Our team

Cooper and Katie take piano lessons on Sunday afternoons at church. But because of Christmas, this week's lessons were rescheduled to Wednesday evening.

After their lessons, we left Carrollton, stopped at Target and then stopped for dinner at Amore, a little Italian place in The Colony.

Service was slow. The food was good. We were sleepy when we left.

The three of us got in the minivan, and I turned the key. The minivan did not start. The battery was dead.

No problem. This is why we've been members of AAA for 13 years. I call the number and report the problem. I tell Cooper and Katie that there's nothing to worry about -- it's an easily fixed problem.

We were lucky that night -- the weather was mild. The week's rain had stopped. We were in a well-lit, relatively safe area. We passed the time by playing 21 Questions and talking about our Christmas break adventures.

A guy named Spencer with a local tow-truck company arrived in about 30 minutes and helped us get the minivan started. An hour after we left the restaurant, we were finally headed home.

That's when Cooper confided that he'd been slightly worried about our situation.

"But we're a good team," I told him. "I knew we'd solve the problem."

Coop's answer: "But we're missing a member."

"Well, that's sadly true," I answered.

Katie chimed in: "We're not missing a member. Daddy's with us all the time."

"That's true, too," I said.

That little exchange sums up 2010 for our little family. We are a team of three on earth and one in heaven, doing our best every day to solve problems and keep moving forward (with plenty of help from others). We are challenged by grief, by the obvious hole in our family, and we are strengthened by Steve's spirit and love.

We experience joy every day, even when we feel weighed down by grief and loss.

I expect the same in 2011. Steve's absence creates an incurable sadness. But we don't let the sadness rule our lives. We still laugh and discover and hope and learn. We're moving forward the best we can, mindful that we're not leaving Steve behind but rather carrying him with us.

Cooper and Katie, Dec. 30, 2010