Joining the Sherman Army | THE FAVOR
I’ve been writing this in my mind for a good few months now – ever since I got involved. This is difficult for me to write because, well, how do you begin to write about something that has taught you so much in such a short period of time. Sometimes there are just no words adequate enough to describe a lesson so powerful and strong – but I will give it my best shot. Here is how we came about joining the Sherman Army.
Sit back, relax. This is going to be a little bit longer – In a hurry – skip ahead to the video, but I hope you don’t. I hope you’ll read this.
Maybe, just maybe it will help you too.
Joining the Sherman Army in the Beginning
I mean how do you even begin to write the story of someone who is so full of life, love, and happiness, yet so seemingly close to death, {though you’d never know it}?
I’ve had the opportunity to meet & become friends with one of the most amazing families out there. The Shermans.
Haven’t heard their story? – Keep reading!
If you have, still, keep reading – it’s a good one, I promise.
And heaven knows, we could use a little more good in the world.
Mandie Sherman was born with Cystic Fibrosis or CF. Not sure what that is? Guess what, neither was I.
So I googled. I read. I asked.
The more I read and learned – the more my heart sank. Top that off with some mega-huge pregnancy hormones & you’ve got a pretty good image.
By dictionary definition {or Wikipedia}:
Cystic Fibrosis is “a genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include: difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. Other signs and symptoms may include sinus infections, poor growth, fatty stool, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and infertility in some males. Different people may have different degrees of symptoms.”
Sounds bad? Not too bad?
I’ll let you be your own judge.
Me, having no real experience with diseases or genetic disorders, thought, well, she probably pops a few pills, maybe gets a transplant down the road if needed- no big deal, right?!
WRONG! Oh, how wrong and naive I was. Seriously, I think we should all be required to study up on genetic disorders and diseases – maybe not all of them as there are probably thousands, but at least enough that we gain some type of understanding as to what they really mean and entail.
What Wikipedia DOES NOT explain is the “real-life” behind the disease.
We {The Griffins} met Mandie {and Ric and Hawke – The Shermans} at a bbq/pizza party for Brandon’s {and Ric’s} dental school class. It was a super brief meeting & that was the end, really. No discussion of anything of real importance.
You know just one of those – “hey this is…”, “Nice to meet you” type meetings.
One thing you may or may not know about me {Camille}, is I am not shy or scared to meet people, and yet, I’m scared to meet people. That doesn’t even make sense. But in short, it takes me a while to really get to know someone.
I’m not one of those “instant friend” types. At least I don’t feel that way. Very, very few people have I felt that “click” or “friend at first sight” – is that even a thing?! And if you have this skill, wanna teach me {wink!}?
Fast forward over a year. Another friend, Lindsay, called me and asked if I would be willing to take some photos for another fellow dental family {the Shermans} for a fundraiser – they were selling t-shirts & they wanted me to get some product/family photos of the Shermans in their tee’s. She proceeded to tell me a little about Mandie and how she had CF. She told me how selling the t-shirts would be a fundraiser for the Sherman family. At this point I was still so far in the dark as to what CF was/is.
But being in dental school {I say that like I’m the one in school – nope, just Brandon}, nobody has much money, & your friends/neighbors truly become your family. If there is a good way to describe the school here, it would be the, “It takes a Village” concept. We have a village here and it’s a mighty good one. Everyone {or I should say, most everyone} is so willing to lend a hand. In fact, I could do an entire post just about this.
But, all I knew about this cute family was that Brandon thought Ric was a nice guy {pretty sure his exact words were somewhere along the lines of “yeah, he’s a nice guy, he’s cool”.}, And all I really remembered about meeting Mandie was, she super sweet with a cute little babe. So I figured – hey, I could use the photo practice. I don’t mind taking pictures & I don’t mind helping a fellow dental family out. It’s just doing my part in our small little village we’ve created. Sure – I’d be glad to take some photos.
Photography Disclaimer
I only had one disclaimer for them – “I am not a professional photographer – so you get what you get. I’ll do my best, but I’m not guaranteeing any results.” I kind of just laughed it off – but was a little terrified. They were going off of my skills by my Instagram pictures @lifeasagriffin. And I’ll be honest – I feel pretty good about those, but what a lot of people don’t realize about Instagram is – it could take a zillion shots to get an “Instagram-feed-worthy” photo when you’re a lifestyle influencer. In other words, because I make money through Instagram, I’m very, VERY picky about which photos I post, and it could literally take a camera roll for each photo on the feed.
Fast forward a few months to picture day – I’m not going to lie, I was nervous. And to be brutally honest, at this point, not super excited about the whole shindig. Of course, I was willing to help & usually I LOVE to help if I can. Let me just preface the conditions so you can see what was going on in my shallow mind at this time.
It was mid summer {so what, right?!}, well, in Arizona that means it’s usually over 100 degrees {in fact the photo day was in the same week that they grounded some airplanes at the airport because of the intense heat}. The day scheduled for the shoot was HOT! Miserably hot, and at this point I was pregnant. My pregnancy wasn’t going well – and I was sick – ALL DAY. EVERY DAY. And I didn’t feel as if my skills were “good enough” for what they wanted.
So combine the heat, the pregnancy, and the hormones, the insecurities, the nerves, and you’ve got one big wreck – me!
But to me it’s very important to keep my word. They were counting on me, and I figured it still was really good practice, even if I was uncomfortable for a few hours. They didn’t need to use the photos if they ended up not liking them. They could always reshoot with another photographer. And again, the village thought crossed my mind.
So I sucked it up. I charged the camera batteries, grabbed a cold water bottle, and headed towards our meeting spot to perform my favor.
Here is where, as cliche as it might sound, my life forever & completely changed. Laugh if you must, but it’s true.
This time I met Mandie {more on a “professional” {ha!} level than on a friend level – again remember how I told you about my making friend skills – they could use work}.
Behind the lens, I watched Mandie interact with her family. The amount of love radiating from her is hard to describe – in fact, I won’t be able to do it justice.
You know those people that you just know are good to the core?! This is Mandie. She is the definition of all things good, happy, and filled with love.
I didn’t know her well, and I didn’t know all of her story, and yet, here I was taking pictures for her – watching her play with her baby, Hawke, and watching her love for her husband, Ric, just pour out. It was narrowing down to the end of the shoot, and as they were eating popsicles – I knew {I JUST KNEW!} that I needed to:
1. Get to know this family more, and
2. Find out more about this cause that I was helping with {shhh… I know that’s embarrassing, but the questions & in-depth googling hadn’t happened – yet}
I left the photo shoot – confident I had a few decent shots of this beautiful family & set myself up for a night of editing. That night turned into a mix of googling, editing, and stalking Mandie’s blog, The Sherman Army.
I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed, actually doesn’t even cut it, with what this family is going through.
Yet, how in the H-E-double hockey sticks, were they happy, and not just happy, but so full of life?!
I would’ve NEVER in a million, bazillion years have guessed that anything was ‘going on’ in their life.
I had the most eye-opening experience.
Forget my undone laundry, forget the fact that Tylee might’ve done something so insignificant the day before that just pushed me over the edge & I lost my cool. Forget the fact that I felt so far behind in almost every aspect of life, I mean what kind of problems are those.
This beautiful family was going through something that I couldn’t even begin to wrap my brain around. Words like terminal & life-expectancy jumped out of the screen.
Mandie was sick. So sick that it’s terminal. Google that word – here’s your result:
“Predicted to lead to death, especially slowly; incurable.”
Life expectancy: 36-37 years.
Mandie was just about to turn 28 – you do the math.
My mind stopped. Pretty sure I sat on the floor and cried for a good 15 minutes {give or take} – or more like hid from my husband and cried. Good thing he was asleep.
I felt so sick. Sick for the Shermans. Sick for the fact that I thought that I had “problems”. Sick for their baby. Sick for their future. I’m sure Mandie herself has gone through these same emotions and then some, but on a 10-times larger scale than mine.
I couldn’t even imagine. I can’t even imagine.
And then I read this excerpt from her blog:
“The life expectancy is 36 years… Hawke will only been ten by then.” I have to make it longer than that. I want to be at his sports games, high school graduation, wedding day. I want to be there. I, I, I. Me. His Mom. I NEED to be there. I want to be Hawke’s mom forever. I want to be Hawke’s only mom.”
This is where I lost it. Completely lost it! I had two beautiful children asleep in their beds, and while I sat on the floor in front of my computer, my eyes welling up with tears, I felt the tiny flutters of our third miracle inside.
How is this fair? How. Is. This. Fair?
As I sat there with all these feels for their family it dawned on me.
The Shermans were happy. They were strong – stronger by far than me, especially in that moment. Sure, they have their moments of absolute fear – who wouldn’t in their situation, but they were happy. A true raw happy! The kind of happy that not everyone finds during their lifetime.
They were living life to its fullest & they weren’t letting this condition stop them. They were making a beautiful life. And that little boy of theirs had received the best parents he could’ve ever wished for. Mandie was fighting, Ric was fighting, Hawke {only two years old} was fighting. And so far they are kicking CF’s trash.
Fast forward again a few months. I was able to shoot for this family again. This time my attitude was completely different, even though the nerves still floated around. I just wanted to capture this day perfectly for them. It was Mandie’s 28th birthday party – which was also a TEE Party. In celebration of Mandie turning 28, an army got together to wear their Sherman Army T-shirts & celebrate the life that Mandie has and is living. These t-shirts were bought by hundreds of family & friends to rally around the Shermans with love and support.
It’s pretty awe-inspiring to see how people can band together for those that they love.
I think as mothers we all have our insecurities & fears. We all feel them in different ways. That’s why we need to band together in motherhood and create a village – create an army! Joining the Sherman Army!!
It has been my absolute pleasure to donate my time and the skills that I have for such a great cause. I love the Sherman family and I am so glad that the Griffins get to be a part of their army.
Like I mentioned, I have learned so much in such a short time.
I’ve learned that conditions & labels don’t define you. I’ve learned that you might lose a fight, but you can win the battle. I’ve learned that you can be happy, a true happy, no matter what or where, how or when. The Sherman family is living proof of this. I’ve learned that there is a time, place, & purpose for everything – even if we might not understand it fully. I’ve also learned that God puts people in your life for a reason. As for the Shermans…
They will, without a doubt, CONQUER ALL.
Thank you Mandie. Thank you Ric. Thank you Hawke. Thanks for teaching more in these past few months than I’ve possibly ever learned before. It isn’t I who gave a favor. You gave me one. And I will never be able to thank you enough.
Also thanks to all who belong in the Sherman Army. Your love is felt!
If you would like to participate in joining the Sherman Army, please do so. You can order a t-shirt here.
All profits goes to supporting the Sherman family & fighting their battle, and joining the Sherman Army.
Please send us your photos wearing your shirts! We’d love to see how far & wide this army is spreading.
Remember life is a ferris wheel, full of ups & downs, enjoy the ride!
XOXO,
Camille
P.S. – If you’d like to know more about Mandie and her CF journey, visit her blog.
Food for thought to anyone reading this: Make your judgements stop because you never know what people are going through. Everyone is fighting a battle and could use an army. We are so proud of joining the Sherman Army.
Head over here if you want to learn more about the Griffin Family.