Caryn and I had many wonderful experiences as we began our life’s journey together. In particular, I have always enjoyed holidays, so we always went to Detroit to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. My niece was four months younger than Caryn, so it was wonderful having two babies to adore. That first Christmas my neighbor took this picture, and I used it as our Christmas card. We were doing well in our new life.
From page 5
After the testing was completed, Dr. Heersma had a conference with several other doctors. Their unanimous conclusion was that most likely Caryn had a fatal disease and would die by the time she was three or four years old. Dr. Heersma said that there had to be more blood work done to know for certain, which would take another six weeks.
I began crying and said,”I feel so helpless! What can I do?” He kindly and gently said, “Just love her.” That statement was so beautiful, so simple, and so true. It was clear that Caryn needed my love more than anything else in the world.
From pages 44 & 45
Because of Caryn’s poor motor coordination, she was not able not play well with toys. Therefore, it was hard to find gifts that Caryn could enjoy, so I generally bought her clothes so that she would always look nice. But for the Christmas when Caryn was nine, I truly wanted to buy her something extra special, so I prayed and thought about this for several months. I knew that she had always loved being around babies, and it came to me at last that she might really enjoy having her own baby doll. I went shopping at several toy stores but saw nothing that I really liked. Then I heard about a local store that specialized in dolls, which gave me hope that I might find the elusive “perfect” one.
I was excited to find that the store housed literally hundreds of dolls, aisle after aisle of every kind of doll you could ever imagine. At first I saw nothing that caught my eye, but as I rounded the end of one aisle I looked up and saw “the” doll. She had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, just like Caryn, and had the dearest
smile. I immediately fell in love with her and her frilly pink dress. I didn’t even care about the price because it didn’t matter; she was the one for Caryn. She sat on a shelf that was too high for me to reach, so I asked for help and a young man brought her down for me. I purchased the doll while Caryn was at school and I wrapped it before she got home so that I wouldn’t be tempted to give it to her early. I was so excited I could hardly wait for Christmas — you would have thought I was the one getting the present! It was a very long wait because I purchased the doll in October, but I promised myself I wouldn’t show it to her until Christmas morning.
December finally arrived and we drove to Detroit on Christmas Eve and stayed overnight at my Mom’s to celebrate Christmas morning with her. My mom knew how excited I was about giving Caryn her doll, but she was also a little concerned that Caryn might not react to the doll as I hoped she would. I knew she was praying that it would go well.
You will see Caryn’s reaction when you read “Come Ride With Me”.