This is Whitney...a young woman of amazing faith!
This is the last week of the Random Act of Kindness posts that I've been trying to do. And honey child, this one just fell in my lap. I'm linking up with Betsy of My Five Men for this adventure.
Wednesday, I got a phone call from the Ellen DeGeneres Show. I nearly flipped! It was actually a voice mail and when I heard it, I started shaking.
The young lady introduced herself in a chirpy, sweet young voice....she said, "Hi, this is Courtney from the Ellen DeGeneres Show and I'm looking for Whitney. Did I find her?". She went on to ask if I would return her call and gave me her number.
Well, naturally, I thought she was looking for my daughter, Whitney. So, I immediately called my daughter and asked if she had been in touch with the Ellen DeGeneres Show. I was thinking maybe she had entered some sort of contest. But she said, "No, and this girl, Courtney, just called me, too. She was looking for a Whitney that has been diagnosed with cancer". "Oh", I said, "I know her or at least I know of her". "I need to go call Courtney back and tell her that I know who she's looking for".
So, ding dong me calls Courtney and got her voice mail. I go about bumbling through a message to her. I told her that I knew the girl she was looking for and that if she would call me back that I would, in the meantime, try to find Whitney's phone number for her. I started to give her my cell phone number and nothing.....I couldn't remember it to save my life. So I paused and tried again. Still, nothing! So by this time, I'm guessing Courtney thinks I'm some sort of a whack job. So, I apologized and gave the excuse that I never call my cell phone and couldn't remember the number and asked that she just call my home phone, the one she called earlier.
This is where my random act of kindness comes in to play. I went about trying to help this girl locate Whitney. Now, I only just recently learned of Whitney, so I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to try to obtain a phone number for her. But first, let me tell you a little bit about Whitney.
Whitney is a young mother of two. She is only 27 years old and she was recently diagnosed with cancer. Her prognosis.....months to live without chemo and maybe 5 years with chemo. One of my friends on Facebook commented on a post that Whitney had written and that's how I came to know about her. Whitney has actually started a blog to document her journey with cancer and her amazing faith. So, I went to her blog and read all the posts. I was blown away by her faith and outlook on life and how she was dealing with this terrible news. She is determined to live for her children so that she can one day know her grandchildren. So of course, I had to comment. I told her that I was unsure at first who she was, but that there was no doubt. She had to be the daughter of a girl I knew in high school because she looked just like her mother. Sure enough, her mother was the same girl I knew back in school. I went on to tell her how inspired I was by her faith and gave her the name of a book to read about how another lady had discovered that by eating a vegan diet, she could stop her cancer from growing, which she indeed did. I became a follower of Whitney's blog. Just a couple of days later, Whitney's blog went viral. She was featured on our local news and Yahoo, I believe, picked it up from there. And then her blog really went crazy. She has already had over 140,000 views on her blog. Whitney is an extraordinary young lady. Her faith is unshakeable. Please join me and countless others to lift her in prayer. She desperately wants to live for her children and her family. Whitney has found her calling, she believes, in witnessing to others asking them to also put their faith in God. If you would like to read more about Whitney, visit her blog here.
Now back to the hoops..... I called two of my sisters asking if they knew her number. One sister gave me her parents phone number and the other, texted a friend of hers who happened to be the sister of one of Whitney's aunts. I also contacted a friend from Facebook to ask if she knew the number. I wasn't getting anywhere, fast. So, I sent Whitney a message through Facebook messenger to call me, and that she wasn't going to believe this, but The Ellen Show was trying to reach her. She didn't respond right away. All the waiting for people to respond had me in a nervous tizzy. So, I decided to give Whitney's mom a call. Needless to say, she was surprised to hear that The Ellen Show was trying to find Whitney. She gave me Whitney's number and then I called Courtney back a second time. Got her voice mail and again, I apologized for sounding like a crazy woman. I asked her to please call me back that I had information and a phone number for her and that I really wanted to make sure the call was legit before passing Whitney's number along. I didn't want to give some kind of false claim to Whitney about the Ellen show trying to contact her, if this was a hoax. Courtney never did call back. I was concerned that she might just think I was crazy, but more importantly that Whitney might miss out on whatever opportunity that The Ellen Show would provide her, if it was legit. We all know that Ellen has a good heart and is a big giver. I could only imagine what they would do for Whitney. Finally, a couple of hours later, Whitney called me. I told her what I knew and gave her Courtney's number. I wished her luck.
I've heard from Whitney and she has been in contact with the show. She got the feeling that they were looking for someone with a financial struggle with medical bills. And thank goodness, Whitney has good health insurance. This just speaks further of Whitney's character. She told them she was good in that area, which I'm sure freed them to offer financial help to someone else. So, the Ellen Show won't be featuring anything on Whitney. I sure do wish the best for this sweet girl. I pray she receives the miracle she is looking for. And I do believe God is working in Whitney's life. She is so happy to be able to witness on such a grand scale, but is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, as you can imagine. I was somewhat hesitant about writing about her, so I asked her permission. She told me to feel free to share as much as I would like. We believe the more people that know about her, the more people she will have praying for her. And that is truly a huge blessing.
Jumping hoops Wednesday, trying to help this young girl get in touch with The Ellen Show, to me, is what Random Acts of Kindness is all about. Doing something nice to help someone takes little effort, but the results can be rewarding in more ways than one. Please take any opportunity you can find to do something kind today. You will be blessed. I feel like I have been and I really didn't do anything. Just made a few calls.
Again, please visit Whitney's blog. You won't regret it. And if you wouldn't mind, whisper a prayer for her and her family.
God Bless,
Laurie
