It has been a really long time.

Hi there... It has been so long since I have written a post, years have actually passed. I have wanted to blog, but there was always so much sickness and heartache at our house. I didn't know where to start. It always seemed like I was surviving and there was not really any thing happy to blog about. Then lives changed forever.

Four months ago our hearts were broken with the unexpected death of our beautiful newborn daughter Lily-Mae Grace. Early in my pregnancy we knew Lily had Jacobsen Syndrome. Which was a tiny deletion of part of her 11th chromosome. This caused her to have Hyperplastic Left Heart Syndrome. A serious heart defect. We did all we could to plan for her arrival. I stayed in the bay area so she could be born at Stanford Hospital and have the best heart surgeons.

On the day she was born there was a little accident during surgery and Lily unexpectedly passed away. It was a complete shock to us all. I have never felt such pain in my entire life. Even though we knew death was a very real risk. I never thought it would happen. At first it was hard to know what to do next... I had planned my life around how I would help make her life better. I felt lost and heartbroken.

Now the pain is still there, but now I want to make our home happy again. Like it was a few years ago. We have a lot to be grateful for. We have so many lovely friends and family. I have missed my blog family. I can't wait to visit with all of you again.
Shelly~