a great cause

I feel compelled to write this post because my heart feels heavy. See, last year whenever I started blogging, one of the very first blogs I fell in love with was Shawni's blog, 71 Toes. As soon as I discovered it, I took the time and read every single one of her posts (and she's been blogging since 2007!) Let me tell you a little more about this family and why I love reading about them so much.

Shawni and her husband, Dave, have 5 kids together, Max, Elle, Grace, Claire, and Lucy.

via

So, why am I so addicted to this blog/family? Well, for one thing, Shawni is an excellent photographer. To be honest, her passion for photography has lit my fire for taking pictures as well.

But, another thing that drew me to their family was their story about their daughter Lucy.

Lucy has a rare syndrome called Bardet Biedl syndrome. It only affects a extremely small percentage of people in the United States. Here is what Shawni said about the syndrome:

"Lucy has a syndrome called "Bardet-Biedl." It's extremely rare, and we are just coming to grips with the fact that we can't go in and sit down with the geneticist and get a concrete run-down of all the things that will change in life. It's different for every child. But most of the children diagnosed have health problems, are overweight all their lives, and the most heartbreaking thing for us is that the majority of these kids lose their vision. Most of them become legally blind by the time they are teenagers, sometimes as early as age eight or nine."


Lucy is slowly losing her vision. This breaks my heart because this family is the sweetest family, and Lucy is adorable. However, there is the hope that the Foundation Fighting Blindness will find a cure before Lucy loses her vision forever.

This Saturday (March 31st) is the Annual Vision Walk to help raise money for the cause. It is in Arizona, so obviously I cannot attend, but if any of you that live in the AZ area are willing to walk for an excellent cause, you should definitely check it out.

Also, for those of us that do not live in the area, there is the option to donate money to this organization online. No amount is too small, and anything will help.

Here's the link to Shawni's team page where you can make a donation:
http://www.fightblindness.org/site/TR/VISIONWALK/VisionWalktr?px=2096622&pg=personal&fr_id=4440

Go check out 71toes for yourself and learn more about Shawni's family and Lucy. You won't be disappointed.