Happy Mother’s Day: Winner

As I wrote this post and awaited the nom­i­na­tions, I never once imag­ined it would be so dif­fi­cult to choose the win­ner. Each new email I opened, I felt I con­nected in some way and could see how she would be the per­fect woman to receive the gift. Each one ABSOLUTELY exhib­ited gifts of self­less­ness, ded­i­ca­tion, and love for their fam­i­lies. So I stopped wor­ry­ing and I said a lit­tle prayer, “Dear Lord, I know that you know the per­fect woman who deserves this give­away. Please guide me to the woman who You would like to bless with this gift.” Because of this sim­ple prayer, I can say with peace that I know I have cho­sen the woman who was meant to receive this spe­cial give­away. I won’t make you wait any longer.

The win­ner of the Mother’s Day give­away is Holly Bendz who was nom­i­nated by Trisha Joy DeGuzman.

Here are Trisha’s words to me about her dear friend.

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I would like to nom­i­nate Holly Bendz for this spe­cial Mother’s Day give-away.  I met Holly a cou­ple of years ago, August 2007, when her daugh­ter, Maggie-Faye, started at my child care cen­ter.  Holly and her hus­band, Bob, came by for a tour of the cen­ter and to ask some ques­tions.  They weren’t sure if they wanted to accept the space for their daugh­ter.  At that time, Maggie-Faye was about to turn 1.  I had the oppor­tu­nity to sit down with Holly, Bob and Maggie-Faye and got to know them more.  The first thing Holly shared with me was that Maggie-Faye has Cys­tic Fibro­sis (CF) which 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.

When I heard that I was in total shock as to why they’d want to put Maggie-Faye in a group-care set­ting.  Holly said, “You’re prob­a­bly won­der­ing why we would want to put Maggie-Faye in child­care, right?“  She was right.  Maggie-Faye’s doc­tor gave her the okay to start child­care.  Holly wanted to meet with the teach­ers who would be car­ing for her child before Maggie-Faye started.  I hap­pened to be walk­ing by when the Bendz fam­ily was tak­ing their tour.  Look­ing back, I know God was working.

When Holly and Bob found out they were preg­nant they went to their first pre­na­tal visit.  Being of Euro­pean descent they were asked if they wanted to be tested to see if they were car­ri­ers of CF. They hap­pened to be one in ten mil­lion symp­tom­less car­ri­ers of CF.  They had a 25 per­cent chance of hav­ing a child with CF.  Soon after, they found out they were hav­ing a girl and that she would have CF.  Holly could have given up and become angry with her­self, with God, with any­one.  Instead, she reached out to the CF com­mu­nity.  She reached out to fam­i­lies who have chil­dren with CF as well as adults with CF.  Holly became proac­tive in find­ing out more about CF and how she can help her baby girl.  Doc­tors at Lucille Packard’s Children’s Hos­pi­tal on the cam­pus of Stan­ford shared the same wants of Holly.  They wanted to take an aggres­sive approach in treat­ing Maggie-Faye.  Holly did not waste any time in find­ing ways to help her baby girl.  She is an advo­cate for the Cys­tic Fibro­sis Foun­da­tion.  She works tire­lessly in find­ing a cure for this dis­ease.  The past cou­ple of years have been quite dif­fi­cult for Holly, Bob, and Maggie-Faye, with tough deci­sions regard­ing med­ica­tion.  Holly and the doc­tors have been work­ing hard in aggres­sively treat­ing Maggie-Faye.  Holly is so exhausted, she feels that all she and Bob do is med­icate Maggie-Faye.  They also know that this is help­ing their daugh­ter live life to the fullest.

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As I nar­rowed down my deci­sion, Holly kept com­ing back to my mind for many rea­sons. Good friends of mine, my for­mer youth pas­tor Jay and his wife Sherri, have two chil­dren with CF. I remem­ber when they were diag­nosed. And I remem­ber the pain, uncer­tainty, and anger that fol­lowed. I can totally relate to the 25% chance of get­ting CF. Our church spent count­less hours pray­ing that their third child would not be a part of that 25%. But, our prayers were not answered accord­ing to our desires. I am also famil­iar with the treat­ments and the med­ica­tion that Holly is deal­ing with; it is very intense, time con­sum­ing and dif­fi­cult for the entire fam­ily. As these mem­o­ries filled my heart, I knew that Holly was the woman to receive our giveaway.

Holly, thank you for your exam­ple to all of us to be self­less and lov­ing in the midst of dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances. I com­mend you for tak­ing heart­break­ing news and turn­ing it into ser­vice for an entire com­mu­nity who is deal­ing with the same unfor­tu­nate cir­cum­stances. Your advo­cacy for your daugh­ter speaks vol­umes of your love and ded­i­ca­tion as a mother. We are hon­ored to bless your fam­ily with this gift and we look for­ward to meet­ing you, Bob, and your adorable Maggie-Faye.

~Can­dace

P.S. As a thank you for nom­i­nat­ing Holly, Trisha, you have the choice of a $15 gift card to Star­bucks or iTunes. Email me your preference!