Over the past few months my mom, Samantha, has been fighting one of the hardest battles of her life. In July, she had emergency surgery to remove her kidney due to a mass. Shortly after the procedure she received a cancer diagnosis. Not to mention the knee surgery she had finally undertaken and recovered from shortly before. After scans and tests her team determined the cancer had spread to other areas and classified it as stage four. Since then, she has started treatment and we all remain optimistic about the outcome. While she is hands down the strongest woman I know this is not an easy journey. My Aunt Mary and my mom’s sister has paused her job and taken on a caregiver role with my dad. Eric and I are traveling from Mass with Addie (the cheer up committee) as much as possible. As so many of you know, interventions, caregiving, traveling, and medicine, while completely necessary, are not without expense. So, since I am celebrating my 30th on October 9th (yikes) I wanted to dedicate a fundraiser to my mom to help her with all that she needs. As this birthday gets closer, I am reminded of how important family is and how grateful I am for each day I continue to get with mine. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 30th than to honor the person who gave me life and everything I could imagine after that. I would not be here without her, I would not be the woman, wife, or mom that I am without her. If you know her you know she has dedicated her life to everyone else through her personal and professional work. She has been a dedicated, mom, wife, sister, educator and put everyone else first. She is my whole world and I know many of you have been touched by her too. For my birthday, for my mom, anything you can give is so, so appreciated. If you cannot give prayers and supportive messages are equally welcome as she continues this journey!!