2010.

Hello, and happy new year! We managed to survive the holidays. This was our second Christmas without our girl. The pain was different this year. In many ways it cut a lot deeper. That first Christmas Hadley had only been gone for 2 weeks. We were still in such shock. Anyway, we survived. She was missed every single minute but, we take great comfort in the fact that she is no longer in pain and with the only being who can love her more perfectly than we can.

First, thank you for your prayers for our marriage. After much reflection and soul searching Brandon and I decided that it is in everyone's best interest for us to give our marriage the chance it deserves to survive. We are working on ourselves as individuals and on our marriage as a couple. We have a lot of work to do, both individually and together but, we are determined to grow closer through this. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time. We both have so much on our plates, emotionally. Parenting our boys and aiding in their grief process, our own grief, personal growth and investing in and repairing our marriage. Exhausting but, like I said, we're determined.

Liam turned 6 on November 17th. Where does the time go. Wasn't Liam JUST 'baby Liam'? *tear* He is doing wonderfully in Kindergarten. He is a good friend and is meeting and surpassing all academic expectations. He was rewarded for displaying the character quality of FAITH this school year. We are so proud of him. He's really growing into quite the little man. A mischievous little man but, a man nonetheless.

Keegan will be 8 in just a few weeks (Jan 18th). Again, I just can't believe it. Sometimes when I'm watching them play I just sit and shake my head because I can't believe how much they've grown. Keegan is doing well at school too. His reading/comprehension scores are well beyond his grade level at 98 words per minute. He is reading chapter books with ease and fast enough that we are going to have to start accessing the library more often, or buy stock in Barnes and Noble. ;) Keegan received the character award for displaying INTEGRITY. Again, we are so proud of him. He is a very kind hearted young man and such a blessing.

Brandon is a coxswain at the station now. This means, basically, that he is in charge of a crew and drives the boats. He is responsible for responding to calls and his crew. He worked hard for quite some time for this. It is also a big step toward his next promotion. I am very proud of all his hard work. He is really enjoying this billet and seems to have found his niche.


As many of you know I've had some health issues recently. On December 4th I had a very simple knee repair surgery. My lateral meniscus was torn and needed to be cleaned up. The surgery went exactly as expected and was successful. A few days after surgery, though, I was in the ER with a lot of pain and swelling in my calf. I was diagnosed with a DVT (deep vein thrombosis or blood clot in a deep vein). I was started on blood thinners (and pain meds) immediately. Over the course of the rest of the month my dose of blood thinners was raised repeatedly but, lab work continues to show that my blood is still at a very high risk of clotting. Late in the month I developed two more DVT's (for a total of 3), this time at the knee and in my thigh. Currently I am on both an oral and subcutaneous injection blood thinners(for those in the medical field I'm up to 9mg/day of coumadin and 240mg/day Lovenox). I am on bed rest to prevent a pulmonary embolism and am at the doctor's office every other day for labs and doctor's visits to monitor and adjust everything. I have been restricted from driving because of the risk involved with my using my leg and the clots there...and also the danger involved with a pulmonary embolism happening while I'm behind the wheel (both to me and my passengers and the cars and pedestrians around me). For whatever reason, despite heavy doses of anticoagulants I am still at a high risk to develop more clots (last pro-time lab was 1.13). Please keep us in your prayers where this is concerned. I would really love to avoid any more clots, any complications with the coumadin and lovenox (meds) and, obviously, a pulmonary embolism would be a real pain too. Please pray for Brandon as he cares for the boys and I. Pray for my doctors as they care for me. Be thankful with us for the graciousness of Brandon's command. I am trying my best to ignore the seriousness of this situation. I just refuse to acknowledge that our family could really be put through anything else...

I'll get some pictures up soon.

Faith, Hope and Love to you all. <3