8:54 PM, PDT
Good evening.
Today was a very busy day. We did all the last minute shopping, and I just finished baking the cupcakes. David didn't want a cake, he wanted cupcakes. And that is perfectly fine. It's his party, and he can have what he wants.
Here is the speech David wrote for his graduation. It is a good speech coming from a 17-year-old. Here goes:
"In the fall of my Freshman year, October of 2007, I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, in my right knee. The doctors found out that it was metastatic, meaning that it had also spread to my lungs. I had chemotherapy for about 4 months. Then in February of 2008, I had surgery to take the tumor out of my knee. They replaced my knee and two-thirds of my femur with a titanium rod. While I was in the hospital, I developed an intussusception, which,for lack of better words, is a condition where the small intestine telescopes in on the large intestine. Left untreated, a person typically will die in 2 to 5 days. The doctors don’t know why I got it, but on day 6 at 1 am on a Sunday morning I had an emergency surgery where they removed over a foot of my intestine and my appendix. I had another month of chemo and at the end of March I had surgery on my right lung to get 9 tumors out. Exactly two weeks later, the day before my birthday, I had surgery on my left lung where they removed 1 more. I spent my 14th birthday in the hospital recovering. I had chemo until that October. I believe God gave me the strength to endure a year of chemo and 11 surgeries over 33 months. In October 2009, a CT scan showed that I had a relapse. I have 2 more tumors in my right lung and 1 in my left. The tumors I have now are stable, so my doctors are just watching them. Beacon Academy of Nevada and its teachers helped me by excusing me from class when I wasn't able to attend because of surgeries and scans. They were understanding of my circumstances, and they helped me any way they could. Being at Beacon Academy and doing school online was a positive experience, because I was able to still attend school despite what I've been through, and they helped me be able to get my diploma. Today is Saturday June 11. 2 days from now on Monday June 13, I will be having surgery number 12 to replace my knee and femur again.
There will be a time in our lives when each one of us will have to face a trial or tribulation. When that time comes, we will have to decide how we handle it. We have a choice - do we fight or do we quit? The choices we make have a large part in how our lives turn out. Quitting is taking the easy way out. Anything worth value is worth fighting for. I didn’t choose to get cancer, but I did choose to fight. I am literally in a fight for my life. My life has value so I wake up everyday and choose to fight. This fight will last the rest of my life because metastatic Osteosarcoma is incurable. When problems face you, what are you going to choose? Are you going to fight? Or are you going to quit? The choice is up to you."
So, that is his speech. I think it is pretty inspirational. Please pray that he is calm when he gives his speech. He is VERY nervous, which is understandable. He doesn't want to give the speech, which is, again, understandable. Please pray for him. Graduation is at 1:00 pdt, so just adjust for your time zone. I don't know what time his speech is, but God does. Thank you for your prayers for him. Thank you for loving him, even if it is across many miles.
Thank you for visiting. Thank you for your prayers. Have a good evening. God bless you all. We love you.
Kristi and the Koury Klan
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." - Eleanor Roosevelt
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