Along with the anger and sadness there is appreciation too. Since today is Thanksgiving (which has been a very hard day emotionally), I want to express my thanks.
I am thankful I got to spend more than half my life thus far with Doug. A perfectly perfect quote “I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you: but instead, I am deeply honored knowing that you spent the rest of your life with me” Camille Marcotte.
I am thankful we were blessed with 2 miracle babies that are a constant reminder of Doug with their looks and their actions. I am thankful I was obsessed with taking pictures throughout the years and have many memories captured that are now priceless to me. Thankful for the many “God Wink’s” that have occurred since Doug’s death letting us know that Doug is still with us.

Thankful to those who have gone above and beyond during this time, in particular are the members and staff of North Valley Church and its early learning center. Pastor Chris Crain has been amazing as well as the deacons and church members. The early learning center director Marisa Taylor helped with telling the boys that Daddy was no longer with us. The teachers have been a great support to the boys through this as we continued sending them to school to keep them in their routine. There is so much that could be mentioned for what this church has done for us and I feel like I could write a book alone on their kindness.
Thankful to Brooke Biddy for immediately setting up a Take Them A Meal account which has provided our family almost constant meals for the nearly 2 months since Doug’s passing (thankful to all those who contributed meals for our family). Thankful to my friend of many years Ashli Young Jennings for immediately setting up a GoFundMe account which raised thousands within hours with donations for our family and the amount just kept rising. Thankful to Moody Ballpark, Trussville Ballpark, and surrounding baseball associations and parents (Springville, Clay, Spartans baseball, etc) along with the umpires for putting together and participating in the Doug Hutcheson Memorial Baseball Tournament to honor Doug and raise money for our family. Thankful to our head coach this fall baseball season and the parents of our team for being so supportive along with keeping our grass cut at our home. Thankful to Melissa and Lee Brisendine for their support and for also keeping my lawn looking great and bushes, etc. Thankful to Katrina Nail for being my thank you note person and for all her support and advice. Thank you to Derek Hutcheson and Jeff Nail for filling in for Doug at baseball practice and baseball games. Thank you to Andrea and Alan Wilson for all they did (purchased grief books for myself and the boys, put together the funeral slideshow, for the canvas pictures and the car decals they did through their company Metro Signs in Huntsville, etc). Thank you to Lauren Barnett who arranged for us to have front row seats at the Marvel Live event shortly after this tragedy which allowed for a few hours of fun, as well as making awesome shirts for the boys to wear there. To this day the boys are still talking about Marvel Live. I really could go on and on about those who have been such amazing support for us…Bryant and Cassie Hall, Jeremy and Paige Breland (lock installer, blind installer, light installer, photographer, they do it all), Brendon Pinola Photography (took amazing pictures of the baseball tournament for us), Noel Conway for her photography as well, Stacy Standridge for making an awesome slideshow for me to keep of pics of Doug with some of his favorite songs. The support of my mom, my dad, my step-mom and of course Doug’s family shows what true family is about. Thank you to Russ and Amanda Donaho for helping to revamp our home alarm system to include cameras and other features. Thank you to Charles and Ginger Belvin for your support and your part along with Mike New, Coach Hood and CCHS football for honoring Doug with a moment of silence at the CCHS state playoff football game. It seems like just yesterday Doug was on that field wearing #71 and I was dancing with the danceline and we would flirt on the sidelines of that very football field. Thankful that my mind can still remember these moments from long ago. Thankful for the chance for the boys’ to attend their 1st Auburn football game. So many people have gone above and beyond in support of our family. I know I am forgetting many to name individually and I apologize for that. My hope is to blog about some of these blessings individually at some point so the boys can know in the future what people did for them.