ALS: Kimmy's Ladybugs

I never even knew what ALS was until a few years ago. These three letters have taken on a whole new meaning as I have watched someone that I love suffer after being told that they had ALS. My good friend, Kimberly Mcspadden, was suffering in the beginning stages of this disease while we were serving as companions together in the MTC. She didn't know what it was but there were obvious complications to her health and as a result her mission call wash changed from Spain to New Jersey. She was only able to serve for 7 months before her health was too unstable. She went home and her diagnosis of ALS began to slowly unfold. Interestingly enough, she is one of the youngest people ever diagnosed with this disease. What is ALS? Kimmy explains it well on her myspace page....here is an exerpt.

"I was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) in 2002. It's a neuromuscular disease that usually strikes older men, obviously not quite so in my case. What happens is the muscles stop regenerating, getting smaller and smaller until they become useless and paralyzed. All voluntary muscles are affected, causing the loss of speech and movement, choking (from lack of control over the throat), and lung weakness (which is the worst, contributing the most to death). ALS is 100% fatal and as of yet they have not found a cure or any treatments. I am living proof that ALS can strike anyone, no matter your age or gender.

I have seen Kim's body change and become weaker over the last few years. This has been very sad for me and I have had many questions come into my mind about mortality and our true purpose for being on this earth. What is each of our true missions? Will we be able to accept the will of the Lord when faced with adversity? Kimmy has been such an example to me. I feel so privileged to have been able to serve as her companion during our time as missionaries. She has lived far longer than the doctors EVER expected. I really feel that one of the reasons is so that people can learn from her and her faith. She has been a true missionary to all of the people who network with her. She has also become a great activist for raising funds for ALS and stem cell research. I think that she has truly made the best out of a very hard situation. Many people would choose to be angry and feel sorry for themselves....not Kim! She says that she is thankful for her illness now. Because of her illness her body has become weak but her spirit has become steel. She has grown spiritually in ways that she feels she never would have had she not gotten sick. She believes that this illness helped her become the person that she needs to be in order to be able to be prepared to meet her Heavenly Father some day.

I am blogging about this today because the Annual ALS Association South Texas Chapter's Walk to D'feet ALS is on October 27th. Kimmy has been trying to spread ALS awareness for months now and she has organized a fun weekend in Texas for all those people who will be going to walk and "roll" with her. Check out her myspace accounts if you want to learn more able ALS or my amazing friend Kimberly Mcspadden. ¡La Quiero Mucho Hermanita!