Please help us raise funds to cover medical cost, lodging, food, and any expenses related to the care of sweet Kennedy Harris who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.
Here are a few words from her mother Melanie Harris -
As we are overwhelmed by love, peace and gratitude from the amazing and large community that does life with us daily.
I have just not been ready for Kennedy to be known as the “kid with cancer”. I haven’t wanted to relinquish her title as all the wonderful things she has been in her short 8 years of life and define her by a disease that has already stolen so much from her in a few short days.
To know her is to encounter an incredible Jesus loving human that I can’t begin to take credit for. To know her is to see light and love right in front of you.
When I see her picture as your profile picture it makes me feel humbled and also like you got the wrong girl. Surely, Jesus, that is not my baby’s face staring back at me.
Then I am reminded that Kennedy is not just my daughter. She is a friend, student, twirling teammate, cousin, classmate, granddaughter, niece, god-daughter and many more things to many people. They love her. They want to pray for her. I can help them do that better by sharing information for her in a central place.
A few days before Kennedy was diagnosed I sent this quote I came across to one of my best friends, whose daughter has fought through chronic illness and now lives on the other side of it.
“You can’t protect your kids or yourself from their testimony”
Jesus just keeps whispering to me that there is nothing I could have done to protect Kennedy from this. That she is a daughter of the most high God. That she doesn’t belong to me, but he chose me to be her mama. That her testimony will be one that truly is a light and will turn eyes toward Jesus.
I prefer to live a quite faith. BUT I’ve decided, and will continue to decide to be brave, strong and share her story. (Just like Kennedy is brave and strong). I will help her share her testimony so the darkness in this will not overcome the light.
9/14/23 at around 8:30am our lives changed forever. We took Kennedy in for some blood work out of extra precaution because she was bruising really badly. By 6:00 pm that night we were admitted to Wolfsons PICU with a Leukemia diagnosis.
Her type of Leukemia is ALLt. And her prognosis is positive, but as a parent anything less than a 100% survival rate for your child is more than undesirable.
Honestly, I’m just at the point where I have to remind myself to breathe and take the next step.
I want to use this space to keep people updated with ways to pray for Kennedy. A space where you can cheer and sing praises for her wins and bring her lower points to the feet of Jesus.
The best part of her testimony is yet to come. In the meantime it may look like we are surrounded by darkness but we are surrounded by Him and He fights our battles.
So thank you for being our prayers when we don’t have the words right now. For being our feet when we are stuck inside a hospital. For holding us up when we can’t stand. For feeding our family (and small farm of animals ) and overwhelming us with kindness and gifts. She currently has the record for most squishmellows delivered to a hospital room.
Our village is so much bigger than we ever imagined.
I will try to post daily things to pray for her during these first few weeks as they are instense with treatment and critical. I will also try to share glimpses of the journey and important updates.
#kennedystrong