A Bittersweet Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is an important day in our household. For on this day, we celebrate love, mine and Heath's wedding anniversary, and Aunt Lala's birthday. For Heath and I this marked our second wedding anniversary. Though I must admit, in what we have been through in the last two years, it felt more like five.

Chance woke at a stellar 186 - right on target though he didn't eat much since recovering from his stomach bug. This Valentine's Day would be a very special day for us. In addition to all that we were celebrating, we had five families come over so their kid(s) could get their photo taken for the JDRF Gala program. These kids will represent the families that have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009. Heath was the photographer and Dan the artistic director - thank you Dan! The Ivarssons were there to help greet the families and get the model releases signed.

One by one, over a period of a few hours, five cars pulled into the driveway. Each family having a story to tell. There were parents, grandparents, kids from 3-14 with type 1diabetes and their siblings. One family actually had TWO kids get diagnosed within a 6 month period. One a 12 year old and the other a 14 year old - as if the teenage years aren't hard enough on families. There was a familiar theme though - they were all positive, in it together, and happy to meet other families with type 1 kids.

The other interesting theme was how proud these kids looked when we reviewed the photos last night. As they should be! They have been given a tough twist in their life and they are making the best of it. And more importantly they are getting involved!

The last shot is Oskar. He is a little trooper and a cute one at that! Unfortunately, Tas and Chance slept through all the festivities. A nap that lasted from 12:30-5pm! For the next photo shoot, we are going to get them to bed early the night before and get down for their naps early so they can partake in the festivities and so Chance can have his photo taken.

In ther evening, Heath and I ordered steaks from Outback and celebrated our special day. Heath gave me two wonderful gifts - the first a 8X10 shot of the boys from our Mt. Leconte trip last summer mounted on a cube frame. It is a very intense photo of the boys and was the last big trip we did before Chance's diagnosis. The photo brought tears to my eyes when I opened it. The second photo is 16X20 family photo from our beach trip last summer, which Heath did an oil painting effect and mounted on canvas. It is a stunning piece and stands proudly on our mantle.