I've missed you.

Hi.  My name is Morgan.  It has been 50 days since my last blog.

Many of you have told me that you miss the blog, the stories, and the pictures of Madeley.  Well, I guess I have too.  Life just got very hard, and the easiest thing to cut out was the blog.  I felt relieved not to think about it each night.  But I must remember my reason for blogging in the first place... Madeley.  I have never kept a scrapbook (not that kind of person), so the blog is my scrapbook.  Funny stories, adorable pictures, hardships of all kinds... I want to share them.  So here we go...

In the past 50 days, you have missed a lot with us.

Thanksgiving

Derrick's 32nd Birthday

Christmas

I'm pretty sure that Keep and Teach cropped Madeley into this next picture with Santa.  It's quite possible that she refused to sit in his lap, leaving them helpless in taking an adorable picture.  She repeatedly told me she did not want Santa to visit her on Christmas Eve... even if he was bringing toys.

Christmas went very well, but not without some hardships.  Many of you know that Derrick's mother passed away the day before his birthday.  She'd probably be telling not to blog about her if she could, but I must.  She was a wonderful woman that fought a good fight against cancer.  And we did at one point think she was cancer-free, but it didn't last long.  Once the doctor gave us a timeline, we started spending as much time as we could with her.  And she started eating as many chocolate covered covered pecans and soft peppermints as she could.  She also fed Madeley enough of those peppermints to make up for the years she'll miss.  We had Christmas early in anticipation of what would come.  When I told her thank you for the shoes she got me, she replied, " You're welcome.  You boys sure are hard to buy for!"  She definitely gave us some laughs.  

One thing that continues to stand out to me is this...

As she faced death, I know she must have been scared, not ready to leave.  When she went to the alter at church, she did not pray for healing.  Instead, she prayed that her heart would be ready to meet the Lord.  I know the Lord must have granted her request and welcomed her with open arms to heaven.  

My little miss priss...

Here she's eating her favorite, peanut butter!

Playing with the tea set Santa brought.  She insists on actually having tea... we use water.

On Christmas day, we had breakfast at Dad's.  When we were getting ready to leave, I could not find Madeley's sippy cup of milk.  We all looked and looked and looked.  One of my biggest fears is losing a milk cup and finding it a week later.  ICKY!!!!  Anyhow, we finally had to give up the search and head home.  Well today, I saw Madeley completely leaned over in the toy box at Dad's... her feet were sticking straight into the air.  A few minutes later, she comes out drinking yesterday's sippy cup.  I said, "NOOOOOO!"  I yelled so loud it startled her and Dad came out to see what happened.  I said, "Guess who found the sippy cup and guess who's drinking yesterday's milk!!!"

Dad said, "Oh well, it's cold enough in here to keep that milk good."  And if any of you know my dad, you know that's the truth.  It was probably 65 degrees in there!!!  So I told myself she would live.

Thanks for reading!!