| December 23, 2010 Hi everyone, Just a note to say Merry Christmas and may you all have a very Happy Healthy New Year. Another Christmas is coming around the corner and the void in our lives remains. It is very difficult being away from the cemetery. We had a tripped planned to host our “shopping” event at Mott Children’s hospital again this year but unfortunately Kylie and I had to cancel our trip due to illness. Darn flu bug! Kylie had the stomach flu and I came down with a heck of a cold. The “free shopping” event was still held at Mott and Phil and the board members plus a few guests did a great job. Many children (approx. 82) came to shop for their families and themselves and additionally each child was given a homemade fleece blanket and had their picture taken and placed into a snow globe to take home with them. 28 babies were given a baby blanket and a $25.00 gift card at Meijer’s. All in all it was a very successful event as these children went back to their rooms with happy hearts. This is such a rewarding way to spend the holidays for all of us at Leah’s Happy Hearts. Thanks to all of my board members, our 4 extra helpers and to all of you that donated to us throughout this past year so we could make this event possible. Thanks to those that helped with blankets, gift bags, and purple heart tags also! We need each and every one of you to help us get ready for this wonderful day! Please stay tuned for the date of our next Family Fun Walk. We should know that within the next couple of weeks and we will be sending out an email blast recapping our 2010 year and explaining our goals for 2011. We are hoping to get started on our walk early this year so we can secure our sponsors and food donors with the idea of making the walk bigger and better than ever. We would really like to get to the next level and we need all of you that have been supporting us from the beginning to get a team together and help us to double our participation. Please begin telling your friends and family about it and we will have a date for you in a couple of weeks! Thanks for your continued support. We are doing okay here in Florida but it still doesn’t feel like home. We are once again hoping to get back in the summer so Kylie can start school at the beginning of a school year. I hate to keep moving her and I want her to have some stability and a house to call home soon. I told her that we will not move her again to a place that she is not familiar with but will either stay here or move back to MI. I vote for moving back and I think Phil feels that way too now. Kylie is a little afraid of starting in a new high school again and I don’t blame her but I am hopeful that some of her old friends will greet her with open arms. Okay, now who wants to hire us back? LOL. We are looking at the positive that has happened in the past year. Kylie learned she is a swimmer and a heck of a good one at that. Kylie has done some modeling and has a good chance of doing much more with that if she chooses. Phil and I crossed off another item on our bucket list, we lived in Florida and we had a pool with a waterfall. We volunteer at Give Kids the World and we used to always say, “wouldn’t it be cool to live in Florida so we could come here all the time?” Bottom line is that the weather is great and all but our hearts remain the same. No matter how many times you go to Disneyworld, how many times you ride “Small World” or “Pirates of the Caribbean” our hearts will be broken. We do the best we can as a family and we go on. We go on with a broken heart but we know that Leah would want us to go on and try to make our hearts happy every day. That is what she would want, I just know it. I also know someday I will see her again and we will dance. Thanks for checking in on us and may you all have a Blessed New Year!!! Karen Kylie and Angel Leah’s Mommy forever and ever |
| August 3, 2010 It was 5 years ago today that we lost one of our two most precious gifts in life, Leah Elisabeth James. The anniversary of Leah’s death is always sad, in fact the last few days have been sad and I find myself angry several days before the 3rd without even thinking about it. Of course I always think of her but I’m saying I notice a difference in my mood when I’m not even dwelling on our loss. I will release balloons today in Leah’s honor. Life is difficult for sure without her and we all miss her presence every day. I am missing Michigan more than ever now and it becomes tougher to be away each day. How I wish we could just blink our eyes and go back to the way things were. I want to take care of the cemetery; I want to be with family and friends again, but I do understand we have to go where the work is. I’ve heard a couple people say how can she leave her baby? What a cruel thing to say! We’d be there now if there were jobs. Should we have chanced it and came back without jobs??? Not sure but it is a bit scary. Of all the things I miss the cemetery is first and foremost. Kylie will be starting high school in a couple of weeks and it turns out that volleyball and swimming are at the same time so she picked volleyball. The high school looks beautiful and it is small, about 200 kids per grade. She will be wearing a uniform as it is a charter school so I am happy about that. I feel so badly for her as I know she misses all of her Michigan friends; not to discount the friends she has made here since she has made some wonderful friends here. It’s just I know she is a bit homesick. The last 5 years have been learning experiences for us and I can’t wait till life settles down and we can just take it easy for a bit. What have I learned, wow a lot and here are just of a few of them at the top of my mind, there is no place like home, don’t accept a new job without a contract or without talking to people that work there, don’t accept a job until you meet the person you will be working for, when you’re going thru hell keep going, volunteer because it will make your heart happy, there is no perfect place on this earth, you need a good church in order to grow spiritually, I need friends, I need a job whether volunteering or being paid, they pay better up-north, trust very few, I had it good at Ford and I worked for and with some wonderful people, material things are just things and we can live without most of the junk we have, downsize, lightening in Florida is wicked, I love palm trees and sun, my children are the most precious gifts I’ve ever received, I love hearing from friends, I love the Rainbow River but miss the lakes in MI, I miss Northridge church and Pastor Powell, I love the beach, when you move you really learn who your friends are, the villages IS the retirement community of the USA, Citrus Hills is beautiful, if you have a nice gym nearby it will motivate you to work-out, I loved having a pool, and last but not least each year we grow wiser, we learn from our mistakes and by the time we finally understand most things in life we are very, very, old. On the positive side, all of these things we go through in life make us who we are today and the more experiences you have in life, the more wisdom we gain. If we sat in one place our whole life and never had any conflicts we sure wouldn’t be very wise or very interesting. (in some ways that sounds very good to me) I will get through this day as memories of Leah float through my mind. Some days it is just like a movie projector with pictures of her reeling through my mind at a constant pace. I remember you Leah, always saying how you would miss your pretty pink light (in your bedroom) when you went to heaven. You would hug me and tell me how much you would miss our family so much when you went to heaven. I miss your hugs, kisses, your happy heart, your gentle spirit, your crooked shy smile, your unselfish nature, your beauty, your love for Constantine on American Idol, your love for Sponge Bob and Dora, the way you would yell “Mamma” when I would come and pick you up from pre-school after work, your silver shoes, your opened mouth smile, the smell of your hair, your soft white china doll skin, your bum-bums, the way you loved food and everything I made for you, your sensitive spirit, and most of all I miss you, every little inch of you. I love you Leah and miss you with all of my heart and soul. You will always be in my heart. Please help us through this difficult time we are going through and help us to not feel so lonely here by ourselves. Love and Blessings always, Karen - Kylie and Leah’s Mom forever and ever |
| May 23, 2010 Hi everyone, Just a quick note to remind everyone that the Leah’s Happy Hearts 3rd Annual Family Fun walk is scheduled for Saturday, June 5th, at 10:00 a.m. at Maybury State Park in Northville. Please join us in helping to fund pediatric brain tumor research and to help fund events and wish baskets for children living with life-threatening illnesses. I will bring the sun with me but we will walk rain or shine. There will be a mass butterfly release again, along with lunch, fire trucks, and more!! Please register in advance at www.leahshappyhearts.org – after doing so if you want to solicit for pledges from your family and friends you will be prompted to create a pledge page. It’s really easy and it’s a fun way to get others involved that are unable to attend the walk. For every $25.00 in pledges you will be entered into raffles for cool prizes! Come one, come all. Hope to see you there! If you cannot attend but would like to donate you can do so on my pledge page at www.leahshappyhearts.dojiggy.com/pledgingforleah - thanks. As far as us, well things have been tough is all I can say for now. May God lead us right now to the right path and we will trust in Him. Missing Leah all the time. I love you Leah and always will. Thanks for checking in on us. Kylie and Angel Leah’s Mommy forever and ever, Karen |
| January 11, 2010
Happy Birthday Leah! You are 10 today! We miss you and love you today as much as ever. It is lonely here but the weather is nice. I miss going to the cemetery and taking care of your site but I know in my heart that you are not there but in heaven and always in my heart. Our friends are taking good care of it and I know they stop by often. We will light a brownie that Kylie made and sing Happy Birthday to you tonight and hopefully we will be able to find some balloons in this rural area. We will continue to help raise money for a cure, and continue to volunteer for children with life threatening illnesses at Give Kids the World. I just want you to know that you will always be my baby girl. I love you pumpkin and I hope you have a happy heart. Kylie and Angel Leah’s mommy forever, Karen |
| 2009 Updates |
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