense of leery caution around these dogs.
I ran on, chilled again, replaying Bob Seger's
"Against The Wind" in my head musing to myself
about being chased by the wind, chased by a
swan, and chased by a Rottweiler today.
Somewhere
in this thought stream I began to meditate on the
biblical account of the
parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31) and
how The Father "ran to him" to meet him in his
pain and suffering. With compassion, The
Father, not only drew near, but RAN to His son,
even while he was still a long way off. As
soon as The Father saw His son returning, filled
with compassion, He ran the long distance, threw
His arms around him, kissed him and ordered up,
not punishment, but
a celebration.
"But
while he was still a long way off, his
father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw
his arms around him and kissed him. 21"The
son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you. I am no
longer worthy to be called your son. 22"But
the father said to his servants, 'Quick!
Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a
ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
23Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
Let's have a feast and celebrate.
24For this son of mine was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found.' So
they began to celebrate.
God runs to us!
In our pain, suffering, sinful choices, He
understands. He has compassion. Any
time we turn to Him/return to Him, He embraces
and celebrates us. In our anger,
anguish,
distress, grieving and loss, pain and suffering,
it can seem like "where's God?".
He IS there! God is with us. God is
with our loved ones. God is there with great
understanding and compassion. A compassion that ushers in
grace and mercy; unmerited favor, awaiting to receive
us with celebration at His banquet table.
He has not left us. In fact, He saw us
coming so long ago that He left us this word of
assurance and the victory of Christ from the
cross to let us know He knows all about pain and
suffering. He ran the first race to
completion of eternal life, on our behalf, so that we too will
have life ever lasting. God is there; the
same yesterday, today and forever.
Still running to us.
May the winds of
the Holy Spirit ~ Ruah ~ carry you on into the
embrace of God! ~ AMEN
~ Sherry
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One
night I dreamed a dream. I was walking along
the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed
scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two
sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me
and one to my Lord.
When
the last scene of my life shot before me I looked
back at the footprints in the sand. There was only
one set of footprints. I realized that this was at
the lowest and saddest times of my life. This always
bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my
dilemma.
"Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You
would walk and talk with me all the way. But I'm
aware that during the most troublesome times of my
life there is only one set of footprints. I just
don't understand why, when I need You most, You
leave me."
He
whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will
never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and
testings. When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you." |
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