These Days

As we enter the final day of 2009, we take the time to reflect on the highs and lows of the past year. Reflection is good...but you can not let the past hold you down like an anchor around your neck. There are always bright moments no matter how dark it might have seen at the time. My brightest moment...in the darkest time...feeling Natalia's soul leave her little body and fly out the window and straight up to God's waiting arms. To know that she was free of pain and able to fly high after all she had been through...priceless.

Well, we made it through Christmas. Thank you God, for this incredible house. I truly believe that having to move mid-December saved our sanity. It kept us so busy that we didn't think too much about Christmas fast approaching. There were just too many other things that we needed to get done. We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house with all my family. It was fun to watch Preston and Pia open their presents. We put on our bright happy faces but without Natalia there it just felt incomplete. I had made the decision to stay home Christmas Day about a week before. I knew, or thought I knew, what I was going to be like...not pretty to be around. We ended up inviting friends over to have dinner with us...probably our best decision. Christmas morning found Edgar and I snapping at each other. It's what we do when the pain gets too much. We got over it pretty quick, it was just so hard to see just one child's presents under the tree...Santa took a letter from Sophia to her sister and brought her a present from Natalia. According to Sophia the best present was her trampoline...ok so Mama & Papa love it too. That afternoon, Marcy & AJ, Jeannine & Ryan and their boys Brett & Conner helped us officially open the house. It was an awesome dinner filed with love and laughter. Truly the best medicine!!!

I wish you all the brightest of New Year.

"It's all in your heart. You have to be strong in your heart."-Natalia Valle

Much Love,
Roni