Happy New Year

I just have a quick minute to post. Trust me, I feel very, very guilty being in Pasadena - ready to experience the Rose Bowl Parade from prime grand stand seats while beautiful "Angel" Eden Adam's family is preparing to say their goodbyes to their sweet princess today. It's all just sickening; it's all just wrong in my opinion. Eden's lovely mom emailed me yesterday to say thank you for sharing our lives. I was shell shocked. May God give them strength and courage while surrounding them in His love. (PIC: Dec. 30th. Viewing the final preparations for the amazing floats for the Tournament of Roses parade. The "house" float is for the Ronald McDonald Charities. Always emotional, it was one of the first floats we saw and I immediately teared up, so grateful for such a wonderful organization getting us through some of our darkest days: Shayne was unemployed, we were surviving on my part time teacher's salary while Christi's medical costs were adding up and every day we were scared, but trying to make the best of the situation and never letting the girls know we were worried.)

As some may know, we used to make new year's saying such as "Cancer Free, 2003", "Cancer No More, 2004". When a sweet blogger and Christi fan suggested yesterday "Shayla is fine, 2009" I thought that was perfect. She stated that she knows Shayne and I will never be fine, the most precious thing in our lives was taken away. But it is such a testament that Shayla really seems to be thriving and happy and doing so well. We would definitely agree with that. I worry about her so much and wonder when/if it will "hit her". I know she misses Christi, as we all do, but it's almost like she knows we did all we could for her and now we need to focus on what we can control, and making the best of it! We also believe she knows she can always talk to us about anything and we do talk about Christi every day.

While we would have preferred being at an art museum here, Shay had a ball in "Hollywood" and "Beverly Hills" yesterday.


Don't worry, I didn't keep her, even though I wanted to do so. Isn't my great niece a beauty?! We said tearful goodbyes to Rosa and Josh and their kids on Tuesday.
I know my mom is trying to follow our whereabouts via this blog, since I'm horrible about calling her so here are a few pics - mom. Don't worry, we're having a grand time and are safe. Really thought we'd witnessed a lot in life, but seeing the sights on the street in Pasadena today/tonight has been another first for us - totally wild. Can't imagine what it'll be like for the 8 am parade. Tonight it's like "tent city" out there, all store fronts have boarded up their windows, police officers are everywhere, people have sleeping bags, couches, grills, etc., etc. all lined up for the parade. Shayla was really disturbed by it all and wanted to come back to the hotel, but Shayne and I found it fascinating. (No, mom, I didn't bring another baby home, but I easily could have. This little girl is precious!) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Shayla in Hollywood. We did get to tour the Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards) and Shayla saw a real "Oscar". That was very interesting!
Shayla at the Wax Museum, reminding us of going there with Christi and the Ronald McDonald House in NYC, winter 2003 - good times.
We ate at a restaurant I'd wanted to experience for a few years "The Melting Pot" - a fondue restaurant. It was even better than I thought it would be.
All the kids with Fiona, from Shrek at Universal Studios
The little ones simply adored Shayla. They must have said her name a hundred times. We were shocked at how big she suddenly seemed and she loved helping to take care of these precious kids.