And the leaves that are green...

Time hurries on.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown,
And they wither with the wind,
And they crumble in your hand.
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl.
I held her close, but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
--Simon & Garfunkel


It's time to take a walk in the canyon. No friends, no extended family, no cell phones, no Hannah Montana, just us.

Jane apparently likes the possum's-eye view, because she kept giggling and throwing her head back.

Over and over,

And over and over,

And over and over.

And time marches on, the girls growing more beautiful.

We walk in the woods, knowing that the moment where Beth absently takes my hand and walks with me can't last for long. How wonderful is it when your child holds your hand!
And then there will be the year Emma decides that gathering leaves of every color is dumb, but not this year, as she runs to me with fistfulls of leaves, each one more beautiful than the last.

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While I'm feeling thus grateful, I want to thank all family and friends who have been praying for Jane's smooth adjustment to her BiPap machine. Jane has been diagnosed with severe central sleep apnea.

(BiPAP stands for Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure and assists in breathing and helps keep the airway open and the lungs inflated. It differs from CPAP (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) in that it is not a constant pressure, rather it goes up and down with each breath. For example, Jane's rate is set on 8/4 (8 over 4). That means the pressure is 8 LPM (liters per minute) of air when she inhales and 4 LPM when she exhales. The idea is to give her a boost on the inhale so she has more air in the lungs and thus takes a deeper breath. )

This is what the BiPap looks like. It's about the size of a shoe box and is very quiet.

Here's a picture of her mask (w/o the ugly head gear).

We've decided not to put any pictures of her wearing the mask because it just looks sadder than it really is. While she hates initially putting it on, she is sleeping better and longer, and we have you all to thank for your prayers and support.