Guest post by Tim!!

Hey everyone, I'm still recovering from the planning and the party and working through the balloon release pics (if you have any of you releasing a balloon please send to me!). So, my friend Tim offered to do a guest post for me and I appreciate that greatly! Thank you, Tim, for blessing me with your wonderful post and doing this for me!

So please enjoy this post by Tim!!

Tim & Carey's daughter, Taylor, standing by Carleigh's name in the sand.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tim and I am the author of Fort Thompson.

It is more than an honor to post here for Holly. Words can't describe what I feel writing this post. It gives me great joy to share with you what Holly has done to touch the lives of our family.

Holly has meant so much to me and my family and the following is why this will be so difficult and at the same time so rewarding......

I learned of Holly and her family through this very blog I believe around June or July of last year. I believe I found her through The Blog Frog since I have met so many great people that way. We are both now BFCL's (Blog Frog Community Leaders). More on that later.

Back up now 8 years:
It was December of 2001. Carey and I were expecting our first child and it hadn't been all that long since we had found out she was pregnant. We were excited beyond words especially because of how bad Carey had wanted it. She would often come home in tears after seeing a couple with a baby. It just had not happened for us until this time.

We had picked out clothes, bought gifts for Christmas for our parents that would let them know in a surprising manner. Everything was so great then. We were so happy and excited to be facing such a wonderful road that lie ahead.

Then it happened.....

Carey miscarried one night in the bathroom and it was very disturbing. We called the doctor who said it could just be some conception bleeding, but we knew that there was more to it. We held out some hope until her appointment the next day, but inside we knew what we were facing. It just wasn't all that real yet. I did my best to keep her as calm as I could.

The next morning we went straight to the doctors office and our world changed forever. It was the news we did not want to hear. We no longer had a baby.

The next few days were very hard. We knew that this was part of God's plan and that gave us some comfort, however it was still very difficult.

As time went by hurt and pain led to denial and we just did our best to forget about it. It seemed so much easier to let the safety of denial take over as we did not want to face the pain of what had happened.

It was this way for years. Sure there was the occasional time where she would tell me that our child would have been this age. I would just kinda say yeah and then go on to the next topic. It just seemed easier that way and we were both guilty of it.

Back to the more recent....

Then we met Holly and learned of her sweet Carleigh. I feel to this day that God led us to her for the greater good, and Carey and I are so blessed that He did.

After reading her blog and getting to know her through email, we learned that she had faced many other obstacles in her life. We also learned that she was a lot like us in many ways. However at the same time she had something that we did not.

Holly is one of the strongest people I have had the chance to know. Through her life and the journey she has taken, she taught us that we too needed to face our obstacles and accept what road we had been given to travel.

Today we openly talk about our angel too. It is with tears of joy that I tell you this. For now we are no longer in denial, but have faced our loss, torn down the walls, and honor the memory of our child as we should.

Bailey would have been born around August of 2002. It is with great pride that I share our loss with you. Not pride that we had to endure it, but pride in the freedom we now feel for facing the loss as we honor the memory of our precious Bailey. I know our loss in no way compares to many others, however it is ours and we know from experience that is was truly difficult.

We owe much to many. Holly has played a huge role in it although she may not know. Blog Frog played a role as well, as it provided the platform that brought us together. So thank you to Rusty and Holly at The Blog Frog, and a huge thank you with lots of love to you Holly.

For more info on how you too can become a member of The Blog Frog and meet great people like Holly who you have much in common with.....

Visit Holly's community or the Fort Thompson community to find out more.

Love and Prayers,
Tim