The dark day of June 27th...

 June 12, 2023

We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions. 

Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on us. 

June 27, 2021 we rushed Kate to the ER for a debilitating headache, blurred vision and a sudden loss of ability to use her legs. That ER visit led to a life flight to Iowa City followed by surgery to remove part of her skull. It is the start date of her health trauma. And one year later on June 27, 2022, on the drive to swim practice, we received more bad news with a phone call from her pediatric oncologist telling us cancer had spread to her spine. So you can see why June 27th just plain sucks. Kate originally planned to hide in her room with the door closed for the entirety of the day, however we have an away swim meet June 27th and she has to be in Rochester the next morning bright and early for appointments. Kate has bravely decided she will face the day by swimming in the meet and then immediately drive up to Rochester that night. 

I could quite honestly write an entire book on all the ways Kate has been a brave warrior. You can not imagine some of the challenges and hardships she has battled through with grace and wisdom. Her teenage life has been absolutely, positively nothing like she has planned. Kate is not a whiner so despite how badly I want to paint a word-filled picture of how unfair life is, I will instead follow Kate's incredibly mature lead and hold my head high while standing next to her. 

In the wise words of the author Kate Bowler...

"Blessed are you when the shock subsides, when vaguely, you see a line appear that divides before and after. You didn't draw it, and can barely even make it out. But as surely as minutes add up to hours and days, here you are, forced into a story you never would have written. Blessed are you in the tender place of wonder and dread. Wondering how to be whole when dreams have disappeared and part of you with them. Where mastery, control, determination, bootstrapping, and grit, are consigned to the realm of before (where most of the world lives)."