Sunflowers!

Kathi LOVES sunflowers.  Just seeing them makes her heart happy.  So when we started talking about logos and visuals for her foundation, the sunflower naturally came to mind.  We wanted to have the IH ribbon as well, since this is an IH-specific foundation, so combining the two was sort of a no-brainer.  Pardon the pun.  Kathi sketched the idea as soon as we got home from the Patient Advocacy Summit, colored it in, et voila!  Her logo was born!

Sunflowers traditionally follow the movement of the sun across the sky.  If you drive/walk/ride by a sunflower field, stop by a few times throughout the day.  You'll see that their flower "faces" turn toward the sun.  They start out facing one direction at the beginning of the day and end up facing the other direction by the end of the day.  Wherever the sun is, that's where they're "looking".  It's so cool!  Kathi's the same way.  She follows the sun.  No matter what's going on in her life, she looks toward the bright side of things.  Even when she's in incredible pain or nausea, she finds a reason to smile.  Nothing brings this girl down! 

If you're Christian, the sunflower analogy has an added meaning: that of following the Son.  We are Catholic Christians.  We follow the Son of God in all things.  Like the sunflowers, we keep our faces turned toward the Light and keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus.  This has helped us to keep an attitude of hope throughout the past almost-three years, and has given meaning to Kathi's suffering.  She offers up her pain and discomfort for people in need of prayer.  This way, her suffering is redemptive.  It has purpose.  She has purpose.  Faith is a beautiful gift, and keeping our eyes on the Son is the best way we've found to live with the challenges that IH has brought into our lives.

So....... sunflowers everywhere!  :)

~ Pia