Yep, that’s right, WTF! That was really our first thoughts and I think I may have actually said it, when carpel tunnel syndrome turned out to be Alpha Lima Sierra. We are walking around in this fog of disbelief, grief, and anger. Oh, throw in confusion too. We have been trying to wrap our minds around what Alpha Lima Sierra means to our family, our marriage, our life. We know what the disease is, what it will do but what does it mean for us.

It means our world has once again been knocked off its axis. When we experienced the loss of our twin daughters in 2000 and the loss of first son in 2001 our world tilted. It is now even more catawampus. We know the grief path and know how hard it is.  We will have to learn to live in this new world of ours. Which right now is kinda hard. I know we will figure this out. Our goal is to LIVE and ENJOY the time we have as a family.

It means in our new world we will find love and laughter in the small things (and most likely the inappropriate things) and will find them daily. That’s just how we have always rolled. I have noticed the minutes we are together are more precious and the time apart is so hard. Let’s face it, Alpha Lima Sierra is the kind of disease that you know when the moment has gone it has gone. No do overs. So why waste a moment. Our family has always been the most important thing, but now we show this by our actions and not just our words. We don’t let the day to day crap take us from what is important. We see this in our little he as well. He has always been a caring kid, but now he takes time to send us sweet text messages like “I love you” instead of the “Can I get on Xbox now?”.

It means in our new world our walk with God has strengthened in ways we could not have imagined before. For our whole family. Knowing God is us watching over us, Jesus is walking beside us and the Holy Spirit is within us keeping the darkness away gives our family the peace we need to face this. We know we are not alone in this because He is with us. Now, let me just put it out there, we are scared and we do ask why and how can this be. But it is in the same breath we ask for His comfort and peace.

It means in our new world we are focused on doing all those things we have dreamed of doing and making all the memories we can NOW. We are not just thinking of bucket list items we fully plan on crossing them off. Trey is adding to the list as well. There is no more “when we retire” or “when our son is in college”. We are doing now.

So what does all  this mean to us. It means we are going to LIVE and ENJOY life NOW.