Six months and counting…

by | Jun 15, 2018

Here we are six months later trying our best to get used to the world without Kelsey here.  The days fly by but the moments drag.  We all grab the phone to call her, share some moment of our lives with her.  We miss the laughter, that beaming smile, the way she would listen and the gentle advice.  For me, as her mom, I miss our afternoon-on-the-drive-home-from-work chats.  I miss her Harry Potter phone ring (which I will never change). We all have our moments, and sometimes we hurt and we cry.  Then we meet people who have had their lives changed by Kelsey.  We meet people who never had the chance to meet Kelsey but know, through her village, that she was a driving force of Christ’s love.

To bring everyone up to date, we finally got all the information back from the toxicology tests and Mayo Clinic Studies.  There were no new findings.  While we had hoped for more, we have exhausted all possible tests and accept that this was God’s will.  We know where she is and that she watches over us all.  We will be forever grateful for the time we had with her, brief as it was.

We are slowly getting used to a new normal.  Jeremy returned to work in April.  He has taken a sabbatical from the church for now as we all try to work out the new schedules.  The family has made every effort to spend as much time together as possible during this time. We find that time spent together helps us all.  Mother’s Day weekend was spent building a firepit in the backyard at Kelsey and Jeremy’s home.  It was something she had always wanted to do and we felt it would be a good way to spend family time! It was a great day with a thanksgiving picnic following with our village turning out!  A huge thanks to Larry and Pam Leighton, Scott Booth, Ashley and Nick Harvey, Ben and Amanda Travis and Jeremy for all the work!  On June 3, thanks to Brett and Bekie Yancey, we attended a Mariners Game in Seattle.  Brett had made arrangements for a private meeting prior to the game with Edgar Martinez.  He was a gracious man who was touched to know that Kelsey was a great fan.  (He also loved the fact that Violet spoke to him in his native language!)

So, as live moves forward, we are heading to Haiti! We have dates of July 20-26, 2019 for the house dedication.  We have committed to raise $17,000 to build this home in Haiti.  We will be announcing fundraising activities in the next few days.  Please, if you can share our web site and blog with your friends and family, that will be a great aid in our endeavors.