The Wedding
Here is a picture of my grandmother, father, sister and me at my cousin's wedding. I'm standing next to my dad and my sister Chrissy is sitting next to our grandmother. Megan, my beautiful niece, is taking the photograph. :-) Unfortunately, the pictures of all of us didn't turn out well. :-( I hope to have some color pictures after a while. Megan took the pictures deliberately in black-and-white to fulfill a project in school.
So Grandma made it to the wedding and she even danced at the wedding. Megan got a picture of that, too, but sadly it didn't turn out well.
Crystal was gorgeous. I think brides always look lovely, but Crystal was clearly in love with Mike and the look on her face made her more beautiful than ever. I wish those two lovebirds all the best. It was very nice of them to share their special day with us. I can't remember the last time we had so many family members gathered together . . . I guess it was for Grandma's 80th birthday, but Crystal's family couldn't make it to that. So this is the first time we've had that many members of these families together. It was very special.
Miami Conference (see www.congenitalheartdefects.com's calendar for more information about this conference)
Since I've been back from Mississippi I've been very busy preparing for the conference I'll be speaking at in October. It is going to be so wonderful. I just found out that there is going to be a very special little boy performing for the group during lunch. The piano player is a brother to a little boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. I'm so excited that I'm going to have a chance to meet this little boy. I met his father in Philadelphia over a year ago. At that time I had a chance to hear Gene talk with pride about his two boys. Now I'm going to have a chance to meet them and his wife. It will be great to see the whole family under such happy circumstances.
Boston Conference (go to the www.congenitalheartdefect.com calendar for more information on this conference, too)
I've just finished reading an email from Mary Kay Klein, the organizer of the Boston conference for adults with congenital heart defects. Mary Kay has been helping to organize the conference in memory of her daughter Karen. I am so happy that I'm going to have a chance to attend this conference. Now that I see Alex becoming a young man, what these people have to say is going to be even more meaningful to me than it would have been 10 years ago. While I don't know if any of the speakers will be adults with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (the heart defect Alex has), I'm sure many of them will also have complex heart defects similar to Alex's. I'm also certain that the challenges they have faced are ones Alex will also have to face someday.
Most importantly, I will have a chance to hear how some people have survived having a heart defect and even thrived. It is such an inspiration to listen to these people. I met Karen years ago when she visited Austin to see a heart friend she'd made on the Internet. My friend, Jane Hunt, and I had gone to a support group meeting at Brackenridge Children's Hospital and we couldn't wait to meet this young lady. We then took Karen and her friend, Anthony, where they needed to go after the meeting. That gave us a few minutes to talk to them away from the others at the meeting. They acted just like other college kids we knew.
Mary Kay wrote for The Heart of a Mother and her husband Ted is writing for The Heart of a Father. I'll be bringing my autograph copy of my book for Mary Kay to sign. So far I've gathered quite a few signatures. I can't wait to finish The Heart of a Father so I can do likewise with the dads I have a chance to meet.
I hope you all had a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anna Jaworski
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