The first few months of Riley and Rachel's lives, I made painstaking efforts to chronicle and document as much as I could, whether it was calendaring, notetaking or photographing every procedure and appointment. I felt it was critical for people to gain some insight into the life of a special needs child (or two of them) from the very beginning.

While I fell short after our move from Central to Northern California, I still wanted to write a brief journal entry or update about the time of their birthday each year to keep family, friends and readers abreast of our lives with Riley and Rachel.