It's not all rainbows and butterflies, sometimes its shit piles and flies

Just when things at home start looking up, things for friends of ours take a giant nosedive south. It's nearly impossible not to sit down and cry just thinking about (a) how incredibly lucky I am these days, in my marriage and my family's health and (b) how cruel and unfair life is to the most wonderful people. It's hard not to be angry and pissed off at a deity I don't name because I've lost what little faith I may have had left all over again.

For a little background, you can check out this page (just enter your email address and create a password). It's a journal created to follow the journey of my friend's son as he fights SJS, Steven Johnson's Syndrome. He's Nixon's age, born the same month as Nixon. But Kai is a little extra special, he's got an extra chromosome, more commonly known as Down Syndrome. He's had open heart surgery as an infant and his mom has become a champion for the Down Syndrome community. He is her cause!
We're connected through a private forum on babycenter.com, with over 20 other women who all have November 08 babies.
It's been hard to read the updates and see the pictures that Kai's mom is posting of Kai fighting this illness from his hospital room. It's hard to not be able to find the words to support a good friend.

Weren't things supposed to be better when we were back in the states??

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of Mac's closest friends, one of the first friends of his I met as his "girlfriend", was facing a family crisis of her own. Her mother had a horse riding accident and was in a coma. She and her mother are incredibly close, so it was another painful, no right words to say, moment.
After a few weeks there was another CT scan and it was determined, the brain damage was too severe she wouldn't recover from it. The family had to honor her wishes and take her off the machines. As much as I've discussed my choices with Mac on this subject, I've never had to be in the position to make the choice. My heart broke in a million pieces for her, when I read that update on the facebook support page created for her mom.
Her mom passed away a few days later. Her mom had an amazing spirit that she passed onto her daughter, son and grandsons. She has a large circle of friends that will miss her dearly.

All this happened in a one week time span. Kai's hospital admission, his downgraded case from SJS to TENS (please read the journal in the link posted,, it's the best place for info) and our friend's mother's passing. Added in there is another friend's son having iffy blood tests.There's just not enough good news to go around these days.