Comments (4)

By Dave ©, June 26, 2009 7:22 am

Lauren was begging to go to the park when I got home from work yesterday. Here’s a short clip of our entertaining little girl! Enjoy!

A Day at the Park from Dave © on Vimeo.

Hope she made you smile!

Comments (12)

By Lana, June 25, 2009 8:34 am

1. Kevin doesn’t forget a phone number. If I can’t find a phone number, all I have to do is call him up.

2. Kevin calls me on every single holiday to wish me a happy day.

3. Kevin sends me cards and writes, “You are a great sister” and “Thanks for always being nice to me”

4. Kevin buys $7 cards that play music. Lauren loves them!

5. Kevin loves to cook and his signature dish is homemade spaghetti sauce. He also makes a mean chili with canned Wolf brand chili and spaghetti sauce, topped with Fritos and cheese.

6. Kevin gets great pleasure out of hosting dinner parties. He either makes his homemade spaghetti sauce, chili, grilled hamburgers or chicken pot pie.

7. Kevin loves to go to Christian concerts. I bet he plans his next concert before leaving his current one!

8. Kevin has more friends than you and I ever will. If he goes to the grocery store or the bank or the post office, he sees a friend. In fact, everyone at the bank knows him- very well.

9. Kevin has had more fender-benders than you can imagine. And he got a ticket once for tailgating a police officer.

10. One time Kevin was visiting The Potter’s House and was in line for the restroom behind Kirk Franklin. Kevin said, “Hey Kirk.”

11. Kevin invited Charlie Wilson to his house-warming party. He didn’t know that Charlie Wilson was famous. He just knew him as a nice man who came in for Subway sandwiches. Charlie didn’t go to Kevin’s house-warming party but did send an autographed picture of the U.S. Capital.

12. Kevin works at Target now and is very proud of his 10% discount.

13. Kevin often calls to tell me about a great movie. After a 5 minute description of the movie and plot, he says bye.

14. Kevin is constantly changing his TV cable service. He loves to find a plan with more channels and more options.

15. Kevin loves science fiction.

16. Kevin’s answering machine message says, “You know what to do at the tone.”

17. Kevin’s best friend is an engineer. They’ve been friends since age 7 or 8.

18. Once when we were little Kevin was playing like he was sawing my arm off with his Fisher Price plastic saw. I ran to the kitchen and squirted ketchup on my arm. When Kevin saw my “bloody” arm, he took off running for the bathroom and came back with band aids. He was really worried.

19. The school counselor called my mom at work, excited as can be, when Kevin finally passed the math portion of the standardized test to graduate.

20. Kevin loves Ray’s Drive-In, a family owned burger place.

21. Kevin does not like sitting in a movie theater next to talking or eating-loudly people.

22. Kevin huffs and puffs when he is mad.

23. Kevin huffs and puffs in the movie theater.

24. One time Kevin was buying some food at the grocery store and the cashier handed him change. Kevin counted it up, handed some back and said, “You gave me too much.”

25. Kevin wears cologne- lots of cologne.

26. Kevin has great persistence. He never, ever gives up.

27. I give my brother Kevin a lot of credit for how I feel about Carmen. Kevin has dealt with many difficulties in life but has taught me that no matter a person’s limitations, they have great worth.

28. Kevin just had a birthday. Happy 28th birthday Kevin!

We love you Kevin!

Kevin and Carmen, June 2007

Comments (4)

By Lana, June 22, 2009 12:19 pm

Carmen update: Yesterday Carmen’s oxygen concentrator started screeching loudly so we had to turn it off. Carmen has been without added oxygen for almost 24 hours and is doing great! I am so happy to see her face again without a nasal cannula. Carmen has been sleeping a lot more in the past few days. We are not sure if this is disease progression or just that she is extra tired.

Happy Father’s Day (a day late!). Dave asked Lauren to tell him 5 ways she knows he loves her. She said:

1.You tell me you love me.

2. You keep me warm.

3. You play with me.

4. You help me give things away to other kids (they had been sorting stuff for the Salvation Army earlier in the day!)

5. You gave me a sister and decided to keep her.

The “decided to keep her” part brought tears to my eyes. When we first found out Carmen has Tay Sachs, I remember several people asking us if we were going to keep her. We couldn’t imagine anything else. Maybe Lauren heard one of those comments and remembered two years later.

Dave, you are a wonderful father and your girls are BLESSED to have you as their dad!

This picture is a year and a half old, January 2008, but I love it.

Photo by Melanie Reyes

Comments (2)

By Dave ©, June 20, 2009 11:39 am

Six girls seven years old or younger. Two and a half families. All under one roof for three days. It could have been a disaster. Turns out, it was a blast!

I must admit, it was a little strange to go on a “family vacation” with only half the family. But that’s what Lauren and I did this week.

Some good friends of ours won a one-week house rental in Ocean City, MD. They invited all four couples in our small group to spend the week with them. Unfortunately, Carmen started coughing up mucus and had on-and-off fevers, then Lana got sick as well. So Lana decided to stay home with Carmen while Lauren and I had some father-daughter time with the other families. We definitely wish that Lana and Carmen were there with us but we made the most of it and had a lot of fun!

Here are a couple of pictures.

PS. Happy 35th Month Birthday, Carmen! It’s hard to believe that you’ll be three in one month.

Comments (23)

By Dave ©, June 16, 2009 7:11 am

Last weekend, a good friend of ours asked us how we’re doing. Although I responded with a somewhat typical, “Good,” I really meant it. I went on to explain that it feels like we are smack-dab in the middle of this almost-normal chapter of our lives.

We flew through the chapter that included visiting Carmen in Guatemala (see picture below) and bringing her home. We muddied through the chapter about trying to help her catch up developmentally. We survived the chapter about learning of Carmen’s horrific disease and all that it would entail. We made it through several chapters that included physical sickness, countless visits to the doctor and hospital, one really big nursing blunder, another really close call, constant stress and lots of emotional ups and downs.

We made it through all of those chapters but we are not yet at the end of this book. We know it’s coming and we know it’s going to be excruciatingly painful when it does come. But it’s not here. Not yet.

So here we are, stuck in the middle. We have a terminally ill child but she’s actually doing OK right now. She has good days and bad days, just like the rest of us. We’ve made a few adjustments along the way and are starting to do a few more things that “normal” families do. We’re stuck in the middle and it’s not so bad. In fact, it’s quite beautiful!

Will somebody please cue Stealers Wheel? And then will you cue U2?

Where are you in life?