WALK LIKE MADD 2010

If ONLY ................. ( a Mimi post)


Tara said it "best" but since I'm the Mimi and have been thinking about this day all week (and forever), I must also add this post ..... I can't tell you why except that it somehow feels like I'm able to speak to these precious grandchildren I've (WE'VE) lost five years ago today .......

What IF .....

What would they be like, what would they look like, what would they be doing?

Rachel -



Rachel would be 15 .... 15 years old! I know she would be such a beautiful teenager -- would she be getting ready to cheer at the first football game of the season? Would she still be showing lambs? (I really think so) Would she have a boyfriend (or two)? Have experienced her first kiss? Been to her first dance? I can almost see her now, so grown up and looking forward to a great year in high school .... HIGH school!

Madelyn -



Madelyn would be 11 ..... She would be in 5th grade, the grade Rachel was in when they left us. I can see her now, with that red hair and twinkle in her eyes --- she would be enchanting everyone as she always did. Would she be showing pigs (her choice) or lambs? I'm thinking that in Heaven she can show those dragons she always told me she wanted to show ... when she was old enough ... a time that never came.

Yates -



Yates would be 5 ..... Just starting Kindergarten! I think about Neeley starting Kindergarten this year and smile through my tears thinking about how excited he would have been! Would he be playing T-ball or flag football or soccer? Would he be thinking of ways to convince Dad that steers were what HE would want to show when he got a 'little older'? Just a little guy when he left us, it's the most difficult for me to imagine what he would be like as we knew him for such a short time.

I KNOW they are in a better place, a place where there's always sunshine and rainbows and always joy and happiness and they are having a wonderful time with their Papaw and their GDad but that doesn't make us miss them any less.

If only............

PLEASE Don't Drink and Drive! Please don't cause another family to live through what we do!



and so it goes ---

and BECAUSE ---

because of this terrible tragedy, the sun shines through those tears as three years to this very day a wonderful phone call was made to the Mom and Dad --- to tell them there were two little girls -- twins -- waiting half a world away for them ...

Our Hope and Faith - our sunshine ............



and what Hope and Faith they have given us! What beautiful and dear little girls they've grown into.



I like to think that during that 3 plus months after we lost Rachel, Madelyn, and Yates and before Hope and Faith were born, there was a time in Heaven when they knew each other and three beautiful children helped in sending down from Heaven two beautiful little Chinese twin girls to help fill our lives with such love and sunshine!

I know it isn't our place to question so I'll just have Faith that it was part of His plan and Hope that the sun keeps shining through our tears.

I feel so blessed to have 10 wonderful grandchildren ---

the Mimi

It's five years today that our children were taken from us by a drunk driver. Some days it seems like it was just yesterday and other days it feels like a life time ago. I can only imagine what they would look like today. Beautiful and handsome, I'm sure! The twin's have to be so confused about it all, they know they have 2 sisters and a brother and that they live with God, but just the other day Hope brought me a notebook that was Rachel’s that she had wrote in and asked me who's was it, when I told her it was Rachel's she wanted to know why she left it here. One day they will understand, but in their little minds, being with God is just another place you live, and they are so right... we will see them again when it's our time to go. PLEASE, DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK, because this is what happens to innocent people. Give your children a hug and kiss today, and tell them you love them!!!!!

Walk like MADD

Click here to support our walk with MADD :

any amount will help!

Please if you can help us try to reach our goal to raise, for a cause so dear to our hearts. The walk will be May 2 at the Montgomery ZOO, so help us WALK Like MADD and raise the money to support mothers against drunk drivers keep the impaired drivers off our streets.

What am I doing?
I am walking to support Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in saving lives on our nations streets and highways. Please help me reach my fundraising goal by making a donation now.
What does MADD do?
MADD works in more than 600 communities across the country, and has more than 1,400 trained victim advocates on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support victims with comfort or legal assistance they can rely on.
Finding a cure...
Unlike most others, our cause doesn't need a cure; it already exists-it's you and me, our friends, our neighbors. It's all of us choosing to drive sober or designating a driver if we drink alcohol.

Click to support the MADD Walk

Why Does MADD Do a Walk?

Did you know that 41% of fatal crashes are alcohol-related? It doesn't have to be that way. Since MADD was founded, 300,000 lives have been saved nationwide. All it takes is your support! Every step taken and pledge made will help raise funds and awareness for MADD's programs and services that will serve to keep our children and communities safe.

August 28 ------

A post from Mimi -


How can one date hold the greatest sorrow and the greatest joy at the same time ----
-- four years ago today three beautiful children lost their lives when a drunk driver crashed into the vehicle they were riding in with their parents.


-- two years ago today two beautiful little twin girls from China were referred to their forever family.


It's a day of tears and smiles for me (and I'm sure for everyone who has lived this experience with us) but certainly one I just can't NOT recognize. It seems I'm destined to spend this date in New York as I find myself there today -- just as I was four years ago and just as I was two years ago ------ so here I am remembering those beautiful children (my grandchildren) and while I know they are in their forever home and smiling down on us today it is with tears in my eyes that I write this post today. They will never be forgotten and their memory brings us joy to have had them in our lives, brief though it was.



-- and I am also smiling through those tears remembering the call from Tara (the Mom) to tell me that they had gotten "the call" that there were two little twin girls waiting for us in China (my grandchildren)---



Give your children (and granchildren) a special hug today.

A day of remembering ----

NEWS

Here are some news stories on our tragedy



http://kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=9309062

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/020105/upd_075-4986.shtml

http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?S=3967025&nav=CcXH

http://www.madd.org/chapter/4800_2652

http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2006/01/17/Entertainment/Faded.Memories-1369933.shtml

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=95944525

http://www.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=25874

http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=5585255&nav=menu69_2_11

http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=4375027&nav=menu69_2_11

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/083104/reg_083104052.shtml

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/101205/loc_101205040.shtml

Pictures and Billboard

Rachel, Madelyn, and Yates

This billboard was put up for a short time in Seminole Texas very close to where our children lost their lives. To remind people not to drink and drive.