I want to start by thanking all of you for your kind words and prayers for us during this time. There has always been a magic to this place for me....I have laughed here, cried here, and found friendships that bloomed with the beauty of the written word. Though life doesn't always allow me the time to post here (or even brush my hair somedays! LOL) I know that the people here are truly amazing...and I am drawn here time and time again. Thank you for being the wonderful and amazing people you are.

I wanted to update you on our little guy. This situation started several weeks ago with what we thought was a common cold. He suffers from severe asthma and when the chest cold moved into bronchitis we started to become worried. The medication they 1st put him on failed miserably and soon we were dealing with pneumonia and he was unable to breathe on his own. After he was initially hospitalized the doctors struggled to get his breathing and high fever under control. The doctors and staff have been amazing and incredibly supportive through this time. Although I wished many times they would just come in with a magic wand and make it all better, I did take some comfort in knowing that he was in the best possible hands.

There is something to be said about the helplessness you feel when someone you love is ill...it is a feeling of no control...and as I watched him day after day not get better I soon found myself angry and wondering why this beautiful boy had to be so sick and even more angry that there was only so much I could do...

I had to turn it over to God as it was bigger than I...and I had to find my faith in the power of prayer and prayed that God would work through the hands of his doctors.

Things are slowly improving and right now we are simply taking it all day by day. And I continue to find great love and support through our wonderful family and friends. I am hoping that he will make a full recovery soon and that we will be able to bring him home to be with his family. Life is just not the same without him around this house.

When I went from being a Momma to one...to a Momma of many...I never knew the ways in which my life would change. As I sat in the hospital room one night last week and watched him sleep and looked at the worry and exhaustion upon "R"'s face...I realized something perhaps I overlook in the craziness of our day to day lives. I realized that even though I did not give birth to Alex, he had become my own. I realized my heart loved him just as much as any Mother loved their child. This little guy who had first been shy and reserved when I came into his life had become my buddy...my heart. And as I struggled wondering why his own Mommy wasn't at his bedside holding his hand and wiping his tears I realized that perhaps there was a reason God brought him into my life...or me into his...countless reasons actually....he needs me and I need him.

And I realized that it is so easy to lose sight of what is important in the craziness of day to day life. Perhaps sometimes God sends us reasons to slow down and remember what is most important in our lives. I only have to look around the room and I see 6 amazing reasons why I am one of the luckiest people in the world.

Again thank you for your prayers, support and kind words...me and my own appreciate it more than a girl like me could ever express. I will promise to keep you all updated here. And I ask for you to do one favor for me today....take a moment and stop and count your blessings...hug your blessings...tell them just how much they mean to you.

And to all my blessings here on the Stream...I love you. You are gifts beyond imagine....as I always say....take care out there.

AM