More Than October | A Special Project
Giving Back, Gratitude //
I honestly have no idea even where to begin this post! My emotions are all over the map right now, but most importantly, my heart is filled with Joy! Over the past few months, Ryan and I have been working on a project that we have had to keep silent. Over the last few weeks, we started many mornings off with a conference call with two of our favorite people in the world, we completed a MAGICAL photo shoot that filled an empty old factory with whimsical AMAZINGness, Ryan fully coded his first WordPress website, and we witnessed one of the most AMAZING women in our lives take an incredibly brave step to touch the lives of others! Wow.
On September 10, 2012, our mentor, friend, board of life director, pretty much second mom, inspirer (the list goes on and on), Dean Badal (or Amy Badal… but she will always be Dean Badal to us!) fought and won her battle with Breast Cancer. I remember receiving the call from our friend Jenna telling us that Dean Badal had breast cancer and she was having surgery that day to remove it. That call was one of those calls that you never expect to receive and never could imagine what to say or even do. I remember feeling heart broken and sick to my stomach, yet prayerful knowing that God works in mysterious ways.
Dean Badal has touched our lives in more ways than we could ever describe. In fact, every single student and alum that has been surrounded by her at Bucknell would probably say the same thing. Ok, scratch that… every single person who has been surrounded by her at one time or another would absolutely say she has touched his/her life in a special way!
When we heard the news that Dean Badal was fighting cancer, I knew in my heart that there was a reason. God had a plan and He was going to see her through this journey. Just a few weeks after her surgery, Dean Badal shared that she had already been thinking about what she could do to use this incredibly challenging time to make a difference for someone else. She always has incredible and crazy fun ideas! ;) (Maybe that is where we get our love for crazy ideas from!?! ;) In fact, I have no doubt that is where we get it from! ;)) Over the past year, Dean Badal has shared her idea of More Than October with us many times. However, in the midst of her incredibly busy schedule in her role as a Dean that she puts her whole heart and soul into, she had little time to focus on it. Jenna called us one day and said… ok, we are just going to do this. We are going to get the ball rolling and make this happen!
Weeks later… and an incredibly heart warming journey later, we could not be more excited to share with you, More Than October. The site is designed to share Dean Badal’s story, where early detection saved her life, and inspire women to take action for their own health. She has started a movement to get at least 1,000 women to sign the pledge to do a self-check or schedule a mammogram. This can save your life! Seriously, the statistics are real. 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer over her lifetime. Please don’t hide from it. Take action for your health… your friends and family will appreciate it more than you know! Please go take action, sign the pledge, and send the message to all of the AMAZING women in your life to do the same.
We are beyond proud of Dean Badal (who might be one of the most private people we know) for sharing her story in hopes that it can inspire people to take action. It is not easy to put yourself out there, and she did. This life is so much bigger than ourselves, and Dean Badal has given us another example of just that! I am moved to tears knowing how blessed we are to have Dean Badal in our lives and to have the opportunity to help her make this project happen! Dean Badal… thank you for being YOU, for believing in us, for challenging us, for teaching us life lessons every single day, for using your “gifts” to impact the world around us, for clicking publish on your site! ;), and for always being an inspiring example of how to live this AMAZING life! We LOVE you Dean Badal!