Tomorrow Colitis Ninja turns 9-years-old. A lot has happened since I first drew that little Ninja… I’ve traveled and blogged. I’ve spoken out for patients and created a lot of content. I had a baby and made so many new friends. I never expected for my blog to be where it is today.
For 9 years I’ve been involved in the IBD community and done what I can to help patients understand their diseases better. Many of you who have been reading my blog know that I’ve been working on a Graphic Novel (and have been for the past 7 or so years). I had expected to finish it within a year… and then life threw me a curve ball–I got pregnant with my daughter. My whole world changed. Instead of being consumed with how I can help the IBD community and what I can do to improve it and be a light in it, my daughter became my prime focus. And that’s where I am today… she’s 5 now, but she’s still my number one responsibility. I absolutely LOVE being a wife and mother. I’ve had to put so many plans I had for advocacy on hold. But I’m still here.
Back when I first started blogging I connected with a yound lady named Victoria. We hit it off instantly. Victoria made me feel less alone when I felt that I had no one else to talk to. She was the first one who I truly felt understood what I was going through. We were both involved in the #GetYourBellyOut campaign 9 years ago… she moreso than I was. She has a heart and a passion for the IBD community… one that is to be admired and emulated. Victoria has brought so much to our community and supported
its members fiercely.
This week I’ve had some extremely frustrating moments. For several days I’ve been running around crying lots of ugly tears because of a software snafu that turned into a software and hardware snafu. Guts of Fury was in danger of being lost. I thought I was going to have to completely start from scratch a second time (thanks a lot, Adobe!). Well… I wasn’t going to stand for that. I’d been baking a lot lately for people in my local community who discovered that I’m actually a decent baker (I discovered that baking is something that helps me relax when I’m stressed!). People have been buying several of my baked goods over these last few weeks… so, with the threat of losing my life’s work, I decided to start pushing my baked goods even more to raise money to help save my project.
Fast forward to this afternoon. I expressed my fears online… as so many of us often do when we’re desperate. I was contacted by my friend Victoria. She asked me flat out, “how much do you need?” I explained that it wasn’t a simple solution and the more I thought about it, the more expensive it was going to be. I told her that right now I just needed to buy some time until I got it all figured out. She didn’t hesitate one minute. She gave me what I needed so that I could save my files, export them and try to find another software option.
I have until the fall to raise some more money to buy a new computer and a couple of other hardware components to keep the project going. And I am confident that it will work out. I’m so grateful that I have people like Victoria in my life. I was ready to just scrap everything… because I felt like I had
no other feasible options. Thank you, Victoria… it means more to me than you realize.
Another person I’d like to thank is my husband who has been supportive as well. He’s been my rock and encouraged me to not give up when all the software stuff started crashing down around me and I cried my eyes out thinking I was losing my life’s work.
Then there’s Dr Peter Higgins… he’s the one who encouraged me to start the whole project in the beginning and sought to help me get funding way back when. Thank you Dr Higgins… the project may have slowed way, way down… and there are SO many things that have nearly killed it… but it’s still going and one of these days it will be completed.
Finally, I want to thank all of you for always being patient with me even though I have not been a consistent advocate. I think about you more often than you realize. Please enjoy a few of the illustrations from Guts of Fury that I’ve included in this post as a token of my appreciation for your continued support. I love ya’ll. God bless and keep all of you.
