2015 Courage Classic

We’re excited to let you all know that this summer we will ride more than 150 miles in the 26th Courage Classic bicycle tour benefiting Children’s Hospital Colorado. Over the next few months we will train to conquer climbs up multiple passes through our beautiful Rocky Mountains.  Powering our bikes for three days straight will challenge us, but our primary goal is to raise money for children and families who rely on Children’s Colorado. We hope to collectively raise $2.8 million for kids like Madelyn Hill.

Madelyn is a very sweet friend of ours and is almost 7 years old and two weeks after she turned one, her journey with Children’s Hospital began. At that time the physicians concluded that Madelyn had deep vein thrombosis, portal vein, causing portal vein hypertension, an enlarged spleen and esophageal varices.  Madelyn is now a life-long DHI/GI patient and will always have endoscopy procedures.

Over the last several years, I have been blessed to become one of Madelyn’s “Scope Buddy’s.”  “It truly has been such a blessing for me to be able to pray with them, build legos, watch movies or just be there to hold Miss Madelyn and her sweet family while they go through these procedures.”  It’s been an incredibly humbling experience as well, to not only witness what Madelyn and her precious family must go through, but all the brave kids and their families at Children’s Hospital Colorado!

This is a picture of Madelyn and I at Children’s after her scope last summer.  “It’s a very special memory I will always cherish.  She was so excited to show me her new bible while we waited to leave the hospital after an endoscopy.  It was a sweet reminder of God’s faithfulness through each child’s journey!”  We love this sweet girl and her family so much!

Not only will Josh and I be riding, but our 8 year old daughter, Kylee will be riding 20 miles on day two of the Courage Classic to support these kids as well.  We are honored to not only ride for Madelyn, but also for Joel Belt who is battling Pulmonary Hypertension, Cross Evans who is battling Leukemia, Kaylee Remmich who is battling Medulloblastoma and the many, many other kids and their families fighting their own battles and benefiting from the care at Children’s Hospital Colorado!  We would be honored if you would support these kids, their families and Children’s Hospital Colorado by donating to our ride!

I look forward to sharing our journey as a team with each of you!

Click below to support any of the rider's on our team!

 

Blessings to you and thank you for your consideration,

Krystal

A Dose of Perspective

Oh my dear friends, have you ever been served a humbling piece of perspective from a five year old little boy?  God used my sweet little dude to speak volumes to me this week.  The last couple of weeks or so at work have been extremely busy and I've found myself just taking care of one emergency after another between technical issues, assisting fellow coworkers, meeting requests from the corporate office, etc. etc. etc.  But, we all have seasons like that whether it's at work, home, ministry, etc. right?  This really wasn't any different than any other busy time at work, but for some reason it was overwhelming me a bit right now.

One thing I cherish so much in our home (even though it doesn't happen all the time) is having dinner together as a family.  I love the time together, catching up with each other and just reconnecting a bit. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes there's arguing, complaining or silence.  Monday evening, the conversation went like this:

Josh - 'How was your day at work?'
Me - 'Oh, it was okay.  Just a little overwhelmed though as I just feel like I'm putting fires out and not getting much accomplished and getting behind.'
Jayce - 'Mom, why don't you just borrow my Lego Fire Truck to help you put out your fires?'
Me - 'Oh, Jayce that's so sweet of you, but they're not real fires.'
Jayce - 'Well it's not a real fire truck either'

The next morning, Jayce brought me his fire truck, so that I could take it to work for a couple days to help me with my 'fires.'  I love this little boy's sense of humor and how God used him to remind me that these little battles I've been dealing with at work and at home needed a little perspective.  They're not near as big of deal as I was feeling they were and I just needed to take a deep breath and realize these aren't real fires and God's got this!

May you also find a little perspective in the midst of your battle and find peace in God's grace!  And if means putting a toy fire truck on your desk as a visual reminder, then do that too!

As we enter a weekend, I'm going to rest on God's promise in Matthew 11:28.  'Come to me, those who are weary, and I will give you rest.' 

Blessings,

Krystal