"Closure". We finally can say we have reached that point in our lives! Today our Teagan had what we hope will be her last surgery to remove the access port from her chest. Hooray!! All went well with the surgery and she is home tonight doing great. Both Holly and I seemed to take a deep breath of relief after what has been almost an entire year since her February 21 diagnosis with Cancer.

Certainly, 2007 will be one of those years we hope to be able to put someplace deep into the recesses of our minds hoping it will never rear its ugly head again… and definitely, we'll be praying that it will never repeat. It wasn't all bad, as we neared the end of the year, we decided to give the kids a chance to have SOME happy memories and headed south to Florida for a much needed vacation. So, with many thanks to Bob Wolf and the crew at WPYX 106, for their PYX-mas wish, JoAnne Langley, in memory of her son, Patrick, who sadly lost his battle to Leukemia, added to our Christmas Wish fund and of course largely our MasterCard, we pulled off a minor miracle and managed to completely surprise the kids right up to the 5:00am ride to the airport… If you ignore the fact that Teagan did get sick and needed to spend 2 days at clinic in Florida and that our beloved dog Parker had lost his battle to cancer on the 28th of December, we had a GREAT trip. 10 days of perfect weather, kids having a fun time each day, not knowing what surprises we had planned for the next day… actually, Holly and I had no clue what was in store… we completely flew by the seat of our pants and went day to day… overall it was a great way to end the year as we headed back home for the reality of our lives…

Over the past year many of you, our friends, our family, our neighbors have come selflessly forward to help us in one way or another, and we just wanted to let you know that it was certainly much appreciated. We, well actually mostly Holly, tried to send everyone a "Thank You" card, but with all that was going on, it just wasn’t always possible to keep track, but we don't want anyone thinking we did not appreciate everything and anything you did. This includes Susan Rivers, who recently presented Teagan with a beautiful hand made quilt featuring all of her favorite characters and family members the look on her face was indescribable… and anyone who has seen Teagan lately can just imagine the "Whazzz Thaaat" when she first saw it… This will be a keepsake she will cherish forever.

Now that Teagan has finally passed what we hope will be her last "surgical" visit to Club AMC, we apprehensively look for 2008 to be a new beginning, knowing that we may soon have to say goodbye to our Basset Abby as she slowly approaches her 15th birthday, at this point clueless, partially blind and completely deaf wandering around the house, bumping into furniture… We suspect she recently had a mini stroke, and she now slightly leans to the right as her balance and coordination is whacked, but we are assured by the vet she is not suffering, but is slowly declining in her health and certainly awareness. For now we just smile and laugh as Teagan uses Abby as a pillow or riding apparatus for her dolls and toys… we'll just enjoy the moment for now. One day at a time.

Yes, in someway this email will be "closure" on our current journey, and many thanks for allowing me to share my "informative" verbal banter this past year, it has certainly been therapeutic and helpful for me. I plan on periodically getting back on the couch and allowing You, my friends, family and "fans", to share in my insanity and smile as you wonder if I've managed to escape that room with the 4 padded walls called "life"… Stay Tuned, I'm certainly it will be a journey!!!

Cheers,

Juergen, Holly and Kids