The last 6 months have been without a doubt, the hardest that I have ever experienced. They have also been some of the most joyful and fulfilling months of my life. With Alice’s 6th month coming to an end and her 7th starting I look back on all that we have seen, felt, experienced.
August 25, 2011…
Alice Rosemarie Vaughn is born. Two weeks early ready to see the world and Ryan and I are surrounded by loving friends and family! Life shows us how honored we are to have the people in our life that we do. No silly games, no dishonesty and mistrust just pure happiness, love and joy from people who care about us and that we care about in return.
September 2011… October 2011…
After Alice was in the hospital for a week with infections we get the very sad news that Grandpa (Great Grandpa) is very sick. Told only months to live, we all prepare ourselves for one of the hardest times to come upon our whole family. We rely on the strength and make up for the weakness in one another. We share our feelings, memories, LOVE.
Grandpa’s life will forever be celebrated.
November 2011… December 2011…
With the holidays upon us and mentally preparing ourselves for the obvious changes, everyone struggles. The reality that our family has changed in such a way that you feel a little bit of you missing, is hard to grasp. I know the feelings I felt and they are gut wrenching but the feelings going through my Mom, my Aunt, my Uncle… to lose a father. It’s beyond my comprehension.
January 2012… February 2012…
Happy New Year!
This would be the start to a new year, putting 2011 behind us and moving forward. No more bad news or bumps in the road… or so we thought.
With some blurry vision I went to my eye doctor thinking “I just needed some new glasses” but was quickly directed to a retina specialist for a torn retina. Surgery, laying face down for 2 weeks, standing upright for a week only to find I have some complications, face down again, laser surgery to fix the problem, face down, and now I am upright but still healing. This all happening over a 2 month span and being one of the more difficult things I personally have had to go through. Not being able to hold Alice, help with Alice and rely on Ryan and family to help me was hard to deal with. However, I NEVER would have gotten through it all without Ryan, without family, without friends and once again I am shown how lucky I am to have amazing people around me.
February 25, 2012 Alice turns 6 months! She is so big… grown so much and is developing into the most amazing little person.
March 2012…
Here we are, March. A new month and with every hope in my body for the skies to clear, we are hit… again.
Never really having to deal with the loss of a family pet (Simone and I), we are all faced with the sadness. After days of being sick, my parents took Lexi to the vet to see what might be the problem and to see what they could do to help him. After running tests it was clear that he had illnesses that they could not help, that were out of their control. As the news of Lexi settles in with our family, Ryan gets a sudden call from his mom. His grandma is ill and is progressively getting worse as the days continue. Still no word about her condition today and knowing the feeling of loss, every inch of love I have is being given to Ryan and sent to his family.
After a good weekend but crappy Monday, my parents did what I would never be able to do and took Lexi to the vet yesterday to have him put down. It’s never going to be the same without him.
So we are looking forward to the coming month to bring us some sunshine. April will be our start to our new year. We have so many wonderful things to look forward to: Alice’s continual growth and all her daily surprises she gives us, Ryan and I celebrating our 2nd anniversary, a new niece (or nephew) joining the family(!!!), Alice turning one, dear friends getting married and all the new adventures Ryan and I will have in parenthood!
So here’s to 2012 (or the rest of it anyway) may it be one of the best years of our lives!
