Heartfelt Thanks

A quick note of thanks to everyone who has: sent flowers; called/emailed/mailed cards; posted comments/signed guestbooks; made contributions in Molly's memory; bought/delivered/sent food; hung out with us until the wee hours of the night and/or morning; and any other show of support I have left out. We are so thankful for the love and support of all our friends and family and we can't thank all of you enough.

Those of you who were able to take the time to join us for Molly's memorial service yesterday, we're glad you were able to share Molly's farewell with us. It was a special day for our family (albeit sad) and we were touched by all the visitors. I know some of you traveled a great distance, and I hope we had a chance to fully express how touched we were by that.

I am working on getting Molly's slideshow posted on this site, but for some reason it is giving me trouble right now. I'll keep working on it; it keeps me busy.

It is with indescribable sadness that we report the sudden and unexpected passing of Molly Elizabeth. Last night at about 7:30, while sitting on Erin's lap at the dinner table surrounded by loved ones, without a sound or the slightest hint of discomfort, Molly's heart simply stopped beating. Police and paramedics responded immediately, CPR was administered, and she was rapidly transported to the hospital in Princeton. Emergency Room personnel admirably attempted to revive her for over thirty minutes. She never regained consciousness after that silent goodbye at the table.

A memorial service will be held at St. Anthony of Padua in Hightstown, on Tuesday, March 18 at 10:30 am; interment will follow at Holy Cross Burial Park in South Brunswick; then a gathering of friends and family in the hall at St. Anthony. All are welcome.

As this will be a celebration of Molly Bear's life, please don't feel the need to wear black.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Trisomy 18 Foundation in Molly's memory: 4491 Cheshire Station Plaza, Suite 157, Dale City, VA 22193.

It Only Seems Long Because It's a Leap Year

That's right, it really hasn't been as long as you think it has since I posted something. It's just that since it's a leap year it seems longer.

So Molly has been doing well since her discharge from the hospital. We're having some trouble with her feeds, as usual, but otherwise she is fine. Today she has an appointment with the GI, so maybe she can give us some ideas on what else to do. We appear to have tried everything; we're not doctors.

It's too bad we're not doctors because it would come in handy with all the bugs currently going around. The weekend after Molly came home from the hospital, I was knocked completely for a loop by some variety of a bug. I didn't have the high fever that is supposed to go along with the flu, but I did start taking medicine as soon as I felt the first symptoms. At any rate, I came home from work on Friday afternoon (the day of the "big snowstorm"), participated in a snowball fight with Gavin and Erin, and then by dinner time I was asleep. Save for the occasional trip downstairs to fill my water, I was pretty much asleep until Sunday night around 9 pm. I was incapable of standing up for longer than a few minutes. My whole body hurt (most notably my fingers as I tried to change the channel using the TV remote) and I was flat-out exhausted. Fortunately it was also the weekend of the NFL Combine so I had something to watch each time I woke up for a short time. I even stayed home from work Monday, which I rarely do.

When I got back to work everyone in my office was out. Some of them are just now recovering. Thursday and Friday of last week I was literally the only person here out of a group of five. I am just hoping whatever we all had was the same thing so I don't have to worry about getting it again.

Miraculously (mainly because I was banished to the bedroom and Gavin and Molly stayed far away and Erin slept on the couch) the rest of the Browns have managed to stay healthy. Let's hope that continues.

At the end of last week Molly had a swallowing study done. Specifics can be more efficiently provided by Erin, and I am sure she will offer those to you once she has a free moment. Basically the test was to determine if Molly could try to safely consume foods orally. Apparently the test had positive results, because Miss Molly has been trying all sorts of pureed foods these days. As expected, she doesn't like many of them.

Speaking of safely consuming foods orally, Gavin is off the Life Savers for a while. Last week one managed to slide down his throat, intact, and become lodged in such a manner that while he was still able to breathe (thanks to the hole in the middle of the Life Saver, no doubt) it would not move in either direction. At the point where he confirmed he could not really breathe and started reaching down his throat for the object, I went ahead and forced it out for him. One might think it's a good thing I have CPR and First Aid training, but I will offer this pearl of wisdom: even if you don't "know the heimlich" go ahead and give it a shot. I've practiced it on a dummy a hundred times and the one I gave Gavin was nowhere near perfect technique - and it worked just fine.

Then just this past weekend we celebrated Ethan's baptism. He and his mom and dad came up from Houston and all the Logan/Murphy/Ely/Johnston clans converged on the Plainsboro/Princeton Junction area to celebrate properly. Gavin and Molly got to see their great grandparents from Ohio, who they rarely get to see. It was a nice day. Somehow we even managed to get the church to ourselves. When Gavin was baptized it was the same thing. Normally the service involves many babies all at the same time, but somehow we've managed to have two in our family where we've been the only people there. Maybe the folks in the church know more about us than they let on, and it was planned that way?

Family time continues this week as the Browns have recently arrived from SC for a short stay. While I wasn't paying attention my eldest cousin, Meghan, whose birth I clearly recall happening like five minutes ago, went ahead and turned 17. Apparently she needs to look at some colleges, so the whole family is in town to visit some local institutions, not the least exciting of which is her parents' alma mater and my current employer.

In recreational news Team Molly Bear 2008 is forming as we speak. I sent a recruitment email out the other day to folks who had indicated they may be interested in racing this summer. If you didn't get the email and you think you're up for a run or a tri, please let me know. We have eight confirmed members already, five of whom are new. Keep an eye out for promotional materials arriving in your Inbox in the very near future. Meantime check out the Team Trisomy 18 link to the right if you're curious what the 2008 schedule looks like.

This seems like quite a long post. As an experiment, I am not planning to reread this or spell check. Feel free to edit on your own time.