Aloha!

Aloha! Bret and I just got back from Hawai'i...needless to say, we had a great time. We did so many fun things, and we saw a lot of sights. We snorkeled, we surfed, we boogie boarded, we shopped, we visited Pearl Harbor, we drove around the island, we took the time to catch up with old friends, and we laughed more then we have in a long time. It was nice to find the laughter again, even if it was for just a short time. It reminded us that we are still here enjoying what God has given us and we hope to keep that with us. Our girls, Kora and Bree, missed us terribly and my parents, who watched them for the week, did their best to entertain them. Grandparents are really good for keeping their grandkids busy every waking moment. Bret and I are very grateful to them for helping us with the kids...it made us relax knowing they were in good hands and allowed us to fully enjoy our trip.

Bret and I got home in the late evening on Friday the 20th of April. When we walked up to our door we saw the wonderful "Welcome Home Mom and Dad!" sign taped to our door. We decided to knock on the door instead of trying to find our key and when the door opened I had a very surreal moment. The door opened when our lights were off, so it was hard to see if it was Kora standing there or someone else. Then my mom turned on the chandelier which shown down on us very brightly. That's when I saw Kora's face smiling so big at me and with her arms out and tapping her feet on the floor as if she were running in place. I dropped my things and we ran into each other with open arms and held on tight. While I was hugging her my eyes filled a bit with tears and I immediately thought... "Is this how it will be when I get to Heaven and see Kyla for the fist time? Will a door open and the first thing I see, in bright light, will be Kyla's smiling face with her arms out ready to hug me as tight as Kora was at that time?" I was so happy to see my two daughters that night, and not to take that away from myself, I was also very saddened not to have Kyla there on my lap too. I know this will happen for the rest of my life...little things like that will pop into my head as Kora graduates, or as Bree is walking down the isle to her future husband. Kyla is missed in all ways, and will be until I am lucky enough to meet her again.

We are still making headway with Kyla's Benefit Dinner & Auction. We are grateful to those who have contacted us or Lisa about a donation to give. We are trying our best to notify all of you about the flier we have for you to print, fill out, and send in with your reservation for us to give you a ticket. The night will be so much fun, we hope to see all of you there. I want to remind you that your ticket price includes your dinner, live music, billiards, and much more. Also, roughly 40% of the ticket price automatically goes into the fund, so just by attending you are automatically making a donation to Kyla's fund.

While vacationing in Hawaii, Bret and I were once again reminded to be thankful for the many blessings that God has provided for us. Each of you are cetainly a blessing in our lives, and for that we are humbly grateful!

New Page: Kyla's Benefit Dinner & Auction

Hello everyone. I apologize for not writing more often. Our lives are crazy right now with all the things we are doing and sadly I can't get to it as often as I would like. Bret and I are doing well...the pain of losing Kyla is just as heart breaking as the day she left us but I feel like we are learning to live our new life. This new life is not one that we have chosen but rather, the life we have been given. We wonder all the time if we will be able to endure this for the rest of our days but we quickly gather the strength from each other to make it another day.

Our other two girls are doing really great! Kora is playing T-Ball this year and is loving it. For those of you who know her, you can picture her out on the field running for the ball and hitting it hard. She seems to have a natural sports ability that her daddy has passed on to her. Bree is a classic, bossy, two-year old who loves to make you laugh. She is fearless, which is a quality some of us lose as we get older, but for her it gives her both character and lots of bruises and scrapes. We feel very blessed and pray for all of our children everyday.

We have been working hard on Kyla's upcoming benefit. If you haven't already noticed, we have made a few updates to Kyla's site. We added a page that contains details about Kyla's Benefit Dinner & Auction, including a list of items that have been donated for the auction, to this point. We are currently talking to local businesses about donating products or services and will continue to update this list as more items are donated. We have also updated the FAQ page for this site with what may be some common questions about the upcoming benefit. If you are ready to purchase tickets, you can just download the ticket order form, fill it out, and mail it in. The directions for where to send the form can be found on the form, and on the "Kyla's Benefit Dinner & Auction" page.

Thank you so much for all your ongoing support and prayers. We hope to see all of you in June.