Celebrating A New Life While Mourning A Loss

Two major announcements in one week? Say it ain't so! I know, the first one you all thought was going to be a baby announcement, right? Silly, silly people you are. No, THIS one is going to be the baby announcement!

As my wife Keri and I came into my office today to begin putting this together, we both struggled with the right words to use.. Not because announcing our new addition would be difficult, but because we're doing it on the heels of such tragic news that longtime friend and radio broadcaster, Mike (Poo Daddy) Poulin had passed away Friday. I don't often struggle with putting together sentences, sharing sentiments or addressing the elephant in the room... but today I do. How can we possibly make such a happy declaration over a weekend filled with such tremendous heartache? Well, most simply put, because if we didn't, Mikey would never forgive us.

Mike Poulin wasn't just a coworker, wasn't just a friend nor was he even just our favorite person in the entire community. Mike was more than that... he was our brother. And he would be the first to remind you of it.

Keri and I have each known Mike since our early years (3 & 6), and there is no other person I can remember that brought the kind of joy to any gathering than Mike. A firm believer in 'do it while you're young' Mike would often listen to me complain about things that were going on in my life, and typically his proverbial response was the same, "do everything now, someday you'll be old like me".

With that being said, my wife Keri and I are profoundly excited to announce the newest addition to James family, Blank Blank James. Clearly, they're blanks because we don't even know the gender! Keri has been so excited to tell everyone that she has just about exploded. Finally she doesn't have to hide why she's not having a cocktail when we go out on the boat or to a concert. She also has this app on her phone that shows us day by day how big our little cherub is getting. Why is my child constantly compared to fruit? What's up with that? Anyway, I digress... Our due date is 2/3/18 and we couldn't be happier. Evan is so excited he doesn't know what to do with himself. First we told him that we bought a new house, and now he's getting another little brother or sister... I'm kind of hoping for a girl! That way I can make sure she doesn't date until she's 36! I mean, that's what dads do, right?

Here is a photo gallery put together by Blais Photography and Carolyn Blais. Hope you like it! Oh, and thank you to everyone in advance for your well-wishes and support through all of this. Cheers.