Gearing up for TS Awareness Month

This year we are very happy to be a part of our 2nd TS awareness month. Maddie received her diagnosis in April, so we were thrown into May with not a whole lot of knowledge, except for the fact that we wanted a CURE! We were so blown away by all of those who wore blue on the 15th! I remember that day so clearly. I thought a few people may post their blue picture, but we had close to a hundred families proudly wearing blue for Maddie. My emotions were still very raw, and the support we got was overwhelming. I cried tears of joy that day as I realized that we would not be fighting this disease alone. With it being such a rare disease we did feel alone and her future was clouded with the ugly facts of TSC. Those of you who participated in wearing blue will never know how much that meant to our family. It gave us a boost, when we were very down. I better move away from last year or I may never stop crying....:)

So what this post is actually about is to let you all know what are goals are for this years TS Awareness month. we are hoping to reach double the amount of people we did last year. We want to spread Awareness to those who have never heard of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Another goal is to be able to send $3,000 to the TS Alliance! We have tripled our goal from what we raised last year. This is a very big goal but I believe we can reach it. You may ask, how are you going to raise that much money? 

Well I'd be happy to answer that :)

-We will be selling Team Maddie shirts for $10. We had a very generous local t-shirt shop donate the screen print and they have given us a good deal on shirts. Shirt orders can be taken now. I will post a more about this on my Facebook.The shirts should be in by the last week of April. All proceeds of the shirts will go towards our goal.

-Team Maddie bracelets have been ordered and will arrive the first week of April. They will be $2 and all proceeds will go to our goal.

-We are asking local businesses and families for donations such as; gift certificates, merchandise, services, and cash, to put together several gift baskets. We will be selling raffle tickets during the Strawberry Festival and all money from the raffle will go towards our goal.

-We will have an TSC informational booth at the festival where we will be handing out info about TSC, selling the raffles, and also selling bottled water. We already have one local grocery store who has donated a few cases of water. Once again all money will be put towards our goal.

-Last year we had very generous donations made to our TS fundraiser website. We will have that up and running for those of you who would like to contribute in that way. 

As you can see, we have several ways to raise money for a CURE! We are very eager to be able to bring awareness to this very rare disease to our community.

When Maddie was diagnosed my way of coping was to learn as much as I could, and get involved with raising awareness. I wasn't going to let this disease take over our life. We were going to be in control of how we handled this, we knew in order for that to happen we were going to have to lean on God, the only solid thing we had. There have been many tears shed, but He has always been there to lift us back up. We pray that the funds we are raising will be blessed by Him. We so badly want a cure for our daughter and the others who are fighting this disease. The TSC motto is so fitting for our family...."We will give everything but up!"

Please know that our family is beyond thankful for the love, prayers, and support we have received since Maddie's diagnosis. You all have done more for our family than we could have ever imagined. It's humbling to see how you all have so graciously given to our cause.

Tuberous Sclerosis Complex has nothing on Maddie, our family and friends, or our community. We will bravely fight and win the battle against this disease!!

Maddie proudly wearing her TSC shirt last May.

Maddie being part of the "where in the world is TSC" campaign last year

Maddie giving me much needed kisses during her stay in the hospital when she was diagnosed with IS and TSC. 

Chris rocking Maddie to sleep during her hospital stay.