Run for the Border

The day was finally here! We'd waited in anticipation for some time. We were so excited to be able to see all the people come out and ride together. It was so fun to see all the bikes and hear them all start their engines, I got emotional again of course and was teary eyed. No offense to any bikers but when you think of bikers the stereotype is tough and mean. Not so, I've come to learn, at least not all of them. :) The ones I've met have hearts of gold.
The night before the run we decided to print off wallet size pictures to give out to the riders from Scarlet and express our gratitude. Debbie and Charlie went around and handed them out. I made Debbie relay some stories to me so I could write them down for Scarlet. I won't go into too much detail. Some of the bikers said that they would keep it close to their hearts and put the picture in their vest pocket and some taped it to their windshield so they could remember who they are riding for. Debbie told me that one grandma biker said that she had just gotten a new wallet and didn't have any pictures to put in it and now she would. I was a little apprehensive about giving out pictures of Scarlet for fear that people really wouldn't want them and perhaps there were some who didn't, but the overall feedback was that they were appreciative to be able to see one of the kids they were riding for and as some put it, "Have a face to go with all the prayers being said". Ok, now, doesn't that make you want to cry? Because it does to me! :)
Debbie was the perfect person to hand them out too. She is a like a proud peacock when it comes to her Scarlet Rose. :) I don't know if a mom could get away with what a grandma can.

I want to send out a huge thank you to all the bikers. Thank you so much for participating and making the event so awesome! Thank you for all the prayers for the kids and families and Thank you just to thank you again! You really did do something great and we are so appreciative. I hope you had lots of fun!

Ladies of Harley Auction

You may or may not know already that Scarlet was chosen to be a recipient of an annual fund raiser called "Run for the Border" this year. It's where bikers of all kinds get pledges and line up together and ride to the Canadian border in parade style. The night before the ride the Ladies of Harley host an auction to also help raise money for the families chosen; I believe there are 9 families total. My understanding is that LOH raised 17,000 dollars at the auction, pretty incredible. I remember looking around during the live auction at all the people who came to support the kids in need and I was so touched. Ever since I've had Scarlet I've become a big crier. I can cry anytime or all the time, especially when it comes to Scarlet. I watched the Smile train commercial and just bawled the other day, I couldn't help but get teary eyed and emotional at the auction either just because I am so grateful. When the "Run for the Border" group called and asked me if Scarlet could be a recipient I felt it was a direct answer to prayer. Just the night before I was going through stacks of insurance statements, most of which said maxed out on coverage or something to that effect. I was so stressed out, yes, we do have medicaid as secondary but that ends this month and we were aware of that at the time. Our insurance has started coverage again but her care is still so expensive. I've always known that Heavenly Father looks out for us and I'm so glad that I can recognize his hand in this because it helps me to stay closer to Him and put my faith in Him. I couldn't have made it through everything with Scarlet without Him. I know God lives, I know He loves us. I know He answers prayers and wants to bless our lives. I'm so grateful for all who helped organize the "Run for the Border" events. I really believe that God does answer prayers through the hands of others and I thank you for lifting some of the burdens of the families going through so much. We couldn't be more grateful. I'm not sure what the total amount came to from the auction and the ride but even if they had only raised a few dollars I would still be so grateful. All the work and effort put into making the event what it was was just so incredible. The first picture is of Debbie and April Taylor. April's done a lot for us and the community, she is so amazing! Then there is Larry and Jim who are part of the "Run for the Border" committee, you wouldn't believe what big hearts they have.

I've gotta tell you about this kid auctioneer. I think they said he was only 14! He was a lot of fun! I can't believe he's only 14, crazy! Charlie's Grandma Doris was so sweet and wanted to donate so she gave us 200 dollars to bid at the auction. Thanks Grandma Doris we had so much fun!!

It was May Day in Leavenworth over Mother's Day weekend so I went with my mom's to see the parade and the May Pole dancing. Since I spent a lot of years growing up in Germany it was really fun to see the Maibaum there in Leavenworth. I've always felt strong ties to the German culture because of my growing up there and now since Scarlet's transplant, I feel a renewed and even stronger tie and love for Germany. If you don't know already, Scarlet's donor is a man from Germany. The whole time I was watching the dancing I felt really emotional because I am so grateful for him who gave so much to our family half a world away. I took several different videos of the dancing but this one was my favorite because it reminded me of one of the few family "vacations" we had ever taken growing up. I think I was around 10 yrs. old when we all went to Berchtesgaden, Germany. We took this train into a mountain to get to the salt mine, if you could call it that, it was more like a kiddie ride at a fair, but really old and no protective anything, like seatbelts or sides to keep you from falling out. I remember clinging to whoever was in front of me and being really scared, first of the dark and secondly of falling off. I can relate a lot to the people on the boat on Willie Wonka going down the river, it was dark and you could feel that there wasn't a lot of space and there would be flashes of light randomly through the tunnel into the mountain. So when you see the men crouching in their dance, they really had to crouch in those mines! When the train stopped though, and this is where it gets even more like Willie Wonka, the tour guide said you could lick the walls because it was a salt mine and the walls were of salt. I'm sure snozzberries tasted a lot better than those salt walls. Then we took this wooden raft over a small lake of salt water from there, it was really Harry Potter like. I really don't remember how we got out of the mountain. The whole experience was a little traumatizing but it was so amazing. Sorry, didn't mean to make this blog a flashback, but once I started I had to keep going. :) You understand.

Drive In Movie

I wanted desperately to get out of the house some weekend ago so we decided to go to the drive in movie. I love Drive In's! It was a lot of fun! We watched Jumper and National Treasure for 15 bucks a carload. You can't beat that! Scarlet had fun too, until the movie actually started and we wanted her to sit and be quiet. It was around her bedtime anyway so I locked her in her car seat fed her a bottle and she slept for both movies. Charlies parents came along and we met up with Charlie's high school buddy and wife .
We were in the old 1992 van that just couldn't take the 4 hours without a jump. Good thing Aaron came along!

Birth announcement

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Since I mentioned not sending out birth announcements of Scarlet, I decided to send them out now on my blogspot. :)

Here she is, born on April 10th at 2:53am, weighing 5lbs 15oz and 19 1/4 inches long.


This is her at 2 weeks old wearing her first dress in front of the cherry blossom tree.

More Sunday Fun!

There is a small Japanese garden just around the block of our house. It's there because we have this sister-city thing with Misawa, Japan. I feel a little foolish, but I don't remember what the deal was. Something about a plane flying non-stop to Japan or Wenatchee and...well, anyway, we're sister cities. Today was special because there was a re-naming of the garden to the Japanese mayor who was a part of the uniting cities for 25 years or so. He passed away and so in his honor it was renamed after him. So the first picture is of our walk around the block to where the dedication was happening. This backpack is so much fun. It belongs to Charlie's mom, Debbie, who had it when Clayton was a baby (he's 20 yrs old now). So, it's pretty old and I was a little reluctant to use it at first because I wasn't sure if was safe still based on it's age. Scarlet loves it! We go out and water the plants together everyday, we bake together, clean together. She loves to be able to watch what I'm doing and I don't have her pulling on my pant legs to pick her up every 5 seconds. She barely weighs over 16 pounds and I hardly feel her at all. It's great!
These tree pictures are of us in front of our Dogwood tree in the front yard. We took pictures here last year too. It's fun.

Cherry Blossom Fun

When Charlie and I were dating we took pictures in front of the cherry blossom tree at his parents house right as the blossoms were about to fall. We have some fun pictures of us shaking the branches and playing in the falling petals. This is also where Scarlet had her birth announcement pictures taken...which no one got because we found out shortly after that she was sick and it was crazy from there. So, we have about a 100 birth announcements just hanging out here in the office.
Anyway, so this is going to be our family tradition; pictures in front of the cherry blossom tree every Spring. The mumu dress was a gift from Gramma Debbie's trip to Hawaii a couple weeks ago. She is so darling in it. There's nothing better than a warm sunny Sunday, a nice walk and a good dinner, what a day!
By the way, this is the first time Scarlet has sat or walked in the grass...she was on a blanket in our Christmas pictures. I think as long as she isn't playing in the dirt she's ok. It's kind of a gray area in the whole post transplant deal.

No head butting Daddy!

Scarlet nailed Charlie in the nose yesterday, he ended up bloodied. My sister said her son did the same thing to her and she was bleeding all over the place...gotta watch out for Williams kids, they'll get you.

Monkeying around

I was going through Scarlet's clothes that no longer fit her the other day and I came across her monkey costume from Halloween. Just for fun I thought I would try it on her and sure enough, it fit! Sort of, it was a little short on legs and sleeves. It was so funny watching her toddle around in her monkey suit. I have video, I'll post it sometime, hopefully. So, funny story, Charlie and I had agreed that when we got settled and had a home he would take care of the "outside" chores...yeah, that's me out there mowing the lawn. So much for that. :)