Augusta, GA to New Iberia, LA and Back

This weekend was a marathon! We drove (yes, drove) 750 miles (one way) to attend Matt's brother and sister-in-law's wedding reception in Louisiana. And then we drove back!

The drive was grueling, but the kids did great! Mollie was happy to have a new game for her Leapster and a huge selection of movies (thanks Isabella!) for her DVD player. Unfortunately, Lucy was not as easy to please, but she also did very well in the car.

We all had fun visiting with family and friends. Mollie had a great time at the reception- she especially enjoyed dancing with her cousins Jordan and Cole and their new-found friends. Friday night they danced to traditional Cajun music at Randal's dance hall and Saturday night was traditional wedding DJ fare.

We're still recovering from the drive, but tonight Matt and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We showed Mollie our wedding photos and remembered what a blast our reception was! It was fun reminiscing about everyone there. This was a much better anniversary than last year, which was spent in the hospital just before Mollie was diagnosed with leukemia.

Tomorrow I will post (as I promised a long time ago) the story of Mollie's diagnosis, in Matt's words. It is really, really difficult for me to even think about it. It always makes me wonder if we missed earlier signs and symptoms and I often try to remember details of the weeks and months before she was diagnosed. And I start wondering, "Why?". Was Mollie exposed to something, either while I was pregnant or sometime after she was born, that caused the leukemia? We will never know the answers to these questions and it is futile to think about them.

I have survived the past year by following two simple rules:

1) Be positive. Not necessarily about the future, but about the right now. Things are pretty good, right now, and we are enjoying the moment.

2) Focus on what is important. Burying treasures for Mollie and Lucy to find in the sand box is much more important than doing the dishes.

This year has been the most challenging year of my life, but also the most rewarding. Mollie is awesome! She is an inspiration as are all of our friends and family who have helped us out in innumerable ways.

Tonight: a few pictures from the weekend and a requests for prayers & positive thoughts for our friend Courson, who is in the hospital with very low blood counts.