3 Years, Gone Too Soon...

Today was a day for our family to remember Rileigh and Adrienne. We have been doing this since before Brady was born, due to the idea we got from a co-worker at Kilmer Center who helped Keith through the loss of the girls by sharing her story. She lost a daughter about 20 years ago and has since had 3 boys who are almost grown. However, every single year, on the birthday of her daughter, the family stays home, no matter if it is a weekday or weekend, for celebration and rememberance. We jumped at this idea and have adopted it. We will continue to use March 8 as a family day for our family of 5.

We spent the morning in the warm temperatures outside playing with Brady. Around noon, we went out and got 6 pink balloons for our "release" later in the day. Just as we got home from our errands, Brady fell asleep so he missed the 2:06 release of the balloons. We saved 2 for him for when he wakes up though.

It's quite difficult for us to realize that it's been 3 years since Rileigh and Adrienne were born and left us. We remember the events like it was yesterday. Keith has had to fill Cynthia in on some of the fuzzy memories since she was given some heavy pain medications but we often talk about their birth and like to look back on the memories. While we lost so much on March 8, 2006, we are thankful for quite a few things and always will be.

We are thankful that the labor and delivery unit at Georgetown University Hospital had a digital camera for us to use. Otherwise, we would have no pictures of our daughters. While they are sad pictures for us to look at, it brings comfort to us to have them so we can forever see our daughters. We are thankful to the elder volunteers who made blankets and hats for babies who were born too soon. We have the hats that Rileigh and Adrienne wore after birth and the blanket they were wrapped in.

We are thankful for Kathi Kramer who provided so much spiritual support to us the day the girls were born and in the days and months following. She continues to be a great friend to us today and she checks in on us often. Last, we are thankful that Cynthia's mother was able to bear witness to the birth of our daughters, her first granddaughters. She provided so much support, especially to Keith, in such an uncertain time. We have never had to bury a family member before and she jumped on the phone in an instance and helped us figure out where Rileigh and Adrienne's final resting place would be.



Happy Birthday Rileigh and Adrienne. It pains us to not know what you would be like today but we are at peace to know that you are in wonderful hands. We know that you watch over us every day, protecting us even when we don't ask for protection. We love you and we miss you so much.

Upcoming Rememberance for Rileigh and Adrienne

In the past, we've kept our yearly rememberance/birthday celebration for Rileigh and Adrienne to our little family. Others have asked what they can do for us to support us. This year, we think we have come up with a little plan that will help us get through this very difficult day. Every year, we have released balloons to them to help mark this day.

If you want to participate, on March 8, go out and buy two pink balloons (or you can buy a bunch if you like!). At 2:06pm, the time that Adrienne left our lives forever, we're going to simultaneously release our balloons into the sky. Rileigh and Adrienne will receive balloons in heaven from all over the east coast if we do this!

If you do plan to do this, please take pictures, and then send them to us and we'll post them up on this blog. We want to share with everyone how you helped us remember Rileigh and Adrienne.

A Christmas Visit...

During our recent visit to New England for Christmas and New Years, we managed to make two seperate visits to the cemetary. At the second visit, we cleaned up the holiday decor and put out Valentine's items. We know it's a bit early but since we only sporadically are able to go visit them, we wanted to decorate for Valentine's Day.

The picture above says it all. We have 3 beautiful angels. It also leaves us wondering what life would be like if Rileigh and Adrienne were alive today. It's hard to believe their third birthday is coming up in March. Brady's smile is for all of them...

A Thanksgiving Visit...

Just last week, we made a Thanksgiving visit to see Rileigh and Adrienne. We had some cleaning up to do around their site but then we put out some holiday flowers. We didn't get any pictures as it was quite cold and Brady refused to keep his hat on!

One thing that touched us this time is that as we were leaving, Brady looked back from his stroller and waved. He wasn't waving the last time we visited the cemetary and so we were quite taken aback by this. It is our hopes that with us and his family and friends, Brady will know just how important Rileigh and Adrienne are to us. When he waved back to them, we know that we're doing a wonderful job teaching Brady just how precious life is and just how dearly we miss his sisters.

We decided we were going to re-vamp Rileigh and Adrienne's webpage. Their babiesonline page still exists, however, we wanted something where we could continuously add pictures or thoughts for Brady as he grows. He has seen many pictures of his sisters but we want him to be able to learn so much about them as he grows.