He's on his way home...

Dear Friends and Family,

Please don't be upset if you are our closer friends and family and are just hearing this info for the first time on our blog. I am trying to avoid answering the same questions over and over because honesty I don't have them all right now. Last night just as we were finishing up birthday festivities for Ryder I got a text from Derrik - "I was released". In real world terms, instead of baseball terms, he got fired. As I just said above we still don't have all of the answers. We are dumbfounded that after Derrik came off of two long and draining years of rehab that they would just simply give up on him after two shorts months with no real signs it was coming. He is still trying to make some phone calls and get some answers, but honesty we could never get any that will really give Derrik or I peace with what has happened.

Derrik has already taken a fight from California into Phoenix early this morning to pick up our car that was still sitting at the Reds complex out in Goodyear. He didn't sleep well last night as expected, was up at 4:30 AM to catch a flight, and now has a long 36 hour drive ahead of him. I can not wait for him to walk through the door and give him a long well deserved hug.

Where does this leave us? The realm of opportunities are endless. In regards to baseball, technically Derrik is now a free agent. This means he can talk with any team he wants and negotiate any deal he wants. A dream come true for a minor leaguer except he is only two months off of back-to-back Tommy John surgeries. If baseball is the route to go he has a long uphill battle to fight. It has been done many times before, but is something Derrik needs to decide if he wants to do. There are currenty ten games left in the minor league season so there is about a 99% chance he is shutting things down for the season. This leaves a long off season to ponder what Derrik and our family really want to do. I am behind him and his decisions 100%.

When Derrik gets home he will hopefully gets some officiating jobs like he was doing in Arizona and look for some other part time work for the time being. We are still trying to wrap our minds around everything and see what plays out with some stuff in the baseball world, but in the mean time we will probably explore some other opportunities in life as well for work.

I truly believe that Derrik's and my heart are both still very into baseball. If the right opportunity presents itsef that is probably the route we will go, but we are also trying to keep our heads on straight and realize this could be the end of the road for us. I'm am sure we have many long talks ahead of us and have no doubt that we will find what works best for us. For now though I just want my husband home, I want to see him hug our little boys, and just have someone to cuddle with again. I never thought seeing him walk through the door would be so bitter sweet.