Happy New Year?

It has been kind of a rough beginning for this year. The first week in January started with my beloved Uncle Ed passing away after a few short weeks since his diagnosis of lung and bone cancer. The funeral was in Florida so my dad, Ben and I drove down to pay our respects. It was special in a way because I got to see cousins that I had not seen since I was a kid. We spent a couple days with Sharon in Ft. Myers before the funeral and dad really wanted to go to Orlando on the way home.
So we ended up going to Sea World with dad. It was a perfect day. Blue skies and 65 degrees in January. It was fun to see my dad and ben enjoying the shows. Ben was too little to remember our last trip there. We stayed in a very luxurious Hilton with a resort like pool and waterfall. Ben had the pool all to himself. There was an ice storm throughout the south so we had to stay an extra day. Dad paid for Ben and I to go to the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing. Ben and I were there for 7 hours of pure enjoyment. He loved hugging the characters and getting his picture taken with them. So much fun since it was not too crowded. We came back home in one day and 19 and 1/2 hour drive to a huge snowstorm.
While I was in Florida, we received some tragic news. Scott's brother and his wife went to the 21 week ultrasound to find out the sexes of their twins and both heartbeats were gone. It took 3 days to deliver their little angels and they spent some very precious moments holding their babies after birth. It is every mothers' worst nightmare and it was so hard to watch them suffer through it. They had a beautiful funeral and memorial service and were laid to rest in the garden of angels at a local funeral home. My girls were so saddened to learn the fate of their baby cousins. It was especially hard to see their 5 year old son, Graham, suffer the loss of his little sisters. He was so excited about having playmates. Our hearts suffer with them and I am sure God is walking this path right there with them to see them through.