Saying Hello…and Goodbye

The activity continues this week at a fever pitch!  Just when we feared things would calm down between the Birthday and the big Heart Walk this weekend, a story about Rudy was featured in Tuesday’s edition of the Santa Barbara News Press.  We’re so proud and are working to get it linked or posted online for all of you Rudy fans to see.

An equally big highlight for me was the chance to meet some true heroes.  I had an opportunity to attend a conference at Stanford and, while it’s always fun to go prowl my alma mater (even if the only students I know to look up are kids of people I went to school with!), I was most excited that it would give me a chance to finally meet the Nelsons.  Over the course of Rudy’s journey, we’ve come into contact with many families facing similar circumstances–and a few of them become your friends.

If you read their blog, you will quickly get a sense of Justin and Victoria’s devotion to little Moriah.  Recalling my chance to see it first-hand makes my eyes a bit moist; love, concern, wisdom, joy, celebration, faith, hope, beauty in such abundance.  Moriah is adorable and her parents are such people of peace and grace having been thrust into one of the most challenging parenting scenarios conceivable.  Over the last two years, we’ve received vivid reminders of just how much might be asked of us as parents, but that becomes so clear when I see parents who have relocated, quit jobs and altered their lives to an unbelievable extent on account of their child’s needs.

Among the graces extended to Rudy is the fact that he didn’t come when his parents were in their mid-twenties.  I am in awe of Justin and Victoria and the way they have navigated this.  With her third birthday approaching, Moriah still has yet to spend any significant stretch of time at home.  But it’s getting very close and our prayers are with them–for Moriah’s health and for the mountain of logistics that need to be overcome with insurance, home health, etc. in order to get her there.  What awesome people.  What a great visit.  I hope I’m not being to forward if I insist on doing it at YOUR HOME next time!  Be sure to check out their blog and pray with us.

Devoted Rudy fans might have recalled yesterday’s significance…October 6th.  Five days after his birthday.  That unforgettable day two years ago when he had the Norwood (remember this and this).  As much as this date is etched into memory it got a bit overshadowed yesterday when Olivia got home from school and discovered that her pet fish, Allen, had gone to the great fishbowl in the sky.  As I was out of town, Max officiated at the memorial.  He shared that Allen was a good fish and he made Olivia very happy during his short life.  He gave unselfishly and asked nothing in return except for daily food and weekly changes of water (hindsight indicates that neglecting the latter may indeed be fatal).  Olivia is doing well, buoyed by the prospect of getting a new fish after school today, but draws comfort from us all remembering Allen–there was no beta like him!