Life Day

February 19th came again this year, and in the Broady house, this day is always celebrated...big time! This day screams that God is faithful and good. This day reminds us every year how precious life is and not to take a day of it for granted. This day tells us that Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly...or to the "full"...John 10:10. This day is full of many memories...many. This is the day that we choose to call Life Day!

This is the 3rd year of the shooting and while it feels so long ago, the memories are still so very fresh in my mind. I can still feel the emotions of it all, and remember vivid details of the night. 

It was a crazy ride, but we decided from the beginning that we were going to make every year into a celebration instead of a day of gloom and sadness. What the enemy meant for bad, God is using for good. While there were many emotions of fear, anger, frustration, etc., Keith is still here, and that is what we CHOOSE to celebrate.

We always celebrate this day as our little family...complete with cake, decorations, etc. But...this year, since it fell on a Sunday, and because we have so many people that we LOVE and that were instrumental in getting us through such a difficult season of our lives, I decided to make it BIG. I made it a surprise for him and invited many friends and family to celebrate the day with us.

Wick's Pizza in New Albany had a huge room upstairs that was just perfect for the occasion...lots of room to move around so that you didn't have to sit the whole time, as well as space for kids to run around too. :)

I had the whole thing in the works for several weeks and I told Keith last night that I am just glad I can stop sneaking around, lying and being completely deceptive about many things I have been doing! :) I do not like hiding anything from him and it was difficult not to talk about with him! :)

We have a couple bins completely FULL of memorabilia from the shooting. I pulled it all out this past week and just knew that I wanted to display a lot of it at the party. It consists of 

1. Hundreds of notes from people all over country...some complete strangers to us.

2. Even hundreds more notes from MANY classrooms of kids in many different schools. Their notes and pictures are priceless to look at and read. Brittney, my teaching partner at the time, had our class write cards for 'Officer Broady' too. I just love seeing what my kids wrote to him.

3. Awards/Medals of recognition that Keith was presented with.

4. Banners that people constructed, made, decorated for us...that we hung up in the hospital room as well as when he was at Rehab.

5. Pictures (just a few) that my sister took while Keith was in the hospital. That was the last thing on my mind, but I'm just glad we have some to help us remember.

6. Multiple newspapers that told the story and followed all of the events for weeks.

7. Audio recordings of the call that went out...still the hardest thing in the world to listen to.

8. Multiple DVD's given to us by different news stations that displayed our story.

9. The bullet that did 'oh-so-much-damage' which the doctors removed weeks after the shooting.

10. Keith's uniform shirt he was wearing that night.

11. Letters given to us by the governor, and state representatives.

12. And...little silly things that we kept that just meant something to us, or made us laugh various days...because we needed that.

I wanted people to see how much the community pulled together and just how loved we felt. It was huge for us. 

People met at Wick's and I brought Keith and kids a bit later for the surprise. He knew we were going 'out,' but not the full implication of what he was walking into.

 His first look inside the room.

Some of the people waiting.

 Everyone clapped for him

 Checkin' out the huge crowd

 

 

Our Hero's...Keith and Dan...the other officer shot that night.
So, so happy they came to celebrate as well. We were inseparable for many weeks...always back and forth between rooms and checking to see how the other was doing.

Dan's wife Dana was there too of course...what an amazing woman she is. So strong and the sweetest ever. During the 'hospital days' we shared stories, air mattresses in a little room, lots of food and continue to share many memories from that day. It was/is nice just to have someone that understands exactly where you have been.

Our theme was LIFE and we decorated in orange because that is Keith's fav color. And...lots of orange there was...

 The "Happy Life Day" cake.

 Pics and memories...including the shirt he was wearing that night.

 

 

 

 

 Many of the newspaper articles telling the story.

 

 The favors at the tables...thanks to Lisa Dieterlen. :)

 

 A few of the 'decorators' since I couldn't be there.

And...on to the many people...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 God Bless the Reeds for chasin' her around!

 Keith and his brother...who made it to the hospital that night even before Keith and the ambulance I think. 

 Some more of the 'decorating' team. :)

 

 Love this of Cora and Courtney

 

 With some of my peeps.

Keith with his Dad, Grandpa and brother.

We also had some kids that seemed to enjoy themselves. :)

Maybe too much fun. ;)

 

This little boy (aka my son) had fun eating Uncle E's pizza. :)

I wanted to thank everyone for coming and celebrating this amazing day with us. It meant so much to remember all the faces that came to hospital that night, or days that followed, or those that brought us meals, or cards, or sent texts, flowers, etc.

 Expressing our appreciation.

Our FOP and Auxiliary were more than I can say. They supplied us with everything we could have ever wanted/needed/thought about...so awesome. They supplied our food for every meal, bought Dana and I air mattresses to sleep on in the little room that the hospital made available for us, worked the fish fry....the list goes on and on. I was really in a daze while all of this was going on around me...not fully recognizing what everyone really did till after everything calmed down a bit. Now...we are beyond thankful and grateful for everyone's sacrifice and generosity.

Sharing some memories.

 

 And...thanked Tara, who I met for the first time on February 19, 2009. She came to the hospital that night and could connect in a way that nobody else could. Her husband was shot in the line of duty about 5 years ago, and unlike our story, her husband never came home.
She is an amazingly strong person. I don't know how she does it, but I am beyond blessed to know her. Her daughter was the same age at the time of her husband's shooting as Addison was when Keith got shot. I tear up every time I think about her having to tell her daughter that Daddy wasn't coming home.

Tara came many of the days that followed the shooting just to check on us, bring us gifts, and tell me some of the emotions that would probably hit us. She was right. 

Although her and her daughter's lives will never be the same, she has made it a point to never forget, and always remember her husband. She is an inspiration and is involved in anything she can get her hands on to help, volunteer, or guide people through difficult times. She also hosts a scholarship banquet each year in Frank's honor.

This job is real and people put their lives on the line every day to help others. I remember something Tara said about Frank that I thought was so perfect. She stated that being a Police Officer didn't make Frank a hero, but instead the fact that "he was there when someone needed him." 

A HAPPY Life Day it was. Keith was blessed and that blessed me. I know we experienced a miracle that night...for all intents and purposes, neither Dan nor Keith should have walked away from this alive. But they did...and we live our lives to the fullest every day, thanking God that we still have each other and our beautiful little family.

"I have come that they may have LIFE and have it to the FULL." John 10:10