Siri loved so much and especially loved all the love you shared. 

Thinking on this, on the past 8-ish months, Thank you falls so short.  So many times I’ve tried to find the words to share for which to describe  immeasurable gratitude. I fall short every time.  

I’ve tried to keep up with thank you notes and thank you’s but in the chaos of the hospital stay and after I am sure I’ve lost track and fallen short there too. I am truly sorry I haven’t been able to thank everyone individually. Please know, There was no gift that was not truly cherished. Each card and note and gift, of which there were literally thousands, all are a treasured piece of this journey and shined a bright light on what was an otherwise treacherous time.  And the prayers!   The heartfelt, maybe even  heart breaking prayers that you shared! Thank you! 🤍

It is still nearly unbelievable that Siri is gone.  It’s hard most days to wrap my mind around.  Learning to live without Siri is not easy and I don’t want to actually and it’s mostly messy and distinctively hard.  How to live without a person who was a part of you…every piece feels impossible and the void is as apparent as if my own heart stopped beating. 

We remember her constantly. Not a day has gone by that we haven’t talked of her and shared joy filled memories.  Sweet 3 year old Clara’s recollections of her favorite “babysitter” and the one person who seemed to have truly seen her and appreciated her more deeply than most—Clara knows that she was loved by her sister. And Cierra’s beautiful stories of the many memories they made while singing and dancing in the kitchen while making cookies. Cierra has dedicated her solo dance and the song she recently sang to Siri—How Can You Not, by Leanna Crawford.  It reminds her of how Siri always let her light shine even when she was in the hospital.  She was love through and through even to the end in the midst of great suffering. How can you not see God through her life lived?  Isaiah’s memories—each one precious and perspective that adds beauty to who Siri was. It is by these perspectives and so many others that we can paint the true beauty of who Siri was and maybe carry on a glimmer of what she brought to the world by being in it.  A light shining on a hill. 

Nick had to go back to work. Aliyah and Maria had to go back to school immediately and the rest of us back to home schooling and somehow try not to skip a beat which is virtually impossible when it feels like your entire heart is missing.  

And we’ve had to plan a celebration of Siri’s life that we know she would have loved to be at while here on earth. Each detail with her likes top of mind —right down to the uno, selfies, and cookies & more.  We know how Siri loved everyone to be included and no one left out, so  please join us in Celebrating her life on June 1st. 

We hope you are all able to be there and that ultimately, we are able to convey our sincere gratitude for all that each of you have done to walk through this with us—please accept our appreciation and deep apologies if we may have missed you when sending our thank you’s. We truly appreciate you. And truly could not have done this without your uplifting along the way. 

And thank you for remembering Siri. 🤍 We have plans in the works to start a non profit.  We know how much Siri loved the Bible camp she attended with her friends (Storybook Lodge) and how it was life changing and faith deepening for  her.  We also know that Siri wanted to attend a Christian college and considered becoming a teacher while also playing volleyball.  While the letters from the colleges she was interested started coming in over the past few months, rather than be defeated by the list of “will never’s” we decided to celebrate Siri’s plans to serve God and further his kingdom and we put plans in place to help young people who have similar passions and joys. Stay tuned for more details to come!

Blessings.