*This little light of mine*: Great Strides walk for CF & Doggy Adventures

This morning, though I'm still not feeling 100% (back/neck wise) I went out to the local CF Great Strides walk. For those of you that don't know, CF stands for Cystic Fibrosis. What is CF exactly?

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:

clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and
obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, advances in research and medical treatments have further enhanced and extended life for children and adults with CF. Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond.

This cause is near and dear to me as three out of four of my Youth Pastor's precious children have this disease.

The event was a huge success this morning, breaking all kinds of records for our local walk. We had the most teams, the most amount of people in attendance, and the most amount raised. Over $17,000 was raised, and that number may very well climb to $20,000 with all the donations that came in AT the actual event. The team from my church had the most participants, over 50. Go us! :) We had these adorable shirts made.

Front

Back

You all know I adore butterflies, and they had a release this morning so that was awesome. I snapped this picture of one after it landed. I am not sure how I feel about releases because a lot of times they are at crowded events and these fragile creatures get crushed by walkers, etc. :(

I also got to love on quite a few adorable doggies that people had brought with them. One of my favorites was of course, this Italian Greyhound named Allie. What a sweet baby. I am partial because my Chico is an IG mix.

Yup, that's a bag of chips from Jimmy John's

When I came home I decided to give Chico one of his new toys (I buy new toys in BULK at IKEA) that I had stashed away. I buy his toys in the kid section at IKEA, they are perfect for dogs as well because they don't have anything the dog could choke on, like eyeballs, noses, etc. Everything is just sewn on. And the best part is they are usually about $.49 CENTS. Hello!