[8:30 PM]

Hello everyone, I'm Sarah, and I'll be helping Nikki for a while.

You know, there are a lot of people who will look at children who have cancer and then look away, because they feel guilty about feeling miserable about their life.

I say don't.

Everyone goes through trials in life. It's a personal thing. These children are cancer survivors. Their parents are surviving a difficult battle as well. I'm an abuse survivor. You are a survivor of your own kind. Everyone who is alive today is a survivor of some kind of trial, even if that trial is still going on. The people who have died have also survived trials. Everyone has them.

I'm thinking that maybe, instead of comparing the trials we go through in life, if everyone can look at and be open about their trials, we can all reach out to each other and draw what we need from each other. These children are all so open and honest about what they go through. They don't pretend to be strong. They don't think "Oh, so and so has it worse so I have no right to complain"

I think there's a bigger message than many people see here. A lot of people see a message like "There is joy in the darkest of times" and "It could be worse"

True, yes, but here is another message

"Reach out. Who knows who you'll help while you're looking for help."

I think all of us, the older we get, forget that we need people and that we're not meant to be alone.

So if you're reading this, and going through a trial, remember that every hardship brings forward different strengths, and you never know who will need those strengths until you've reached out your hand and you never know what you may find unless you try.

One more very important thing we can learn from these beautiful children =)