Join us in a "Walk for Livie's Heart"

Every since Olivia went to heaven I have been thinking that I have to write my last blog with the label "Olivia". Well its been almost two weeks and I just haven't been able to do it.  I don't really like to close chapters of my live.
Then tonight I thought, I don't really have to close this chapter, Olivia lives strong in our memory and in her memory we are going to join the "4th annual Shamu and You Family Walk" to benefit Rady Children's Hospital.
Crystal has started team "Livie's Heart" we are trying to get 50 people to be on our team so that we can all have a T-shirt with our team name and a team pop up the day of the event.  October 2, in San Diego on the bay and by Sea-world.  I'm very excited.  We already have about 20 people so if you read this and your not signed up, Please Do!  Even it you don't walk the $27.00 registration fee will go to a very good cause; the hospital that took such good care of our precious Olivia.
Please Visit the following site and support our team, Olivia's team, Team Livie's Heart.

http://ShamuAndYouWalk.kintera.org/liviesheart

August 14th, Saying good bye to Olivia

On Saturday Aug. 14th at 4:30 in the afternoon we had to say good bye to our dear sweet Olivia, after 73 days of fighting Olivia went to be with Jesus.  Now she is twirling in heaven and her pain has given way to rejoicing.  We were fortunate to spend the whole day surrounded by family and special friends like Pastor Josh and Mackensie.
Sunday we packed up Ronald McDonald House and came home.  Crystal and Justus are comforting each other and enjoying Ezra and Evangeline.
I want to thank everybody who so diligently kept up with this blog and checked fb so you could pray for her and us.  God did not choose to heal Olivia here but your prayers did not go unheard. We were held up by your love.
There will be a celebration of that love and Olivia's life on Saturday Aug. 21st at New Song Calvary Chapel in Lake Elsinore at 11AM followed by a potluck lunch with lots of love and fellowship.
Everybody is welcome.

Aug. 8th Harvest Crusade 2010

Sixteen years ago this weekend I went forward at  the Harvest Crusade at Jack Murphy Stadium. Wow, time flys.  I remember the message, Christ coming into your heart for a visit, no need to clean up first, He will do the work for you. Out with the green shag carpet and lava lamps and in with the new. It made sense to me, I gave my heart to Him.
Erik and I had been living together for about two years and he decided it was time to get married, so get married we did.  August 20th it will be 16years married, 18 years together.
Oh my gosh, so much water under the bridge, it has not been easy raising 8 kids in a combined family but we have come through without too many battle scars.
We are on the home stretch now, only Caleb, 'our' baby, is under 18 but we still have three under our roof, all loving the Lord.

Harvest Crusade 2010 NoseBleed Section!

Last night we went to the Harvest Crusade in Anaheim, OC Supertones were there, it took us back to the old "Spirit West Coast" days in Monterey CA. Good Times!
Now we are praying for our sweet grand daughter Olivia, lots of prayers. lots and lots of prayers.  My faith is being  challenged and put through the test.
Tonight the message of this years Harvest is "Why Suffering?"  I will be listening on the internet. I need this question answered.  I am praying, He will show me something I can understand.....

The Big Tree Falls (Aug. 3rd)

Yesterday at home in Lake Elsinore the day started with a crack, a rumble, a crash and a horn and that is never a good combination. 

Penelope on our roof

As most of you know we live at the base of the Ortega Hwy, we actually have a country feel about our area with a lot of wildlife (remember the baby hawks last year and Penelope Peacock?) and huge California Oak trees all around our property.

A few months ago we had a very large limb of one of the trees split, in slow motion and come to rest on top of our garage!  We were so fortunate that the split took a couple of days and there was no damage to any of our properity.  We have some pretty great neighbors that came to our rescue with chain saws before the tree came all the way down

Big limb coming down on our garage

Well yesterday we weren’t so luckey, or should I say our neighbors weren’t.

About 8AM the five hundred year old oak that sits exactly on our fence line split, and half of the tree came down on our neighbors garage, our back shed, fence and about a six foot section of our eves. There garage is a total loss, the car had to be towed away but is fixable, our shed and fence are done but our eve and and roof are reparable.

Kelly who was just visiting from Mississippi thought we were having an earthquake and headed for a door jam, Kim who was sitting on the couch about four feet from where the tree landed in our side yard will probably never be the same. Erik who was up stairs on the other side of the house thought a car missed the cornor and went through our neighbors house! I guess it was pretty exciting!  Praise God no one was hurt!  

We have been told that the oak had beetles, Yikes! We have three more huge trees on our property!  Definitley time to call in an expert.  The problem is these California Oak Trees are “protected”!  Yup, it is criminal to cut one down and you have to have a special permit from the state to even trim them!  But try to obtain a permit and its the big  government run around.  Several years ago we had to have one removed because it was lifting our foundation; after seven months of letters and phone calls to everybody from Lake Elsinore to Sacramento we finally had to find a trimmer who would “just do it” and come to find out, Keven and Shelly, our neighbors had a trimmer come out for an estimate a few months back and were told “its to hard to obtain a permit”, the guy didn’t even want the job.  Crazy huh?  These trees are so “protected” that peoples lifes are in danger, the government has made it so difficult that our hands are tied, trim and be fined, don’t trim and be squished!

Now Erik is in the midst of 3 different property owners and their insurance companys as well as the government trying to figure who is going to be responsible for and pay for cleaning up this huge mess.  

Good luck Babe!

Olivia Two months and counting....

Olivia was 2 months old yesterday, she will be 9 weeks tomorrow.

Olivia is still in bed 31 in the NICU and we are still at Ronald McDonald House across the street from Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.  Not too much has changed.
After two open heart surgeries and a huge amount of intensive care our little Olivia is not really where the doctors would like to see her.  The surgery was successful but Olivia is weak and she is having some trouble with a lot of different internal organs. She is still considered very critical and we are still praying for a miracle.
She is the sweetest little peanut with such expressive eyes. We all love her so much


Evangeline turned two on July 24th and we had a big fun party for her here at the house, it is not easy "getting on with life" while we know Livie is so sick but we must.  We had pizza and a princess cake and friends and family all show up to celebrate Princess Evangeline. Thank you God for the many blessings you have given us.

Pizza, presents and a princess cake= A Perfect Party!

Aunt Kelly and cousin Selah surprised us with a little 4 day visit this last week. Oh how sweet it was to see them. I picked them up at the San Diego airport on Friday night, we had a whirlwind weekend in Lake Elsinore and then two days of visiting in San Diego and then off again.
I want to say a special Thank You to the family that made this trip possible, you are a huge blessing to my family.

Auntie Kelly and "Cuzwlynn Selah"

Now we start our third month, school is starting at the end of Aug. and I will have to be changing my schedule, Caleb is a freshman in high school this year and I am teaching two classes so we won't be spending as much time down here, I know we will work it out but I am already feeling separation anxiety