Sarah Nicole's Memorial Fund

A few days before Christmas, I got the call.  The call that no one wants to recieve at anytime of year, but seems especially brutal during the holidays.   Sarah Nicole Contreras was in the hospital . . . in a diabetic coma . . . and it was serious.   And so a week that is usally full of sparkling lights and celebration is now blurred together with hospital waiting rooms, grief stricken friends and family, and the shock that everyone felt.  "She was just at church . . . at school . . . with me drinking coffee . . ."   Early Sunday morning, a week after that phone call, she passed away in peacefulness, surrounded during her last moments by the family and friends who loved her and whom she loved so dearly.   

Sarah was 29 when she passed away -- only a few weeks from her 30th birthday.   I first met her when I moved in as a foster child to her parents home over 20 years ago.   Over the years, I watched her grow up from the spunky 7 year old that I first met into a marvelous woman, wife, mother, and friend.    

Her three young children are 10, 8, and 6 . . . their lives have changed utterly in ways they are only beginning to discover.  They are blessed to have their father Josh, and their grandparents to lean on during this terrible time, and will love celebrating their mother's life as they grow up with all those who loved her -- friends, brothers, sisters, coworkers, neighbors, and the many aunts, uncles, neices, nephews, cousins, and more that she met through her parents foster care ministry . . . 

When Sarah passed away, all I could think about was the sadness and the shock.    Then I thought,"How can I help?"   They have asked me to set up this fund raising project for their family.   There are some significant financial burdens for the family right now - the kind of expenses that come with an emotional punch.   Medical bills, memorial costs, funeral expenses.   My hope is that we can all help them carry this burden together, so they can concentrate on healing and celebrating Sarah's life.  

The money raised here goes directly to Sarah's family.  They will be able to use it almost immediately for expenses during this extremely trying time.  

Please consider donating to this fund raising project -- any amount, no matter how small is welcome and appreciated.     

Thank you - for the memories you have shared, the pictures you have posted, and the stories you have told about the life of Sarah Nicole Contreras.