Thank you’s, birthdays, & our luck

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” ~Anonymous

I have found myself today taking time to begin saying “thank you” to the many who have cared enough to break down the wall I’ve had up this past week as I’ve hidden in this cave of mine on the road to recovery both physically and emotionally. I’ve appreciated the space so many of you have given me, but I’ve equally been thankful for closest friends and family who have continued to check in on us. I’ve never been one to reach out to ask for help, even in moments like this. I think through this blog so many of you have been able to see at least a small glimpse of the struggles I’ve endured this last week, but words still cannot even begin to explain the challenges I have faced and will likely face for some time to come. As the upcoming days pass I will begin returning to work, school, and our family’s daily routine. I welcome the moments that keep me busy as I know they will help keep this mind and heart of mine occupied as I continue on this journey to somehow find a way to heal through this loss.

Words can’t even begin to explain our gratitude to all of you who have shown you care, whether it be in form of words or physical acts of kindness – I continue to be amazed by the generosity and kind spirit of so many of you who have been there.  So though I am writing several thank you notes this week, I know there are far many more of you who have been there this week to reach out and show in your own ways your care and for that I say my many thank you’s…

Thank you’s to those that wrote such sincere thoughts.
Thank you’s to those who called to show you care.
Thank you’s to those who sent flowers and cards.
Thank you’s to those of you who understood and have had to adjust your schedules to help us out.
Thank you’s to those who were by our side during the toughest moments.
Thank you’s to those who listened to (or read) our thoughts.
Thank you’s to those of you who offered to bring us dinner.
Thank you’s to those of you who lifted the spirits of our children.

Big birthday party ahead!
We decided this year, given all the events that have happened, that it would be the perfect year for us to hold a big party together for both the kids seeing how their birthdays are only about a month apart. We’ve decided to hold a party at Sliderz next month to help remind them both just how blessed our family is to have them. Today we received the birthday invites for our party from Sliderz and we hope to have them all out at some point this week. Many of you, especially those of you we know who don’t have kids, we’ve already invited through facebook. We are only able to invite 30 children so those of you closest to us without kids we’ll likely be emailing you or inviting you through facebook. Hope was very excited to see the party invitations arrive today.

Jaylen’s second birthday is coming up Monday. Hope and I went out to Toys R Us today and picked up his gift. Because we’re not having a party for a few more weeks we agreed we’d let him have fun with this gift early. He’s played with his new cars most of this evening. It’s great to see how excited he and Jason both were to play cars with one another.

Our Luck
I’m seriously beginning to wonder if we’re cursed this year. This has definitely turned into a year where we find ourselves wishing to forget many of the moments that we’ve experienced. Not to say that everything that has happened has been bad, but it’s been a year where we have come to feel as though we have bad luck. This evening as I began writing this blog post we had a pretty strong thunderstorm pass over us with quite a bit of steady heavy rain. Now our roof is leaking. We’ve lived in our home for nearly five years and this is the first major thing we’ve had to be concerned with. We’re hoping our roof is covered under warranty seeing how our home is not even five years old, but we’ve got to dig up all the house paperwork we haven’t had to look at since we purchased our home. So yes, we’re quite annoyed thinking…this is just our luck.