Katie and Rylan get acquainted while Kylie is getting checked out in the nursery. 

Aunt Kristin says hello to Kylie Laura. 

Kylie snoozes in the nursery... 

Rylan meets Grandma Barb. 

Safely arrived.

Chris has safely arrived in Singapore. Saturday Greg and family will arrive safely, I trust, in Singapore for Greg's marathon. Greg has written a great blog about the final 60 hours. Granddaughter Ashley is safely arriving into maturity writing an amazing blog on growing up.

And two little babies have arrived safely into this world. After 29 hours at the hospital, Katie has given birth to son Rylan James, weighing in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. at 12:50 PM today and daughter Kylie Laura, 7 lbs. 3 oz. at 1:07 PM . A C-section was not needed; Katie is feeling good, just really tired. She has been up walking already. (I'm a little tired myself; it was a long night.) I know the prayers of many covered this day.

Denver, Maya and Isaiah have seen pictures of the babies and tomorrow I will be taking them to the hospital for their first meeting. May we all safely arrive at acceptance of what is and still remember to love...

Can you say "nutty"? 

Tis the season...

I feel like writing about my love of Christmas decorations, actually my OCD when it comes to Christmas decorations. The Friday after Thanksgiving, Drew and Pete were wonderful and dragged down all the bins, boxes and bags of Christmas; I counted. 64 in all. That's crazy talk...but it's the truth. Then I spent a little of Friday evening decorating the kitchen and bathroom. (Yes, the bathroom.) And then I spent a joyous Saturday taking down everything off of almost every surface in our house and replacing it with Christmas. Some areas are arranged in themes, some walls have new artwork, the lights all work and everything is twinkly. The only thing I left out this year were the many Christmas stockings over the fireplace. It's just too messy for my brain to deal with...I don't want to not hang Tommy's, the Malaysia Boncimino's won't be here, what about the twins? Do I want to hang Laurie's again with her special "JOY" hook thing? It was just easier not to put any of them up. I'm guessing I will put up grandkids'stockings a few days before Christmas or maybe just the "Jesus" one that usually is the first one in the line up.

So now I can wander around and let my gaze rest on some thirty years of accumulated Christmas goop, and remember and smile. That's okay for now.

Tomorrow is "D" day for Katie's twins. With the health issues, both physical and mental, the marriage breakdown, the ongoing concerns for the whole family, I covet our prayer warriors prayers. He knows the outcome. He created these little ones. Tis a new season...

Table One looks great. Thanks for all your help, Shelly... 

Dr. Isaiah prepares in case anyone gets sick from Grandma's cooking... 

Long standing family tradition of olive fingers... 

The life... 

Is that stomach real? 

Post dinner Chris and Christa relax... 

Da nieces and me... 

Pete and the ever beautiful Kristin... 

Thanksgiving 2006

All the dishes are clean and put away, turkey rice soup made. I need a minute to reflect on the many things I am thankful for and how it was expressed these last few days.

I had a visit from someone who reads the blogs who was in town for a short time in transit between Alaska and Kentucky. Never met this person before but like many other things God knows and we don't, we have now met. Thank you for the cardinal note, my friend. A great visit from Shelly from CO, another friend I did not know before Laurie's death but we now have a unique relationship processing death of a loved one by suicide. Shelly, Katie, the Michel kids and I got to view the new Macy windows downtown on Wednesday and loved it.

And then the day, starting with early rise time to get the 22 pound turkey ready for the oven, all the while having the Thanksgiving Day parade on in the background. Great smells, great smiles as family and friends start to arrive, excellent surprise phone call from Greg and family as they spent their holiday in Thailand. I recognize acutely how much has changed over the last two years but I am still amazed by the faithfulness of a God who does not let go. We are in His grip.

This morning outside Willow Creek Church. Yes, Katie is huge. No, that is not her belly sticking out, it's a layered shirt. 

Denver and Abdullahi discover they are both football fans. 

 

National Survivors of Suicide Day

On Saturday, Nov. 18, AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) will sponsor its eighth annual National Survivors of Suicide Day, reaching out to tens of thousands of people who have lost a loved one to suicide. The day of nationwide conferences will connect survivors through a satellite and Internet broadcast, allowing survivors to share their experiences of loss. To learn more about National Survivor's Day activities, visit www.afsp.org.

Can you tell I cut and pasted this from the website? Right now I am feeling that I am not sure if I want to watch this time. I have registered and I know there will be value. As it stands now, I am taking 7 year old Denver with me tomorrow morning because he has been wanting to go visit the African refugee kids with me. I think I will just see how the day plays out.

Tomorrow Katie and kids will be here, too, as we ship out Ebay stuff Katie has been selling to earn money. See, another good thing I lost weight, lots of oversized clothes to get rid of. There are Barb-alikes all over the place as Katie's been selling to every corner of the US. Katie is getting really big; she is a sight with her ever expanding belly. The babies are over 5 and a half pounds each and according to her doctor, they can be born anytime. If she has not delivered by Nov 29th, she will be induced. As I think of this suicide survivor day, I am grateful once again, Katie is with us. No matter what circumstances, I want a live daughter. It's hard enough living with one gone...

Once again I can only shake my head, take a breath, and believe.

My helpers (?) to make a Rubber Duckie cake for Colleen's shower. 

Almost done.... 

Finished product. 

Thanksgiving 2003, Laurie, Molly and me. Too fun. 

The 15 of us hit the streets of Houston last year at the Thanksgiving Day parade! 

Thankful...

I hope that the readers of this blog read Greg's too. He has so much to say and the new life they are creating in Malaysia is fascinating, scary, and a huge adventure. I so admire the way Greg and Cheryl and the girls have made this leap of faith. I think I am too chicken to have ever done such a thing.

I sent out the family email the other night to the "All Family" address book group to invite everyone for Thanksgiving, knowing full well several will not be coming. Cheryl was the first to reply that they won't be coming. Boo. 9200 miles isn't that far, is it? And tonight at Grief Support the focus was facing the holidays without a loved one. Stuff like developing new traditions, making sure we don't overcommit, saying "no" to what we can't do, healthy hiding out. I mentioned last year spending our first Thanksgiving without Laurie in Houston...the whole family. It was an awesome time but still we probably missed the mark in really discussing our true feelings. And now this year, a new shuffle. Pete's mom is in an assisted living home trying to get better, our friend Shelly will hopefully be here with us, not sure if Katie will have delivered the babies by then...lots of question marks. Somehow a turkey will be roasted, tables will be set and we will bow our heads and give thanks for all of it.

Tonight we got an urgent prayer request to be praying for a young soldier in Iraq going on a tough 3 day mission, right now. He is the dad of a three year old and a 10 month old. He called his family to say good bye; it looks that bleak. I am praying for him, for them. Our world community needs big prayer. When we give thanks this year, I will be thankful for this young father. We need to remember...

Loved this sign on Florida Christmas shop. I thought these pictures would tell the story of our whirlwind 2 day Florida visit with our dear friends as we all continue to process the deaths of our daughters. It was so good to be there. 

Are we tourists or what? 

We are blessed to have Ray and Sharon as our friends. 

The joy of a hot tub...