Saying Goodbye to a Beautiful Friend

On Sunday, December 8, 2013 Becca's long battle with stomach cancer ended.  She is now in a better place with no more suffering.  I still can't even believe it and it's hard for me to comprehend that I just won't see her anymore.  She was such an amazing friend and she was such a beautiful person both inside and out. 

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with her in the hospital about 2 weeks before she passed.  At that point she was still pretty coherent and in very little pain.  I went with a close group of girlfriends and it was one of the most special girlfriend times I've ever had in my life.  I was privileged to witness true, raw friendship--amazing women surrounding a friend with so much love in the darkest, hardest days of her life.  I'm so grateful for the incredible friends I have in my life. I think it was comforting and energizing to Becca for us to be there.  The following two weeks Becca started to lose her capability to speak and she was sleeping most of the time.  She finally ended her courageous battle and passed peacefully in her sleep with her parents by her side.

We celebrated Becca's life on Saturday, December 14.  It was so wonderful to see how many people attended the service and especially how many friends from high school were there.  Becca touched so many lives. 

It's still hard to put into words how I feel and it's hard for me to process that I've lost a close friend.  Especially with how fast it all happened.  For now it's been comforting being with friends, spending time with her husband and son, looking at pictures to remember happy memories, and reflecting on how grateful I am for my special friendship with Becca. 

Becca, you are so loved and will never be forgotten.

Thanksgiving weekend

I started writing blog posts a couple weeks ago and then other things happened and I'm just now coming back to it.  So the next few posts are catch up posts....

I just love the time of year between Halloween and New Years.  So much festive and fun stuff going on.  Lots of family time, beautiful décor, and things to look forward to.  Although this season hasn't been as joyful because we are just heartbroken about Becca and what the Stevenson and Holland families are going through.  This year's holiday season just isn't the same.  But we're trying to make the best of it as much as we can especially because Nathan is so much more aware and into the holidays this year.  He has said "wow" probably 100 times from seeing fun décor in our home and in the stores, and Christmas lights on the houses. 

Thanksgiving weekend was full of holiday events.  Especially because Thanksgiving was so late this year, it feels like the day after we just rolled right into Christmas.  The other special element to our weekend is that we got to have Brown Bear with us the whole time.  Brown Bear is a mascot from Nathan's class.  For the past couple of months, each kid has gotten to take Brown Bear home for a week or two and take him on special activities.  This week was our turn!  Keep an eye out for Brown Bear in the below photos.

I feel like Nathan got to more fully experience all the great parts of Thanksgiving this year since he's older now.  Our day started out as it usually does with the Macy's parade.  Nathan was enthralled watching all the dancers, marching bands, and floats.  Then he had his first official full Thanskgiving meal this year.  Last year he was just starting on solids so only got to enjoy sweet potatoes.  But this year he had all the fixin's.  We had a lovely meal at the Spauldings' with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Joyce visiting.  After the meal we took a brisk walk down to the park that Nathan loves.  Later in the afternoon we went over to the Warners' to enjoy some pumpkin dessert and French silk pie.

The next day we moved full speed ahead into Christmas.  Nathan, my parents, Brown Bear, Carly, Ryan's girlfriend and I all went to downtown Seattle to brave the Black Friday activity while James and Ryan went to the Apple Cup game (lucky them!).  The stores were crazy, but we tried to keep a good perspective and just enjoy the sights and sounds.  We visited the gingerbread houses in the Sheraton which were really cute and of course had to stop for peppermint mochas in the middle of the day.  Some stores were way too overwhelming for me.  I tried to get some Christmas shopping done, but realized it's better not to have an agenda on this day and just simply be present, browse, and just enjoy being with the family.  Ryan and James met us later for a yummy dinner at the Pink Door--one of our favorites.

Saturday's adventure consisted of helping Grampa Jay find a 12 foot Christmas tree for their home.  That's right...they have tall enough ceilings that they can get a 12 foot tree!  After a couple hours of searching and Jacky and I teasing the guys because they're so picky, we finally found the perfect tree and sawed it down.  Can't wait to see what it looks like all decorated!

Finally Sunday we spent some time at home.  We worked on getting our house decorated both inside and out.  Then in the afternoon, we met the grandparents for a Santa visit at the mall.  I was looking at last year's Santa photo and Nathan was happy as a clam sitting on the big guy's lap.  This year...not so much.  This year Nathan realized that Santa is a little scary.  But we got a classic crying photo (I was hoping we'd have at least one of them!).  He was a brave boy.

It was a wonderful holiday weekend and I just reflected a lot on how much I'm thankful for even in the midst of this hard time.  In fact it's interesting how the hard times help us realize what's really important and help us appreciate the good in our lives. I'm grateful to Becca for helping me live better in the present and really take advantage of every day.

Trick or Treat

I better get the Halloween post up before Thanksgiving hits or I'll really be behind.  This year's Halloween was really fun because Nate got to go trick or treating for the first time.  He dressed up as a lion and he does a pretty scary "roar" impression.  Papa and Pops took him to our neighbors' houses and he got his first loot of candy (yay for mom and papa who got to eat it all!).  I think Nathan was more interested though in the kids that came to our door.  It's not every day that kids in costumes ring our doorbell a bunch of times.  He was fascinated!  Along with a Halloween party the week before (see costumes below) and a party at his school, it was a really fun Halloween this year.

James carved this awesome pumpkin in about 30 minutes!

Cutest lion ever!

Ready to go trick or treating

The Spaulding circus!  (our costumes for our Halloween party)

Team Becca

I need to post photos from Halloween.  But it was more on my heart to do this post today instead.

Since I primarily write this blog as a means of keeping a journal or as a "scrapbook" for our family, I feel like it would not be right to only focus on the happy things going on in our lives.  I want this blog to be a real account of what we're experiencing and feeling.  So today is more of a bittersweet post.

First the bitter part.  Our dear sweet friend Becca has bravely been battling stomach cancer since March.  It has been a brutal few months, but Becca has handled it with so much strength, grace and perseverance.

And the sweet part.  Her amazing husband, son, and family have been so brave and it has been an honor for us to witness their servant hearts as they care for Becca.  It has also been special to watch friends, extended family and even people who don't know the family well rally together to contribute meals, yardwork, and other service. 

Last weekend a couple hundred people gathered to put on the Team Becca event to raise money that would go directly to the family.  The event was planned in correspondence with Stomach Cancer Awareness month.  James, my brother and I had the honor of helping to put on the event through photography, handing out auction tickets and organizing the donations/auction prizes.  The awesome friends in my life never cease to amaze me.  Heidi, Leslie and Vanessa worked so hard in the weeks prior to the event in making plans, ordering food, collecting auction items, ordering t-shirts, and involving volunteers.  As each person arrived and came around the corner to check in, my eyes filled with tears to see old high school friends that I hadn't seen in years and to witness so many people coming together to support Becca and her family.

Halfway through the event we got the wonderful surprise that Becca was getting discharged from the hospital and was actually going to be able to attend the event.  It made me so happy that she and Carter got to personally witness the event and see all their loved ones gathered in their honor.  Becca looked so beautiful and had this glowing smile.  Needless to say I was pretty much in tears the whole day.  To feel the love in the room and witness the generosity and support of others.  All told the event raised over $30,000 for the family.  Simply amazing.

Our hearts are heavy and we pray for miracles every day that Becca would be relieved of this suffering.  We are so inspired by her courage and strength.  Becca, we can't even describe how much you mean to us.  We love you and are always here for you.....as are many others.  In the midst of pain and suffering, it's always amazing to me how God somehow shines a little bit of light.

Annual Mountain Drive...without the mountains

The past few years around this time we've enjoyed a tradition of doing a drive through the mountains to Leavenworth with the Warner parents.  Nate got to participate in this annual tradition last year which was depicted here.

This year however Nate is a toddler and thinking about trying to entertain him and keep him comfortable in his car seat for 4 hours seemed overwhelming.  So we revised the mountain drive this year and instead went to a pumpkin patch at Craven Farm in the cute town of Snohomish. 

What a beautiful sunny day we chose!  We started out by having lunch at the Buzz Inn (I forgot to take photos) which was a cool place because it was right next to the rural Snohomish airport as well as the Snohomish Sky Diving place.  Throughout our lunch we watched sky divers come in on their parachutes every 30 minutes.  And Nate loved seeing all the "airpanes."

Then Uncle Ryan and Carly joined us at Craven Farm to pick out some pumpkins.  At this farm you literally "pick" your pumpkin--most of the pumpkins are on the vine still.  We had never done that before and it was pretty cool!  Luckily Uncle Ryan, photographer extraordinaire was there to capture the moments:

After lots of fun at the patch we walked around the town of Snohomish for awhile.  Then we all headed back to the Warners' to eat a yummy birthday dinner for me and watch the Huskies game.  What a perfect quintessential fall day.  I must admit I did miss the mountain drive though.  Hopefully Nate will be a little more up for it next year.

Surgery Central

It's been a tough couple of weeks for our family.  In early September, Nathan had surgery to get tubes put in his ears because he's been through too many ear infections this year.  The surgery went well, but it was tough watching him come out of the anesthesia which was uncomfortable for him.  Since then though he's been doing well with his ears. 

Then an exact week later James had surgery to get his torn ACL repaired.  He tore it back in high school in a skiing accident and his knee just learned to adapt.  As he's gotten older though it's been more annoying and painful and he wanted to prevent any more damage to his knee.  The surgery went really well, but the recovery is going to take awhile.  The first few days James was mostly laid up and felt really tired and loopy from his pain meds.  Now it's been almost 2 weeks and he has much more mobility.  He's started physical therapy and today he even drove!  So he's making great progress.  We still have a ways to go, but I'm proud of how well he's been doing. 

Amidst all this Nathan got the flu and had his first bee sting.  So it's been a little overwhelming and very busy--especially for me who's been trying to take care of my sweet boys and keep the rest of our lives afloat.  Thank goodness for our incredible parents who've given us so much help and attention (thank you Warners and Spauldings!)  Looking forward to our lives getting back to normal soon!

Poor little guy

Nice hat James!

Thank goodness for meds!

Nathan's Dedication

On August 18, 2013 we had a Dedication ceremony for Nathan.  For those of you who aren't sure what that means, our spiritual beliefs are to have a child dedicated to Christ which means the child's parents, family, and close friends help raise the child learning about, observing, and exemplifying the love of Jesus and His teachings.  Then when the child is at an age where he can understand more and make a decision on his own, the next step would be to get baptized.  Over the years our church has gotten so large that they don't perform baby dedication ceremonies during church services anymore.  The awesome part about that is we got to create our own unique ceremony that could be intimate and personalized.

We held our ceremony in the beautiful backyard garden of James' parents' house.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and Nathan was surrounded by his closest family and people who love him.  Darin Hanson, our wonderful campus pastor performed the ceremony and we couldn't have asked for someone more thoughtful and personable.  It was a really special day and we look forward to the future day when we'll get to celebrate Nathan's baptism.

Darin asked us as parents and Nathan's family to adhere to various promises and commitments

James and I then read some special messages we wrote for Nathan--our own promises to him

Beautiful cake from Grampa and Gramma

Heidi and Jesse Fader--Nate's amazing godparents!

Nate's whole loving family.  Notice he's pointing up to heaven.  He's a quick learner.  :)