Abrielle Neff Foundation: Harvest Time

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Harvest Time

Harvest is here and I thought it would be the perfect time to show off my little farmers. Here are Marc and the girls playing with his old farm toys. They are playing in Abby's room, but it was before I painted it green and put cute little bugs all over the walls. This will give you a small glimpse of her room. Hopefully someday I will be able to share pictures of her room how she left it. I will have to wait for one of my strong days for that because all I can do now is cry every time I go in there. Everything is just waiting for her to come back. It's sad. Besides Marc, Mady and I, only one other person has gone in her room. That was you MeMe and I guess the Hart's man does when he sprays for bugs. Ok, enough of that, here's the pictures of the little carpet farmers in action.

I think these were taken on a weekend in the winter and everybody had put on comfy clothes after being outside in the cold. Abby has a combine in this one.

Abby's taking her combine over to Daddy's tractor and wagon with a semi waiting for their grain. I'm not sure what Mady has.

Abby was so excited to find a "bobby cat" in with Daddy's tractors! She loved playing with her bobby cats. She had a big one and a little one that we would take to Mady's t-ball games for her to play with in the dirt. She was also given a motorized one to ride from Tom Parker. She absolutely loved that thing! She would scoop stuff up with its bucket (usually a cat) and she'd be off. I have to mention too that she is wearing one of her "Becci shirts" as she called them. When Aunt Becci worked at Sport Shop, she always had to make the girls shirts. Abby's favorites were the ones with the NW paw print on them and she would wear them every day if we would let her. You might also notice too how she picked up her room...everything is heaped in one of the toy baskets, while one is empty in the earlier pictures.

~Brenda

1 comment:

AnonymousOctober 19, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Wow!! I sit here crying at the computer, I didn't know that I had been the only person in Abby's room besides you guys since that day. There is not a week that goes by that I don't think about you and wish we lived closer. I read your blog weekly, but can't post when on the computer at school. I love you and feel so honored that you shared her room with me, thank you. I know she is up there and so proud of her mommy and all she has done to keep her memory alive!! Love you, MEME
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Our Story...

Abrielle came into this world in a hurry to get started, which gave us our first glimpse at her personality. Not waiting on Dr Jane to put on gloves, only a towel to catch her with, she weighed in at six pounds fifteen ounces. From the beginning Abby had reflux, but there seemed to more than just that as she failed to gain weight. At four months we were sent to draw all kinds of labs, hoping for a solution, but all was normal. By six months of age, the vomiting became worse, almost nightly. We were keeping records of every calorie she ate, every dirty diaper, and every time she vomited. By this time Abby was refusing to eat supper most nights and would throw up her undigested lunch after bathtime at 8:00. Her food was just sitting in her tummy all day. Dr Watson sent us to Omaha Childrens Hospital to Dr Zapata a pediatric gastroenterologist to help diagnois the problem. There, over the next year and a half of her life, Abby underwent testing, treatments, and outpatient procedures. During every procedure she was given a stuffed animal to hold for comfort, even though she had Blankie with her.
To make a long story short, after the accident we discovered St Francis Hospital did not have a program like this for kids and Abby's Hugs was born.

That Tragic Day...

Thursday, March 29, 2007, began like any other school day in our household with the only exception being that it was Abby's sharing day at preschool. We had a rule that if the sharing item was not picked out the night before (which it usually wasn't), Abby had to be ready for school before she could find something to take. This morning was just like most ... nothing was picked out the night before. She hurried faster than usual that way she would have time to find something. After brushing her teeth, she ran to her room to find some clothes. I always tried to give Abby choices, but she was down to her last clean pair of capris. I gave her the option of wearing those, a pair of Gymboree Fruit Punch capris with a bright yellow shirt or jeans and a purple kitty shirt. She decided on the capri outfit which she had actually rejected every other day that week. After getting dressed, she went into Sissy's room and was playing with her LeapPad when I found her. I asked her how she wanted her hair fixed and she said "little pony". (Not that she was going to leave it in anyway) I helped her onto the sink and she dug through her basket of hair things until she found a yellow one. We went into the living room so I could sit down to brush her hair. Since sitting on my lap was now impossible, Abby stood in front of me as I pulled her hair up with the little yellow hair tie. She ran to her room and began looking for something to bring for sharing. She came out with her Little People's Noah's Ark set stuffed full of extra toys. Being a mean Mommy, I said, You can only bring one toy. Aww, was the response as she took the ark back to her room to look for something else. I went on about my routine of making my lunch and everything else to be ready to leave for work. Mady and I headed out to the Expedition and Abby was not following behind. I went back inside to find her and Marc on their way from her room with her big "bobbycat" (bobcat skidloader) for sharing. They had been looking for the scoop that attaches to the front but ran out of time. They decided that just the bobbycat would work. Marc helped buckle Abby in her car seat. Because she was so small we still used the 5-point harness and not just the seatbelt so she required some help. As we left the house, Marc pulled out ahead of the girls and I onto the gravel road. Just around the first set of curves past our house, I slowed down so we could watch the turkeys fly across the road. I am not sure if Abby saw them or not, but she said she did. We continued on, oblivious to our fate that lie ahead.

last added to 10/29 ...this I will add to as I am able ...thanks for understanding.

The Sentence

On June 25, 2008, Ryan C Sundermann was sentenced to 6 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Sundermann wrecklessly caused the death of Abrielle Neff in a motor vehicle collision on March 29, 2007. Sundermann was charged with failing to maintain proper control of his vehicle, failure to drive on the right half of the roadway and operated a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol.
Sundermann was previously convicted of Driving While Intoxicated and Failure to Drive on the Right Half of the Roadway on April 25, 2006 and sentenced to 2 years probation, 12 days in jail, and a $300 fine. On December 19, 2006, Sundermann was again convicted of Excessive Blood Alcohol Content-Prior Offender which he received a Suspended Execution of Sentence of 180 days, was continued on 2 years probation and received a fine.