My father has always told me I could be anything, he taught me how to be strong and face the world around me. He taught me to treat the janitor the same way I would treat the CEO. As a female, he taught me never to back down on what I felt was right and use my voice to better the world. I learned how to be a true professional and how to be comfortable in my own skin because of my dad. I will never stop pursuing my goals and showing my doubters they are wrong.

The surrogacy application almost looks like a dating profile. We were asked questions like “How involved to do you want to be in pregnancy?” and “What are your beliefs on terminating the pregnancy?” Those two questions were ones we had thought about and talked about for hours when deciding to move forward with a surrogate. We also knew our answers to those questions may limit the number of surrogates willing to work with us.

All of our journeys have been so different, but I have learned so much from these people and would urge everyone going through something, to find people in similar situations. You feel less like an alien and more like a club member.

I am 29 years old, 28 when diagnosed, too short a life to have actually lived. My journey is not over. I have more to give to this world and I will fight for that right. I am not brave, or strong, I just want to live.

I will never get to carry our child and will be living through the surrogate in these moments. I want the baby to know our voices, my heartbeat, I don’t want us to be strangers to our baby when we first meet outside the womb. Our surrogate will have the unique opportunity to come into our family in a special way, and we are really looking forward to meeting her.

Work from home can be seen as magical, but in reality, it is just like going into an office if you do it correctly. Here are some tips to have a productive work/ life balance during the quarantine.

As someone who just finished Chemo treatment, my immune system is compromised and I am fearful about catching this nasty virus, because I am the weak that it will not only infect but kill. I have ton some research and talked to doctors during my visits help you all understand what this pandemic means for those of us with cancer and how you can help us stay healthy.

Day 145, I write to you from my couch as I have been surviving a quarantine since October. Day 145, I have not been able to touch people, shop like normal, drink and party like I want, and be in large groups. Still not sure how me, an extreme extrovert has made it this far. But there is a reason all of the staff at Texas Oncology not only knows my name, but the name of my wigs.

Another year around the sun, and I am grateful, but sad. This birthday has a different vibe, a different significance. For this year, I am just grateful to be alive.

Unless you picked the sand apart from our wedding ceremony, we have cancer.

Fear. Paralyzing, breath taking, crushing fear. I thought I knew fear before, fear of failure, fear of missing a deadline, fear of disappointing someone, but I never knew fear until now. Fear is an emotion often described by children as fear of monsters. My fear is of that, a monster. The grim reaper.

For many 12-steppers, one day at a time is not just a motto to repeat, but a way to live life. Taking each day as it may be the last one, being grateful for a full 24 hours of sobriety. Don’t look for your five-year chip, focus on the 24 hours ahead of you. 24 hours is a lot easier to manage than five, ten, fifteen years. Looking that far ahead can become overwhelming and dwarf the success of living in those 24 hours.

Cancer does not care who you are, what your life looks like, what plans you have for the future, or how healthy you are. Cancer attacks whoever it wants. But, let’s talk about the common misconceptions I have heard since being diagnosed with cancer.

I could see a huge difference and I did not want to be seen in public. I refused to go out without a hat on. A hat. Ew. I am not an everyday hat person. This was not me. I was defeated on top of feeling like crap from chemo, I felt my identity slipping away and all I was, was cancer. I refuse to be cancer. What could I do?

Chemo in and of itself isn’t a fun journey, so when I decided to add ice into the mix, I knew I was going to make this journey even harder. Now, as I sit at my halfway point, part of me wonders why I wanted to make it harder, while part of me is glad I did it.

Praise sweet little 8 pounds 6 oz newborn infant baby Jesus, we are in 2020. 2019 is over and we have a mental restart for 2020. Insert happy dance here. In the last year, I have learned so much about attitude and perspective.

As huge hockey fans we jumped at the chance to buy Winter Classic tickets in Dallas back in April 2019 when they first went on sale. At the time of purchase, we had low expectations for the southernmost outdoor hockey game, we did not expect the two days we experienced.

For the last three years, I have not gone home for Christmas. Logistics were hard so we would often spend two weeks at Thanksgiving at home and then a lot of Facetime and packages sent during Christmas.

A little bit of a different perspective. I think this is what my dad would be saying to me on his favorite holiday.