As 2024 comes to a close, I am thinking about all the things we have gone through over this year. It’s funny how it’s human nature to instantly remember the bad before the good. It’s only because the bad things, such as death, leave such a sting. Truth is though, we are blessed every day, even in the little things or the things we take for granted, whether intentional or not. 2024 started off beautifully, we welcomed into the world our beautiful great niece Guilia Jane West, and the next day, marked the 30th anniversary of the day Mike and I married.  February was not as pleasant. I missed my trip to Florida to visit Nick, Aubrey and the kids and to celebrate Noelle’s 4th birthday. I got the flu which turned into pneumonia and then septic shock. I ended up spending 7 days in the hospital, 6 of them in ICU. I didn’t realize until speaking with the doctors how close I had come to dying, but I’m glad God kept me here for a bit longer.  March brought us a great nephew, August Samu...

Funny how death can bring out the best and the worst in people. Sometimes the grief felt is what forges a bond or a reconciliation in people and at the same time, the grief can pull a family apart. Since my mother in law passed away, I have seen so many emotions and deep feelings in my husband Mike. Many feelings he kept suppressed for years. I think it was easier for him to ignore his feelings or just feel anger as a way to protect himself from the real feelings of hurt. In his adulthood, Mike purposely stayed away from most of his family by choice. He didn’t want our children around such dysfunction. Sadly because of that sacrifice, we missed out on knowing some of our nieces & nephews from a young age and now they are adults. One niece, we had never lost touch with and another niece came to us a little over 10 years ago, explaining that she too got away from the dysfunction and she wanted a relationship with us, expressing her sadness on all the years she had missed with us. ...