My very first blog

I struggled with what to title this blog. In the end I decided to try to find the essence of what life is about for our family fight now. Beyond "it", is going to be about moving beyond the things in my life that get in the way of becoming what God has asked me to be. "It" will be fear, grief, anger, and confusion... but "it" can be a lot of other things too. In this process of moving beyond "it", there will be many past memories to share & many new adventures to explore together.

In the interest of protecting the privacy of my family, they all get "alias" names on this blog. In the end, it will let me share more freely in such a public setting.

We recently lost our 9 year old daughter, "Grace" to Wilms' Tumor, a childhood cancer of the kidney. She was diagnosed in Oct 2009 and went to be with Jesus in Dec 2010. I'd been using caring bridge to keep people informed throughout the roller coaster ride of those 14 months, but now that there are no more updates I can give on her, it seemed time to move to another form of communication. My husband "Joe", and daughters "Mae" (7 years old) and "Joy" (3 years old) are supportive of this and thankful for a way to stay in touch with our support system.

Thanks to those of you who continue to follow our journey. I hope we can learn and grow together... finding smiles, laughter and tears of joy along the way.