heydad's-blog: Time to Start Again....

It has been a while.

It amazes me how time just keeps marching on.

Grey has been gone for 2 years, 5 months, 1 week and 3 days.

I will admit, that I have spent a lot of time despairing over the fact that we should have a 3 year-old running around, underfoot, into everything. Still, that time is less than last year. But I think about Grey everyday. Nicole and I are trying to honor his memory in several ways.

In fact, Nicole is the reason that I am going to start blogging again. I stopped because I just really felt that I was stuck, and that blogging was part of what was keeping me from refocusing my energies.

I have succeeded in doing that. Together, Nicole, the boys and I have started a new chapter in our lives, and Grey is still with us. Seth and Riley just finished their Little League season. Seth was on the Padres in the Minors and I must say, he has really started to get it. He was amazing! He really improved this season. He played catcher, 2nd base and out-field and did a really great job at every position. In one of his games he hit 2 singles and a double! He even got a in-field Home-run that drove in two other runners and tied the game. Then he was playing catcher in the last inning of that same game and got the last out at the home plate in a double-play. Defiantly his best season yet!

Riley was on the Pee Wee Tigers this season and I was the Head coach. We had great fun! Riley plays a great 2nd base and even played some catcher. He got more hits than any other boy on his team this season. I really didn't know what to expect, and I was very nervous. I have coached the younger kids, but this was the first season that we were in a competitive league, we were keeping score. My boys went on a 4 game winning streak and lead our division for the first 3 weeks of the season. We finished in 5 th place with 5 wins, 1 tie and 3 losses. I was very proud. And more importantly, the kids had fun.

Luke is growing up very quickly. He just turned 16 and has really taken to the Air Force Junior ROTC program at Canyon High School. I must say that if he manages to live, he is becoming a fine young man.

And what, you may ask, have I been doing besides coaching Little League and working? With Nicole's help and support, I have been developing a plan to help save babies in Greyson's memory. First, we started teaching a few classes at the McKenna group in New Braunfels to parents of young children. They aren't truly the exact fit that I was planning, but they need to hear of a story like Grey's, to realize that they have a responsibility to be advocates for their children and how precious their children's' health is. What started as a few minutes at the beginning of a class, has become a whole class to ourselves to tell our story and share Greyson with others. With the success that we had, I felt that we should expand and started targeting first-time parents, having their first baby. I have been teaching a monthly class at the New Braunfels Christus Santa Rose Hospital as part of the "Caring for Mom/Caring for Baby" portion of their Lamaze program. With the wonderful pamphlet that Nicole has designed and the Website that she built, we are reaching people who have the greatest need of knowing about the newborn screening program and more importantly where to go for expanded screening to protect their newborns.

Nicole and I soon realized, because the feedback from the classes and the lack of newborn screening education for parents, that we could and should do more. After much thought and discussion, we have decided to found the Grey's Gift Memorial Foundation.