It Takes a Village

THANK YOU: 

family, friends, workmates, co-survivors, acquaintances, neighbors, survivors, blurkers, and others - for reading the Ta-Ta Times blog posts, leaving uplifting and humorous comments, supporting, praying, hoping, and believing.

While I personally know many individuals that have assisted us in this breast cancer journey, I am sure there are many more out there I do not know. I appreciate all of you! Your prayers, cards, thoughts, communication with my family, pick-me-up gifts, laughter, tears, girl dates, check-ins, and everything else have been a major well of support upon which to draw during "low" times.

I want to express my heartfelt thanks - which in some ways, I'm sure, is overdue.

I'd be a big, fat liar if I said there weren't dark times looming in my own head about breast cancer since my diagnosis. All your help when going through treatment and surgeries allowed me to focus on my job at hand: to get through it step-by-step. That was a full time job that sometimes took every bit of what I had in me...and then some. Your meals, help with snowblowing, uplifting emails and cards, and so many other "love exchanges" helped me and my co-survivors navigate through our bumpy roller-coaster ride. We had people to lean on. We had lovely surprises that made life easier for us. Thank you.

I'm in awe at the outpouring of support we received. And at times felt unworthy and uncomfortable accepting your support. However, I soon realized we wouldn't have been as capable of dealing with each day without accepting help graciously, which we learned to do. I lost track of the ways people helped, and the list of thank yous, and I've learned to know that is okay. I needed to just accept help - and I did. And I allowed myself to have a free pass at sending individualized thank yous. Sometimes it's best to help others and not expect anything in return; it's also at times best to accept help and know that it's okay to not have to give back what you've been given in spades. Wow - what a concept!


So this is my little love letter to all of those that supported me and us in our time of need. What a gift you've been! Did you know how much your acts of thoughtfulness meant to us? Please let this shed some light on that fact. Our blessings did not go unnoticed. We took note, we are thankful, and we are doing our best to help others in ways we've learned were most helpful to us. I praise you for reaching out of your comfort zone and helping make a difference in our lives.

It took a village...

...and I realize more than ever that our village is vast, steadfast, and full of sparkle.