Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Madi's Monkeys 2012

Sunday the 7th we participated in the Puget Sound Buddy Walk. Our team was Madi's Monkeys and we had a wonderful turn out! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and 70! Since the walk is in October I planned for cold weather and designed team sweatshirts. I guess I needed to remind myself how unpredictable our weather is here.  Next year will be 3/4 sleeve t-shirts!

We had a team page to raise money for the Buddy Walk and the Down Syndrome community and we were so blessed! I was amazed at the support we got for our first year! My mother in law alone brought in $150 from her co-workers, friends and customers! My original goal of $250 was more than tripled! $850 will bless so many in this community! After seeing what we can accomplish in our first year supporting/attending the Buddy Walk my goal is to double that $850 next year!

I think I was a little overwhelmed at the actual event and didn't participate as much as I should have. I'm always worried about others enjoying themselves that I forget to take time for myself. We had a large group walk with us and we are so thankful for all of their love and support. It made my heart smile so big to see everyone there for our girl! I made a point to get a photo of Madi with everyone that came to walk in our team to one day show Madi how much she love she has surrounding her since she was born! (Some of you may notice that my side of our family other than Ryan, Tara and Jesse are absent but I know they would've been there if they could have, but many of them spent the day with my Grandma, and that was right where they needed to be.)

I was truly amazed out how many people were there to help show awareness of Down Syndrome. To hear others stories and to be reminded that we are not alone in our daily struggles was inspiring. It is wonderful to see how the view of DS is changing in our world. I am thankful that our daughter was born at this time when she is loved just for being her. She is a quiet, happy, cuddle-bug, mama's girl. I hope that the society we live in will continue to embrace her and not use her DS as a way to describe her but see DS as the little extra piece God gave her to make her extra special.

Here are the photos of everyone that came (I somehow missed Juli from Ray's work though - sorry!) There are more photos online here if you want to see the rest. :)

 Madi and Grandpa
 Madi and auntie Donna
 Madi and Joan
 Madi and uncle Randy
 Madi and Maka
 Madi and uncle Rick
 Madi and uncle Tom
 Madi and Skyler
 Madi and Jake
 Madi and Shelly
 Madi and auntie Shawna
 Madi and Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Mickey 
 Madi and Mona
 Madi and aunt Rocky
 Madi, Danielle and Ryan
 Madi and most of the Dowrey family
 The Isoms
 Madi, Tara, uncle Ryan and Jesse


Monday, October 15, 2012

Grandma Williams

The world lost a wonderful woman on October 8th. My loving, sweet, God loving and beautiful grandma passed away in the morning of October 8th. She fought a strong and short battle with pancreatic cancer. My grandma was such a loving woman and such an amazing mother. She raised 5 kids in a tiny 3 bedroom 1 bathroom home in Ketchikan AK and raised them to be wonderful children of God! She was blessed with 15 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren and we all share such amazing memories of going to Grandma's house. I am so happy that my girls got to spend so much time with their great Grandmother. I hope that Elli always remembers her and how much Great Grandma loved her. I will always cherish the photos I have of her with the girls.

We first found out about Grandma's cancer this summer and were told she had anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. Our family then made the choice to spend as much time together as possible. I love my family and spending time with them makes me truly happy, and those are memories I will have forever. Our family has many birthdays in August but my mom and Grandma shared a birthday on August 19th. Our family got together then to celebrate and I insisted we have a small photo shoot while we were all together. I did get a few whines during the process but I know that everyone is so happy that they have those photos now. My Grandma's health started deteriorating very quickly after that. Each time the girls and I went to visit it became more and more difficult to see her like that. We all spent the evening of the 6th together at Grandma & Grandpa's house and I was so happy when I said goodbye to Grandma and she recognized me and told me she loved me. (crying now)

The hardest part of the last few days of her life was that my Grandpa broke a vertebrae in his back by helping move Grandma in bed. He was then in the hospital a few days and then had to go to rehab for a few weeks. He did get to come by the house before going to rehab to say goodbye to Grandma which was the sweetest and saddest thing ever. They were best friends and the loves of each other's life. Watching slides as a family it was so fun to hear Grandpa say how beautiful his wife was and still is. :)

The funeral service was on Sat the 13th and my family did a great job putting everything together. My mom's friends were so generous by setting up a cookie reception for after and my aunt Karen's friends put on a lovely dinner for the family after. It was so nice to see so many old friends and family of Grandma at the service. Elli sure made everyone smile also while in the middle of the service went from lap to lap in the family and whispered yelled 'why did they close the lid on Grandma?' It was such a bittersweet day knowing she was no longer here with us but knowing she was healthy and rejoicing in Heaven.



Tuesday, October 2, 2012

I need to do this more often!

I'm so bad at this! Why did I start a new blog with the plan to post all the time? I either get too busy, or want to cuddle Madi or Elli or just have nothing of interest to say. I think blogging should be an upbeat thing so I don't want to talk about work since a lot of days aren't happy. And right now my family is sad. We are about to lose my grandma and no matter how many times we tell ourselves and each other how happy she will be in Heaven, we are still sad to be losing her here. I have been wanting to write about Madi (and down syndrome) and our thoughts and emotions and daily concerns with her but I'm still trying to organize my thoughts into something I can put in words. 

Right now my focus is on my mom and family, on finding a white dresser for the girls, on having an amazing time with our friends and family at the Puget Sound Buddy Walk this Sunday and living/loving/enjoying all life has to offer us right now!



Side note: Look at this creepy 'rug' someone put in the lobby of our building!