Help Get Katrina’s Kids to CA

Our beautiful Katrina is making a big move out to California on May 12th.  California will be a place she can rest and get the medical help she will continue to need. She has many friends and family out west that are excited for her arrival but those of us here in Chattanooga will miss her dearly. No one will miss her more than her 3 amazing young children. Ben, her ex-husband,  has offered to take two months off of work to take the kiddos out to California so they can be with Katrina this summer. There are no words that I can possibly imagine or use for the importance of these upcoming seasons  for Katrina and her children. Only a small group of people who have walked in their shoes can understand the depth of love and time they need together. We as friends and family can only help in one way and that is to make sure these beautiful moments happen as often as humanly possible for them. Her need to be in California is desperate, and the children need to be out there with her as often as possible. The cost to get the kids out West is expensive. The main cost will be housing. They need to rent a furnished apartment for the two months. Rent is about $1400 a month.  The other funds will go toward travel from Chattanooga to California and back, food and of course all the extra expenses that pop up.  We are asking anyone who can to please help keep Katrina and her kids be together this summer.

There is no doubt that a mother's love of her children is the greatest and deepest love that a human can experience. Mothers have done supernatural things to protect their children; they give of themselves over and over to sacrifice for their children. Mothers dream of all the big moments of their children's lives, but more than that they dream of all the small moments they will get to experience and witness. We as adults often look back and ponder on the beauty of our memories with our mothers; we envision moments that are incomplete without her there. There is an unfairness in this world that sometimes comes in and steals the beauty of a mother and her children. It steals all the moments that should be, steals the love that's supposed to grow and blossom. Sometimes this pain and loss comes in one swift unseen move stealing our breath away. Sometimes it comes slowly and lets us sit and walk in the knowlege of what's to come. How do mothers process this pain that is knowingly coming to her children, when her superpowers begin to fail? How does she comfort and protect them? She uses every last ounce of power she has and pours out every last drop of love she has inside of her and presses these on her children until her very last breath. Her love and strength will be so overwhelming to her children that they will have this holding onto them in the loniest of days; they will be able to smile in the tears because they can feel her strength and her hugs and kisses long after others have stopped the tears. 

About 18 months ago, at the age of 35, Katrina was diagnosed with stage iv metastatic breast cancer after fracturing her spine in multiple places due to her bones being weakened by cancer. Her health was mostly stable until recent liver progression caused her to be hospitalized and she began active chemotherapy treatment. If you would like to know more about her health journey you can find her on social media via her blog, www.thelittlekiss.blog or YouCaring fund https://www.youcaring.com/katrinamarieschoorlkaiser-979673