The Most Amazing Day of JIM’s Life!

 As I sit and write this I find it very hard to believe that it has been a year and what a year it has been!  On May 24^th 2011 the miracle of life happened, which has changed all of our lives.  We now realize how precious the little things are.

 As an amazing family we gathered together to celebrate the most important day of Jim’s life- May 24, 2012.  It began with the St. Louis crew arriving on Wednesday May 23^rd and Sandi and Chris and let’s not forget Hunter (their dog) moving in for the week.  If you lost count that makes 8 adults, 2 kids and a dog under one roof, can you imagine the fun we had? We had a week packed full of fun things to do together as a family.

On Thursday May 24^th, Jim’s one year anniversary, we all went to church as a family and gave thanks and prayers to Scott. We prayed for the life he lost and the life he gave to Jim.  After that we had a great day planned to celebrate this amazing day in all of our lives.  We all have wanted to bowl for a long time, and we thought this was a great time to do that. All 10 of us piled into two lanes at the bowling alley and the games began! We all tried our hardest, but Gabby and Jamesy were better than all of us! Jim ended the game with a bang, a strike and a high score! He walked away hands in the air, celebrating his bowling game and his new life!

 

Sunday May 27, 2012- The Celebration of Life Party

 There are no words that could express how special this day was!  Family, doctors and friends all gathered together to celebrate the MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF JIM’S LIFE.  It was truly the most wonderful day ever. Doctors shared stories about Jim, friends shared stories of how Jim impacted their lives and best of all Jim’s cousins, Tony and Laura, traveled very far to help celebrate. Through tears they told us, “We would never miss this day!”  As Jim looked around the room with tears in his eyes he said, “LOOK AT ALL THESE PEOPLE, THEY ARE ALL HERE FOR ME” We could not believe all the love and support that filled the room.

The amazing doctors from Penn

The biggest thanks goes to Dr. Wald for 18 years of the greatest care for Jim  and all of the doctors at Penn who are truly amazing and dedicated. Without their support and hard work this day would have never happened.

Thanks to my family for always being there with their support and love.  We could never have done this without you by our sides.

To our special friends who were always there to do anything to support us.

We want to THANK YOU ALL. We love you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To Our Children:

There are no words that could ever express the strength and love of our children and grandkids.  I don’t think Daddy and I could have done this without each of you.   It has been a very very long road, and now there is nothing more than rainbows and sunshine with all of your love. WE LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH AND THANK YOU FOR MAKING US SO PROUD!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

                      

There is nothing that could top this party, but we decided to pack up and head to the beach on Monday. What a gorgeous day! Jim loves the beach and he was in his glory to have his feet in the sand and his whole family by his side. The best part for him was jumping the waves with his kids like old times and holding his grandkids hands as they ran through the water . It brought back such memories watching him do this. The smile on his face was there all day and the celebration continued for him.

The fun didn’t stop here! James and Kristen surprised us with a fishing trip on Tuesday. They chartered a 50 ft boat for all 10 of us and we headed out in the ocean in Atlantic City. Some of us have weak stomachs but we all had patches so we thought we were good to go deep sea fishing for some sea bass. Well, it was a little rocky and didn’t look too good! A few of us got sick and we headed back to the bay. This was the best decision we could have made! The waters were calm and we were all feeling much better. All 10 of us had a fishing pole in our hands and we loved the day together. We didn’t catch much fish, but none of us cared- we were having too much fun!

This ended an amazing week together. Sadly, our Missouri crew had to return home and it was sad to see them go, but we loved the time together and the celebration we had as a family. It is amazing to see what a difference a year can make. We look forward to see what another year can bring!

Enjoying the Little Things

As always a few months have flown by and the blog goes neglected. Not forgotten, just neglected. How could I forget this blog? This is where it all started for us, the memories, the heartfelt posts and the amazing journey that we led as a family to dad's new beat. 

Bear with me as I empty my brain of all the latest memories we have had as a family. There is so many that I can barely keep up anymore. We have realized that it is the little things in life that are important. 

- The biggest for all of us is that as a family we wrote a letter to the donor's family. We all put a little piece of ourselves in that letter. Dad's passion for his new life was all over that letter and it felt really good to reach out to these unknown people and thank them for the miracle of life. The best part of this whole thing is that we actually received the letter back from the donor's family today! We never thought this would happen, and we were all amazed with how wonderful this family sounds. They are amazing people and have a desire to hear their family member's heart beat again. We are so excited for this new connection and plan to write another letter back to the family.

- Dad had another round of doctors appointments today and did very well, as he has been doing. He is making great progress and the doctors are always shocked to lay eyes on him each appointment. 

- December is a wonderful month because it is the month of Christmas and non stop family time. Our Missouri crew came into PA and it was awesome, as always! 9 people and 1 dog all in the same house for almost 2 weeks, doesn't get much better than that! Of course, mom and dad made sure we had our matching pajamas and took a picture to document. Although we all laugh every time mom and dad break out the pajamas it is something special that I know we all treasure. We did make it to Hershey this Christmas, but sadly not like we had planned. Gabby and Jamesy were feeling sick so we didn't want to keep them in the cold for too long, so we just visited the chocolate factory, and still had a wonderful time! The best part of all is that dad rode his first ride in over 20 years. Granted it was just the Hershey factory tour ride, and was not a true roller coaster, but it was still awesome to have all 9 of us on one ride enjoying it together!

                                                  

- Mom and dad have been able to travel to Missouri a lot lately, more now than ever. They went to Missouri a few weeks ago and babysat Gabby and Jamesy while James and Kristen went away. Mom and dad did their routine with flying on an airplane and did great. They loved every minute of being in Missouri with the kids. Mom was even able to experiment with Gabby's hairstyles each day. Chris and I were also lucky to be able to go to Missouri to be with everyone for the Superbowl, which was a big deal because the New York Giants were playing the New England Patriots again. Might I also add that the Giants won the Superbowl! It was so much fun to have us all back together again in one house, being crazy and having fun. The biggest step of this whole trip was that dad stayed a little longer than the rest of us and actually flew home by himself. A huge step if you ask me! I know mom and I were not excited about this at first, but we have to cut the leash at some point! 

Talk about ironic, 4 years ago the New York Giants played the New England Patriots and times sure were different. It was us kids watching the Superbowl with our dad on the phone from his hospital room. We couldn't even be with our dad this Superbowl. It was a hard day for us all. We wanted to be together as a family, but that was not in the plan. As always, we made the best of it and called dad with every good play and called to scream together when they won, but it was nothing like this year. We were all together in one room enjoying the game as a family. We could hug and scream in one room instead of trying to dial the phone to get a hold of dad. 

- I need to make sure and write down everything that has happened lately even if it does contain a little sad news. Dad's kidneys are still being tricky and have caused dad great trouble for as long as we can remember. We found out a month ago that dad is in stage 4 kidney failure and is one stage away from a transplant. When we all heard the news it was a much different reaction this time around. No tears, no fears, no unknowns because we know what to expect and we know that we will be okay. This is not even something we stop and think about each day because in the end dad has overcome the worst and his kidney trouble is a small drop in the big ocean.


Whew, I feel like I have left something out, but for now this has been our new journey. As you can see we are living to the fullest and not only enjoying each other but enjoying each day we are all blessed with.

Stay tuned for more updates along our new journey of life enjoying the little things...