Though several weeks have passed since The Town of Floyd 5K, we wish to express our gratitude once again for those who planned and participated, since the proceeds went to Duke.  It was such a great time and it is especially great to know that brain tumor patients will benefit from over a hundred folks improving their own health by walking or running on a gorgeous September Saturday in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Now that’s what I call multi-tasking!

It seems like a good time to be considering how we can help the cause of brain-tumor awareness and study too…  It has not even been two years since Joshua and Chance were diagnosed and there seem to be so many others (adults) who have suffered from this condition in our area since.  I constantly ask people who are older than I, “Is this just a natural pattern, or is this happening unusually more frequently than it should?”  Only God knows.  Though I do not have the answers, I believe that helping to find a way to end suffering in any capacity is pleasing in His eyes.  I pray that capable people will find a way to use the money that we raised to figure out a cure for this horrible disease, or even better, what causes it so that we may avoid it altogether.

In other news, our family celebrated Joshua’s fifth birthday last week.  Very low key.  Family members each selected a book to be donated to the Jesse Peterman Memorial Library (we did this last year too).  If you like Children’s Cowboy books, be sure and look for one with the Joshua & A.J. label inside of it.  There are some pretty good ones!  I fancy the idea that Joshua is pleased with this little project—he enjoyed books from the time he was just little-bitty.  Ones about cowboys were particularly special to him.

It is also a really special way that we can tangibly celebrate Joshua’s birthday with A.J., who is developing many excellent questions about his big brother lately.  A.J. really enjoyed the 5K, but he cannot quite grasp how this event is related to Joshua (I don’t think, although sometimes he surprises me).  Frankly, even though I love talking about Joshua, it’s still hard for me to talk about Joshua’s illness to him because I never want him to remember him that way.  Even so, it’s an important part of Joshua’s story, so lately we have addressed it a couple of times.  If you still have the notion to pray for us, please pray that A.J. will always be as interested in his big brother as he is now, and that we may all find the right words to share with him when he asks questions—and also when he doesn’t!

Thanks for keeping up with us (and for being patient with our postings—sometimes we have to wait for the right moment to share).

The Cantrells

P.S.  Good luck to those college freshmen, Matt, Brian, Kayla, and Brittany, who received the Joshua Cantrell Memorial Scholarship…  We are praying for you guys too!