Sunday, October 30, 2011

What a great weekend was had by all during our 2nd Annual Mom's Retreat

Here are all 15 Mom's
Back row Janet, Sue, Lindsey, Tiffany, Kehau, Amy & Teresa
Front row Annie, Dawn, Jill, Julie, Joanna, Lisa, Shauna & Erin
A Big Thank you to Julie for giving us all a new t-shirt & to Lindsey who designed them


It's amazing to think that none of us mom's would have never even known each other except for the fact that we've all lived through the most severe tragedy that can be comprehended.

We've all seen our children die from drowning and we've all seen our children come back to life. We've all spent weeks in the PICU wondering if our children will ever wake up out of their coma, we've all spent numerous nights sleeping on uncomfortable chairs/bed's in hospital rooms, we've all been told that our children have little hope of ever being the same again.

Some of us have gone through the trauma of watching our children suffer from seizures, watching them struggle to catch their breath while they have yet another pneumonia, watching and praying that they will wake up from yet another surgery or procedure.

We've all lost count of how many appointments we've taken our children to, most of us have tried many different kinds of medications/supplements to help our children be able to loosen up from the horrible muscle tone they experience. A lot of us mom's have tried every type of therapy we hear about, always looking for something that will make a difference in our childs life. We've all cried way too many tears and have lost way too much sleep.

And yet somehow, we continue to stay strong. We have learned that we can go to each other with questions and concerns, it's a safe place to go knowing that we all want the same thing for our children, we all want to see our children healthy and happy.

This one weekend of the year we all go knowing that we will all be able to relate with each other what we are going through, knowing that we can talk about medications, therapies, surgeries, supplements and understand what we are talking about. This one weekend of the year we can laugh together and not feel bad if we shed a few tears, we understand each others pain and we except it for what it is. It's like taking a deep breath knowing you're understood, it's refreshing and renewing and we can't wait for our next one to come.


Lindsey and I getting a pedicure on Wednesday afternoon the day before the retreat began
Shauna & Lindsey at Ivar's Fish Bar on the Seattle Waterfront
Lindsey, Shauna & I at Pike's Place Market on Thursday morning

Amy, Julie and Jill in Seattle
Janet, Julie, Dawn, Teresa, Amy & Joanna arriving together on Friday afternoon
Everyone learning how to play Hand and Foot on Friday evening
Teresa and Tiffany waiting for everyone to take our annual picture Saturday morning
Lisa, Kehau, Joanna and Shauna visiting Leavenworth for the first time
Joanna and Erin, with Julie creeping behind them in Leavenworth

Teresa & I taking a break after a full day of walking around Leavenworth
Lisa, Amy, Shauna, Julie & Erin posing for a picture in front of the Christmas store

Julie, Lindsey & I getting a picture of the beautiful tree in Leavenworth
Kehau & Shauna enjoying the beauty of the tree's in Leavenworth
Teresa, Annie & I posing for another picture in Leavenworth
Lindsey & I in front of the this beautiful wall of leaves
This picture really shows our true colors shinning through, lots of laughter and fun!
Julie, Erin, Lindsey & Janet taking a much needed break after walking around town for hours
Joanna & Kehau enjoying a cup of coffee
Kehau & myself, she had to take a picture in front of this beautiful wall of leaves. It was Kehau's first time to see fall leaves since she is from Hawaii and they don't have fall leaves there.
Lindsey, Amy & Joanna playing BUNCO
Dawn & Annie enjoying a delicious piece of Chocolate cake that Teresa made for us
Dawn, Jill, Erin and myself playing BUNCO

Most of us out for a walk on Sunday morning
All of us posing for a picture in the wine cellar of Stillwaters Winery/Restaurant
Annie, Teresa & Lisa sitting in the freezing cold cellar enjoying our lunch
Tiffany & I sitting at the head of the table for this picture
Joanna, Lisa and Lindsey being silly. We were all being very silly, so much laughter and fun times, it felt so good to just let our hair down with no stress going on in our lives.

Annie braided Joanna & Lindsey's hair, fun times
All of us being silly in this picture


Saying good bye at the airport, such a hard thing to do, but comforted knowing that we will all see each other again next year for our 3rd Annual Mom's retreat:-)

2 comments:

Teena said...

Glad everything went great! You inpsire me how you get everything together... organize and all the details.

Praying for Luke.

Much love,
Teena

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful and refreshing time for all of you! Could we see a close up of the tshirt?