Summers.

It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks. Since I last wrote we have gone to an amusemant park, visited one of our favorite little beach towns in Michigan and we are gearing up as we speak to help host a fundraiser for our favorite childrens hospital-Riley Childrens Hospital in Indianapolis. Although it has been a busy few weeks we will not complain...if not for our beloved Riley we may have not been having quite such a good summer this year.

Last summer out of the blue our daughter Grace woke up from a nap in excrutiating pain. We rushed her to our local hospital where they thought she had kidney stones-a rare thing for a 4 year old. Our hospital, nor the ones close by, had the capabilities to treat her at such a young age and we were transferred out to Riley in the middle of the night. Never have I been so scared in my life. I had a new baby (LJ was only 4 months old) my four year old was crying and puking, and I was told to run home and pack a bag and drive to Indianapolis as quickly as we could ( a 3 hour drive-like it could be quick! HA!) Long story short-she did not have kidney stones but a rare birth disorder with her kidneys and ureters. After a 3 day stay to find out what was causing her the pain we were sent home. Two weeks later we returned for a surgery. After another 4 day stay in the hospital we returned home for 2 days before my daughter was spiking fevers and writhing in pain again. The culprit was another rare post-op infection. This time we were rushed by ambulance in the middle of the night from our small town back to the big city. 2 more trips for inpatient stays to continue fighting the infection, a trip back to get her stent out. Several more follow up trips as her kidney still didn't want to function well after surgery......majority of summer 2009-spent in a hospital.

But we could never have asked for a better place! Our Dr. is a Christian, our nurses remember our daughter by name. We still write to a few on occasion. We have visited and taken treats and at Christmas, my daughter insisted on making all the nurses on the floor, as well as her Dr.- homemade Christmas ornaments. The staff helped us with places to stay and tips on food (Ronald McDonald house!) everyone was friendly and nice and you could tell they all loved kids and Riley! Bonus: they SAVED our daughters life!!!

So anyhow, fast forward to summer 2010. We are having a summer. A summer we are extremely grateful for in so many ways! Not only do we have a healthy happy 5 year old-who will start kindergarten in a week! We have a rambuncious 16 month old-who survived the trauma of it all (thanks to grammy & papa who drove down to stay in hotels close by every visit last year to support us and allow me time with my baby!)We have focused on family and how important it is this year. We had a family vacation to Virginia Beach and Charlottesville for a family wedding. We went to Indiana Beach as a family. We have stayed home many a weekend or weeknight and had cookouts and kids splashing in the pool.

And that brings me to this weekend. This Saturday and our busyness. Our busyness hosting a fundraiser to earn money to send to Riley. We are doing it together as a family. We are doing it to support a great hospital. We are doing it in the hopes to send money to help other families in need. It is the weekend before back to school, it is the day of our big camping sleepover with friends, and it will hopefully be the day to start a new family tradition of paying it forward. In the midst of all our busyness we need to remember to make and take time to do the things that are good and right with our family. Happy remaining summer to all of you! I hope we have helped inspire you to pay it forward to a cause that is near and dear to your heart!! :-)