Hannah's 2008 Birthday Olympics

Fall break is off to an AWESOME start! The first activity on our schedule was Hannah's Birthday Olympics! The excitement was building as we were driving to USA Youth Fitness Center -- the locale of choice for Hannah's Birthday Olympics. She chose this gym as it was befitting of our "Olympic" theme. We arrived early to set up for the festivities and to greet our guests. Aimee and Lisa were the first of the party girls to arrive and were such a big help in keeping our excited birthday girl company while we were waiting. The gym was painfully off limits until everyone else arrived. As you will see, it was certainly worth the wait!

Gary, the 40-something-kid-at-heart that he is, was the first to jump into the foam pit. He really knows how to get the fun started. The girls were all warming up with their coach, Carrie, but they laughed when they saw him jump in. He was followed a couple of other adults -- Shanna Weissman and Hannah's Aunt Carmen! Well, Aunt Carmen didn't exactly jump in on her own... Of course, jumping in was the easy part...climbing out was another story.

Now the girls were really anxious to get jumping. Here's one of Hannah's closest friends, McKaylan, jumping off to a good start.

Here's one of Hannah's bestest friends, Aimee, showing some mad skills on the uneven bars. Go Aimee!!!

Here's Hannah swinging into the pit... As you can see, all of Hannah's sweet friends were having tons of fun jumping, bouncing and swinging...

Before heading upstairs for cake and presents, Hannah had a little medal ceremony for her friends where she presented each of them with their own gold medal. No Olympic party would be complete without a medal ceremony. The girls lined up and waited for their medal of friendship. Before going upstairs though, Grandma Jeanne surprised Hannah with a victory medal for the birthday girl.

Now, it's finally CAKE TIME! Thanks to Aunt Carmen for the dee-licous cake! She has brought every birthday cake for Hannah since her first birthday. What a 'sweet' and thoughful tradition!

Hannah then had fun opening all of the unique and thoughtful gifts

presented to her by her awesome friends.

We are so grateful and so blessed to have so many kind, caring and sweet friendships in our lives. Each heart that we have grown to know and

love is the true gift that we cherish. Thank you all for sharing this special occasion with our family. We love you all bunches!!

In Loving Memory of Debra Lynn Tepper

Our beloved sister-in-law Debbi passed into God's loving arms last night. She was a beautiful angel among us, an incredibly loving wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend to so many. Her gentle spirit, kindness and amazing grace will live on in her children and her adoring husband forever, of that we are certain. We were all so very blessed and honored to have her in our lives. Her smile was so warm and her laughter was always contagious. The memories that we each have of Debbi will carry us on until we meet again...in Heaven. We love you Debbi so very much and will miss your touch and your smile, but we can still feel your love in each of our hearts. Thank you God for lending us your angel, if only for a short time.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless,
and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible,
look kindly upon us, and increase Your mercy in us,
that in difficult moments, we might not despair, nor become despondent,
but with great confidence, submit ourselves to Your holy will,
which is Love and Mercy itself.

Urgent Prayer Request...

Our family has been dealing with some very sad news these last several days. My sister-in-law, Debbi Tepper, has been hospitalized and is suffering complete paralysis. Debbi has been on a breathing machine since she was admitted into Condell Hospital in Libertyville, Illinois. The doctors were stumped and did not know what they were dealing with, notwithstanding the battery of tests and medications that they have had Debbi on since Thursday. They thought they were dealing with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system), but Monday's MRI shockingly revealed brain lesions and the prognosis was not good at all. The doctors are not extending any hope, but we need to lift our hearts in prayer for God's love and mercy as Debbi slipped away into a coma and has not regained consciousness. The doctors' tests have revealed that there is no brain activity and are planning on removing her from life support tomorrow, but are just waiting for her Mom to arrive. As you can expect, her husband George (Gary's twin) and their children Jamie and Brandon are completely distraught. We are all in shock and disbelief that this is happening at all. We keep praying for hope and for God to pull her through this horrible ordeal. Please pray with us for Debbi, George and their children. We love you Debbi so very much. God is in control and we trust in Him.

Romans 15:13

(The picture at the top right was taken at a recent Christmas family gathering. From left to right are Jamie, Brandon, Debbi and George.)

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless,

and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible,

look kindly upon us, and increase Your mercy in us,

that in difficult moments, we might not despair, nor become despondent,

but with great confidence, submit ourselves to Your holy will,

which is Love and Mercy itself.

Happy 21st Anniversary!

April 25, 2008 marked our 21st wedding anniversary. How can this be? It does not seem like 21 years. As I said to my Dad, "I have now been married half of my life!" Dad laughed. I laughed. Hannah laughed too. I'm okay with that. I guess I have to be, don't I? But actually, I hate to sound so cliche', but marriage definitely gets better, stronger and sweeter with time. We are blessed, that is for certain.

To celebrate, we went out to dinner and Hannah even let us choose the restaurant. We went to The Keg, a favorite of ours. I have been asked how come we chose not get a sitter for Hannah. We can't celebrate this milestone or any other without our sweet girl. After all, we were not just celebrating a marriage, but a family. She even snapped this picture of Gary and I at the end of our dinner. We had a great evening in great company with a fine meal, all the while giving thanks to God for all that we have, all that we are and all that we will be.