4/7/08
- If you're interested in joining us, we still have tickets remaining
for the concert this Saturday and would love to have you join us! After
we make a few phone calls on Monday, we may be able to offer
transportation for you also!
4/10/08 - Today is Sammy's 5th birthday. We
plan to celebrate the day by joining our family and Sammy's nurses for
lunch. Then, we will all go to Sammy's preschool and join his
classmates on the playground for a balloon release.
The emotions
of this birthday are similar to the day of his birth. Due to the
prenatal diagnosis of Sammy's HPE, we were facing the unknown on his
birth day--we didn't know if it would be a happy day or a sad day.
That's how it feels today, too. We're hopeful that it will be a happy
day, but we are preparing for some sadness too. On the upside, my feet
and ankles aren't swollen beyond recognition, and I don't expect that
I'll be throwing up everywhere like I did on this day five years ago!
4/12/08 - We had a good day on Sammy's
birthday. I think he would have been proud of the way we celebrated his
birthday. As I thought back to Sammy's 4th birthday, I remembered that
I was serving jury duty that day. We had cake in the evening, but I
missed out on spending that day with him due to my civic duty even
though I could have used him as a good excuse for avoiding jury duty. I
didn't because Sammy wasn't an excuse; he was a blessing.
4/14/08 - Thanks to everyone who joined us
for the Chris Rice concert on Saturday. We enjoyed the evening and had
a lot of fun. Sammy definitely would have enjoyed it. We did have a
moment afterward to introduce ourselves to Chris Rice and tell him a
little bit about Sammy. I so wish we could have introduced Sammy to
him, but that will have to wait until we all arrive in heaven.
4/17/08 - With the weather getting
warmer, it's time to partake in some outdoor activities. On Sunday, May
18, we will be walking in the "Walking For Dreams Family and Pet Walk"
taking place on the Canal in Downtown Indianapolis. We have formed a
team called the "Sammy Yammies" to walk in memory of Sammy and raise
funds for Families for HoPE, Inc. We would love to have a large group
of friends walking with us! If you would like to walk on our team, form
your own team, or just make an online donation, you can click here.
100% of the pledges we collect will go directly to Families for HoPE,
so be sure to select Families for HoPE as the organization or Steve
and/or Leslie Harley as the walker you are supporting. (Steve and I
lived in an apartment on the canal when we were first married, so for
us, this truly will be a stroll down memory lane!)
4/30/08 - I think Sammy would have been proud of me. Yesterday, I spent
6 hours having a spa day! Besides listening to Kenny Chesney's music,
Sammy's favorite thing was to have "spa day" at home. Spa day for Sammy
included hair washing with scalp massage, bath, body massage with
lavender-scented baby lotion, a little splash of baby cologne, and
Twinkie-flavored lip balm after having his teeth brushed. Sammy loved
to be pampered, and he sure did smell great afterward! I followed his
example yesterday with a day spent at the Reeda Todd Salon being
pampered with a mani/pedi, hair color and new hair style, eyebrow
shaping, and makeup application! Over the past five years, I've let
myself go, and I've been long overdue for some time devoted just for
me. In the coming weeks, I'll be looking at an eye exam, new glasses,
dental work, and teeth whitening! The inside is still the same, but the
outside is catching up!