About a month ago I decided to take Rachel to a Sparks game at the Staples Center. For those of you who don't follow sports, (no, I won't hold it against you!) the Sparks are a women's professional basketball team. I've always suspected Rachel is a little self conscious about how tall she is based on some of the comments she has made, so I wanted to show her a different definition of beauty. We had an absolute blast - these women are tall, strong, athletic, and fast. The beauty and grace they displayed was amazing! Rachel has a friend, Nikki Wheatley, who we wouldn't be surprised to see play someday at the college or professional level.
While we were strolling around the Staples Center at half time I came across a table and picked up a form to nominate someone for the "Sparks Inspirational Woman Award". Naturally I thought about Sandy and what an inspiration she is to me, and to a lot of you out there. I stuffed the form in my pocket and continued to stuff my face with peanuts until the game was over. The next day I found the form, filled it out, and faxed it in. I wrote a few lines about her faith, courage, positive attitude, and directed them to her Blog. I then forgot all about it, although I did show Sandy the nomination form.
Sure enough, I received an email on Wednesday afternoon from the Sparks PR Director inviting us to Thursday's game against the Washington Mystics. They honored Sandy with a "Sparks Inspirational Woman Award". We received courtside seats (yes, that was a rush!) and she was honored during the 4th quarter with flowers, a Sparks t-shirt, and kind words from the "Sparks Girl", who essentially read off my nomination form while I tried to take as many photos as I could. If you were at the game and thought you saw Sandy on the "Jumbotron" you weren't imagining things! It was an emotional and outstanding evening, and we owe it all to you out there! Why? Because you can't win an inspirational award unless you are actually inspiring someone! The entry was obviously judged on the messages all of you have been posting on the Blog. 6 months ago I didn't know what a Blog was, (or Stage 4 Metastic Breast Cancer for that matter!) and now it's mushroomed into something far different than the simple communication tool we thought it was. We have all of you to thank for that. Your words of hope and encouragement sustain us when we sometimes don't want to get out of bed in the morning......
Jon
P.S. More pictures below
