The Better Way To Do It

Hello everyone, Bret and I hope you are doing well. We have been busy with life, it seems to have taken a hold of us again and we wonder where it has taken us. March is creeping up on us, and we still have so much to do for the benifit dinner we are throwing in June. With all the other things on our plate it's a wonder how we are getting it all done. Bret and I are so happy to be doing these things in honor of Kyla. I know she is thrilled to be seeing all the things that are happening just for her.

When she was four she asked me why we never have a party for Valentine's Day. She told me, "We have parties near Christmas, New Years, Halloween, and even Thanksgiving.... why not Valentine's Day?" I replied, "Well, I guess it's considered more of an intimate holiday. You tell people you love them in cards, candy, or flowers. That's just typical for the holiday." Kyla of course was not satisfied with this answer and continued with the debate, "Mom, I don't think it should be an intimate holiday, we should let the people we love know, by having a party for them. Doesn't that seem like a better way to do it?" I smiled at her and could say nothing but to let her know that I agreed with her. So Kyla, at the age of four threw a party and invited her close family and friends over to our house for a Valentine's Day party. She helped me buy cookie dough, frostine, a few different kinds of juice, and those little candy hearts for each friend. Everyone showed up, to my surprise, and we all had a party to show everyone we loved each other. It was a great day, and it just shows that Kyla had her own mind, she was very creative and used that creativity to accomplish anything she set her mind to. Bret and I have always followed her lead and just like everything else we have done it again. We are having a party for Kyla to show her and let everyone know we love her.... after all it's "the better way to do it".

We wanted to inform you that we've added more to the site. Bret is never satisfied with the work he does and will perfect this site as often as he can until it is just right. If you look at the Links section you will notice a "Who is Kyla? " and a "Kyla's Gift Fund" link. Bret and I thought this was a good way for you to know a little more about Kyla and her fund. We really hope this site is helpful and fills you with knowledge about what we are trying to accomplish.

Kyla's Fund

(NOTE: This posting is also on CaringBridge as the last posting that Brettie entered)

Dearest Family and Friends, we have been so busy the last six months trying to look at our future and allowing God and Kyla to lead the way. We have been starting new projects and making new friends. We are looking at the future and seeing the path lay out before us. We have only talked to close family and friends about the things that we are planning and for the first time we are ready to share it with the rest of you.

We were given information about opening up a charitable gift fund by a person that came to know Kyla through her classroom as school. This person told us we could open it in Kyla's name. While we were very interested in the possibility of opening a gift fund on behalf of Kyla, we sat on it for a while not knowing if we should do this and if we did, what we would want the outcome to be. A week before Kyla's birthday we opened a gift fund in her name with the help of our parents...and on the day of Kyla's birthday we gave our first gift to Make-A-Wish. Since then we've seen and heard of what gifts like that have done for other children facing the challenges of their lives. It was a gratifying and uplifting experience and even more special to have it done in Kyla's name. We just had a meeting yesterday with the woman who gave us this wonderful idea, Lisa Ramage, a mother who's son is in the third grade at John McLoughlin...the same class Kyla would be in if she were here with us. Her son was in Kyla's first grade class and Lisa got to know Kyla when she would go and volunteer. She has so many great thoughts for this fund, so it was fun to bounce ideas off of each other.

On another note....we have started our own photography business. We have had a lot of business by just word of mouth, but now that Bret has gotten most of the site done we are ready to show all of you. It is inspiring and challenging all at the same time and we just love it. We had photos taken of our family during Kyla's illness and think it is such a gift to be able to have those photos. Our goal with this photography business is to go to hospitals with terminally ill children and take family photos at no cost, through The Kyla McCullough Gift Fund. We do it as a team, and feel that it is a very good fit for our family. We have yet to take our new found gift to a hospital and do what we so desperately want to do, but have the confidence that in time we'll be able to do so. Until then, we have done senior photos, infants, families, friends, and just landed a job to do event photography. We just have a blast with each job we get and feel blessed to have the opportunity to share in people's memories. Our company is called ThreeT Photography, and you can go to http://www.threetphotography.com to see our site. Now, like I said it is still a work in progress but you can certainly see what we've been up to.

Thanks everyone who is still behind us and are encouraging us to continue on with life. We are trying to honor Kyla the best way we know how, and feel that what we are doing would make her smile. Please continue checking the sites and walking with us in our new adventure. We feel blessed to have you by our side.

Kyla's New Site

Hello Everyone...welcome to Kyla's very own site! We are extremely excited to have a space for her so that those that are interested can keep up to date with all of the ways that Kyla is affecting the lives of people that she knew. From this point on, we plan to update this site rather than her original CaringBridge site. Given that we were not sure how long CaringBridge would provide us with a free site and wanting some more flexibility on what we could post to Kyla's site, we decided to start Kyla's own site. Please feel free to send us some feedback...we would love to hear from anybody out there.

Thanks for all of your ongoing support...it's amazing!

Love,

The McCullough Family