Freezing Time

As I've said before, I'm typically an optimist.  Though, our experiences with Matthew are requiring that we have to be prepared for something other than the best case scenario.  There have been too many surprises.  It is a balancing act, praying for the best but guarding ourselves from the worst.  But we can't live waiting for the worst to happen, so we've been living our lives as if there will be unlimited tomorrows for all of us, and we hope and pray that will be the case.  On the flip side, I also now have the need to make sure we'd have no regrets if this journey doesn't end according to our plan.

So that I don't have regrets...

1. I want to make sure that before Matthew goes into the hospital for any procedure we have a special family night.  Before his PDA fix, we had a fantastic picnic at the park. It was a beautiful evening and a lovely memory.  I hope this becomes our family tradition before all big days. 

Jackson & Darren

Jackson, Katie, Matthew & Alyssa

2.  I need to have updated family pictures, of the 5 of us, before Matthew's head surgery....badly. I need to capture this point in time, our family, as we are.  It's the closest I can come to freezing time in its tracks and the last few days, it is all I can think about.

Knowing we are under a time crunch (surgery should be in the next month or so), and knowing this is prime-time for photographers taking holiday photos (and our family friend/photographer under the weather), I assumed we wouldn't be able to get professional photos done.  Thankfully, a dear friend of ours volunteered to take some pictures and I was thrilled.  I just need all 5 of us in a photo, with smiles on our faces. The picture can be as real (and flawed) as we are, but I need it! 

Today we went to the park to snap some photos and we were surprised by our dear friend with a professional photographer (whose card I had in my pocket to call if we had enough time before surgery).  I was speechless.  I am blown away by the generosity of our friend and this beautiful photographer.  We are so very blessed!  I pray that I get to take millions of more photos of our family, but I needed to have this one now so there would be no regrets.  A million thank yous to Brooke for blessing us with your talent and Kirsten for hamming it up so there were many smiles!  

There are a few more pictures posted on Brooke's blog-- brookemartinphotography.blogspot.com.  She did an amazing job capturing our family as we are, and yet making us look better than we really do. 

As I posted yesterday, I'm awed by the love, support, generosity, and compassion we are continually shown as we navigate this journey with Matthew.  We thank God every day for it and I could never express in words the thanks that we have in our hearts but thank you!!