Memorial Day - 1

For younger people like us, who have parents and grandparents who are still taking care of family grave sites, Memorial Day is usually mostly about BBQ's with friends. Especially that we live in a place where none of our family is buried, we don't have the opportunity to go and visit cemeteries and leave flowers.

So, we did do the BBQ with friends yesterday. It was really a great time, but the entire weekend and last week as well has been completely overshadowed for me by a tragedy that happened to some friends of ours.

My Memorial week/week-end has been spent thinking about them. Their almost 2 year old daughter (almost exactly Hattie's age) choked on an apple last week and passed away. Her funeral is today. They live in Park City, UT, or I would be at her services instead of on the computer. I don't want to tell all of the horrific details here on our blog. It is not our story to share and I feel like people should read what they have written instead. I debated about whether I should even mention it on our blog, but it is something that has significantly changed my life and I will never be the same. I'm not sure why. I have had personal loss before. I have known people who have lost their children. I have had friends die. But, this one has sunk very deep for me. Maybe it's because I am a parent and my own daughter could be a pea in a pod with theirs. I don't know, but not 15 minutes has gone by for the last week that I haven't thought about them or cried for them.

So, I'm writing this to all of you who read our blog who are parents of little ones. I know we have lots of friends with tiny kids. Just hug them a little tighter today. I feel so bad - I haven't slept much at all for the past days, so I've been really tired and cross with my kids. But, I have appreciated them so much and I have been so thankful that I have them.

I don't feel like this is the right post to show a bunch of pictures of our BBQ or of our cute kids. So, I'll make another post for that.

If you want to read the Jackson's blog, we have it linked to ours to the right in our bloglines section under Jackson Familia. It is heart-breaking, but it is also really inspiring and comforting to read the comments that have been posted on their blog. So many people who know them and who don't know them are totally gathering to support them. It is quite amazing.