The relief that is spreading ....

I would like to take a second to brag about my friends. When I could no longer ignore that all was not well I came to my friends with this:
Heather:
"When I took Carrie in for day surgery the other day I noticed a paper crane at the admissions desk. It got me to thinking about the story of the Japanese girl, dying of leukemia from the atomic bomb blast, who tried to save her life by folding 1000 paper cranes..."
My friends knew I was going somewhere with this and it was likely not somewhere that they were going to be thrilled to visit.
"Heather I don't like the sounds of this."
"You want us to fold cranes?"
Heather:
"No, but I was thinking (looks of fear begin to surface)one of the suckiest of all the suckiness that would be coming my way if I have to have surgery would be not being able to do my triathalon ..."
Friends:
"You are kidding right?"
"Remember when I said I would shave my head if you lost your hair because of chemo? I would rather do that!"
"Are you crazy?"
"When!?!"
Heather:
"Just let me finish ... The triathlon I did in University remains one of the greatest moments of my life. There is no high like doing something you thought you never could. And just as great an inspiration for me would be watching my friends find strength and determination inside them that they did not know they had. If I have to go in for surgery I am going to need all the inspiration I can find."
Friends:
"This is not fair, there has to be some kind of rule against manipulation like this!"
"I will shave my head!"
"Let's revisit the paper crane idea."
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Haaaaaaaaaaaa Haaaaaa ... ughhh."
Heather:
"Soooo I know you could do it ... and you could split it up and do it as a team!"
Friends:
"I am not swimming."
"Kirst is swimming."
"I need an inhaler, how am I supposedd to swim?"
"Can I wear water-wings?"
"Can we do our own and make shirts with your picture on them?"
"Oh and we will put pictures on the water-wings too!!!"
"How come Krista gets to run?"
"What do you think about slightly reducing the distances?"
"You won't have surgery ... right?!?"
"I would love to do this but unfortunatelyy I will be out of the country."
"I don't think that you really love us!"

And I knew at that moment that I may have the greatest friends in the world ... because I know that they would have done it ... even if it did take them 5 hours, Kirst did have to wear water-wings and take a puff of her inhaler at the end of each lap, and they laughed the whole way through ... and that alone is enough. How is one little heart supposed to handle so much love and devotion.

Even my new dragonboat friends said they would think about it!

Can't you just hear the sighs of relief though.... HA HA HA ... they were really freaked out. However, Kirst did find the Children's Tumor Association Marathon Fundraiser ... they are all over the states ... fun road trip ... what do you think? Yeah, you better start running!