In this weeks article for the CF Mini Series, I asked my Mom to write what she would have wanted to read the day I was diagnosed. The following article is written by my Mom, the woman who made me who I am today.

7,534 days ago, my beautiful baby daughter, Abby, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. The only thing I knew of CF before that day was a “60 Minutes” segment I had seen almost two decades earlier, when I was 13, that told the story of a dying 13-year-old boy with CF- at that time, 13 was the average lifespan. 7,534 days ago I was stunned, painfully numb, unable to breathe in or out, and terrified to look into her eyes for fear that my heart would just stop beating.

I felt powerless, victimized, angry and desperately sad- terrified that I would not be capable as a mother.

7,533 days ago, when I woke up the next morning with Abby tucked close in my arms, she was quietly and peacefully looking right into my eyes. Her indomitable spirit, love, and faith in me beamed from her blue eyes. Her gaze that morning empowered me to just breathe, to take each day with the joy and victories that exponentially surpass the fear.

Days, weeks, and months in the hospital during those 7,533 days have been some of the happiest, strongest days of my life and hers. 1980s movies, reality shows, coffee drinks and side-splitting laughter emerging from her room have been the scene on nearly every day we have shared there, as she showed me how to be a brave warrior. The isolation that Cystic Fibrosis often dictates in yellow gowned, masked environments or in our homes strewn with medical equipment and medicine, become opportunities to step up, just breathe, and overcome.

One of my favorite memories of my warrior girl is when she was 6 years old and lay in the recovery room after a procedure that had some bad news results. We were trying to wake her from the procedure, calling her name, holding her hand, asking if she would open her eyes- It seemed like forever that she didn’t respond. I tearfully said, “Can you get up and shake your booty for me?” With her eyes still closed, and a sweet smile on her face, she shook her booty and boogied her arms too! That indomitable spirit of hers includes an impeccable sense of humor (like her mom’s).

Now, 7,533 days after those blue eyes worked some kind of “Freaky Friday” magic and intertwined her spirit with mine, I see a woman, my daughter, nearly 21 years old as the strongest woman I have ever known.

Now, 7,534 days after I sat breathless and powerless in fear of Cystic Fibrosis, groundbreaking Great Strides;) have been made in medicines and therapies that have improved her life and tens of thousands of others with CF. Clinical trials for a CURE for CF are more than promising, fast becoming a reality that CF may be cured within the next few years.

It is common for parents of children who are ill to feel powerless and say, “I would take it for her/him if I could” or “I wish it were me”- I have felt that way. But now that I have been blessed with each day with Abby, I realize that those are wasted thoughts and words. Those sentiments feed into feeling weak - we can not take their illness from them- we can not give our lives to save theirs. What we can do is look into their eyes, just breathe, and know to love our hardest and our best through their battles that ultimately empower them -and watch them be victorious in challenges that we can never dream of handling as bravely as our warriors do. We can learn from them how to wake up each day and know that this could be the day that Cystic Fibrosis is beaten, by all of us.

Co-Writer: Jennifer Merritt