Dear family and friends,
Well, it is that time of year again. I can’t believe another year has passed since we took part in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for Diabetes and we are ready to be involved again.
Janessa is now 9 years old and in the 4th grade. She has now been battling diabetes for 5 years, more than half her life… She is still on the insulin pump and is upgrading to a new pump with lots of great features. Actually it is sitting on my counter right now waiting for us to get trained next week!! We are hoping this new pump will help to bring her A1C back down. It has all the newest technology and is our first step towards obtaining the new continuous blood glucose monitoring system which we desperately want. That device will tell us what her blood sugar is at every moment of every day without finger pricks constantly. We will be able to see her blood sugars rise or fall and be able to combat it before it gets out of hand. Please pray that insurances will soon start covering this for all children with diabetes.
Janessa is your average 9 year old and we are all still striving for diabetes not to control her. We just try to control it. She still loves Church, Basketball, Horse-back riding, Girl Scouts, bike riding, camping, hiking, boating and cooking! She is turning into quite a remarkable young lady and we are so proud of her! As you can see, she is still her silly ol’ self!
As in years past, we are participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes through the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) this October. We believe that a cure will be found and we want to be a part of it. Since its founding in 1970, JDRF has awarded more than $1.16 billion to diabetes research. More than 85 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research. JDRF is among the few charities to earn the 4-star rating for the second consecutive year by Charity Navigator Awards. However, this year Janessa’s Girl Scout Troop has scheduled their one and only camping trip on the same weekend as the walk. After much prayer and discussion, we have decided not to let Diabetes take something else away from her and let her (and I) go camping. However, this walk is of utmost importance to our family, so Vernon and the boys are walking for Janessa. They will present all money collected in her name and walk over 3 miles in her honor. What a powerful moving experience this is for all of us!
We would love for you to join our walk team or make donations online at
http://www.walk.jdrf.org/ and search for Vernon Smith, team name “Cure – minators.” You can also mail checks made out to JDRF to our address listed below. Please don’t feel obligated to contribute. More than anything, we need prayers. Please pray for Janessa and the millions of kids like her that are dealing with this devastating disease.
Thank you so much for being a part of our lives and helping to find the cure! Remember, every dollar counts!
Sweet Smiles, lots of love and many blessings,
Vernon, Tina, Anthony, Janessa, Carson and Brayden Smith
134 Cranford Mill Drive
Newnan, GA 30265
770-463-2839
‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 KJV
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