2010

What can I say? 2010 was filled with many ups and downs. A part of me whishes it would have never ended, and yet I'm glad to see it go. We spent the first half of the year focused on getting our approval for adoption. I spent a good portion of that time and into the second half of the year at the children's hospital here in town with my sister(-in-law), nephew and niece while my nephew went through chemo and radiation therapy. The majority of that time was filled with ups.

We were approved for adoption, our nephew was responding well to his treatments. In October we experienced some hardships and had to place our adoption profile on hold for a bit. In November we found out our sweet nephew's cancer had spread to his brain. At that time we were told there was no hope for recovery. He spent several weeks in a medically induced coma. When he awoke he could no longer speak or walk and had very little control over his arms but he could smile, and it was beautiful. We were witnesses to several miracles and knew that he would be taken care of. As a family we knew that he would not be with us much longer but didn't know how much time we would have with him. On December 29 he was taken home to his Heavenly Father, where he joined some of his great-grandparents and his aunt Sarah. While we have a void in our lives where he once filled, we know where he is, that he is not alone, and that we will see him again.

So, I wish I could go back to the first half of the year of 2010 so I could enjoy my time with that sweet little boy and I could continue with our approval to adopt, but I look forward to this new year when we will be able to re-activate our profile and continue on our journey to adoption and we will be able to start a new life without our sweet Ayden while honoring his memory.

I hope 2011 will live up to it's potential and that we will get to experience the joy life has to offer.