If you have been active in the blog world, facebook or twitter over the last couple weeks, no doubt you have heard about Ashley of Lil Blue Boo and her fight against a nasty cancer caused by a molar pregnancy. Or perhaps you saw the very heart touching and massively circulated “Rite of Passage” video of Ashley shaving her head after she started losing so much of her hair.

Haven’t heard of her? Didn’t see the video? Well let me introduce you….

Ashley is a young mom. Just like me. She has a little girl, very close in age to my little boy. She owns a handmade clothing line, just as I do. And she blogs. She blogs lovely heartfelt blogs about life, crafting, DIY projects and her business. She’s beautiful- tall and thin with gorgeous blonde hair and a stunning face. When Ashley and her husband began to work on expanding their family from three to four, their attempt resulted in a miscarriage. To make the miscarriage even more heartbreaking, it happened just a few weeks after her father suddenly passed away.  But she was brave and in October, 2011, they tried to get pregnant again. However this time, she had even worse luck. Her pregnancy was a continuation of her first pregnancy, a molar pregnancy, which resulted in a form of cancer called Choriocarcinoma. 

Unfortunately, this form of cancer grows very rapidly, and in her case, it was spreading. She had to have the cancer removed, and fast. As if things could even get any worse, while she was on the operating table to remove the cancer, she started hemmoraging and almost died. The only way the Doctor could save her was to do an emergency hysterectomy…killing her chances to have more children. And still leaving her with the cancer in her body to fight.

I don’t know about you, but this story gets right to my heart. Because it could be ME. It could be you. It could be any of us. And I have to be honest and say, it’s more than what I think I could ever bear.

But you have to know Ashley. When her father died, she found a slip of paper on his desk proclaiming “Choose Joy”, and that’s what she and her family chose to do in the wake of his death. She held onto the saying during her first miscarriage…and she screams it just as loudly now during this fight for her life. She chooses joy. Don’t believe her? Just read her blog. You will be amazed at how she is willing throw discouragement to the wind and forge ahead with a smile on her face. It’s beyond touching. It’s inspiring. I encourage you to watch that Rite of Passage Video. You’ll see what I mean. But don’t say I didn’t warn you- you will cry. {click on the picture and it will take you to the video}

Although she rarely mentions it on her blog, you and I both know that cancer is expensive. Very expensive. Even if you have insurance, not everything is covered and treatments that might be necessary can add up very quickly. Ashley has recently learned that her cancer seems to be chemo-resistant at the moment, which means her family is exploring everything they can to try to cure this cancer…which at this time means a more aggressive form of Chemotheraphy. These types of treatments can add up and suck the life out of you. Literally. Ashley is so positive and upbeat, so she would never talk about this, but on top of worrying about bills, I am sure she also worries from time to time about her business. Trying to keep things running smoothly {with the help of her amazing assistant Lisa, of course! }, and making sure that all her employee’s salaries are met, the clothing gets produced and everything continues just like normal can’t be easy.

You can imagine how much this all must weigh on her.

Luckily for Ashley, she has a very close group of friends who are working super hard to help. They were sweet enough to welcome me into their circle to work side by side with them to raise some money for Ashely and her family so she could do everything possible to fight this cancer. They are an amazing group of ladies. We call ourselves “Team Ashley”, and….

WE HOPE TO RAISE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF FUNDS FOR ASHLEY’S FAMILY.

Wouldn’t be great for Ashley to have a little money set aside for those bills and maybe even give her a month or two off from her online shop so she could focus on getting better 100%? Team Ashley is hoping to do just that.

To Ashley’s surprise and astonishment, we decided to put together a two day auction to take place on February 27- 29. The team has gathered donations, many of them one of a kind, from some some very generous vendors- almost 70 of them and still counting. The items up for auction are AMAZING. Seriously, amazing. We’re pretty sure you will agree and we hope to raise an epic amount of money for Ashley during this event.

But we need you. Can you help? We need the word spread about this auction. We want to bombard every blog, facebook and twitter page with awareness of this event. How? By talking about it. A lot. Can you do this? If so, just grab the button over on my sidebar {or copy photo to put in facebook and twitter} and start talking. Start yelling!! Many of you have a large amount of blog, facebook, and twitter followers….could you promote this auction? Daily if possible?

Lastly, we understand that many people do not have the time, interest and/or patience to participate in auctions. Or maybe you don’t want to wait until February to do something for Ashley. We’ve made it really simple for you help. Over on my sidebar under the Team Ashley logo is a donate button which is linked directly to Ashley’s donation account. Feel free to give whatever amount you like; $5, $10…anything would work. Even your “little bit” can be combined with someone else’s “little bit” and turn into something huge for Ashley.

Thank you so much friends, for being so kind and supportive. I can’t imagine there isn’t anyone who isn’t touched by Ashley’s story after reading it. Even if you can’t donate financially- your love, prayers and kind thoughts towards this family will mean the world to them. Thank you again. God bless you all.

Amy and Team Ashley xoxo

We are no longer accepting donations for this auction, thank you for all your interest! For more info please read HERE. This auction has been approved by Ashley Hackshaw, Lisa Walker and the rest of the Lil Blue Boo team and is the official donation/auction deemed to raise funds for the Hackshaw family.