Birthday & Thanks

I am so thankful today - thankful for my faith, thankful for my family, thankful for my friends. This last week could have been incredibly debilitating, had it not been for the support of God working through so many people who reached out in love and held our hands through our hurt. I hate to say "thank you" en masse here online, as the proper thing to do would be to thank all of you individually, likely with a written note in lavender-scented stationery, but I stink at that kind of thing, so instead, here I go:

Thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for loving my family. Thank you for praying for my family, for baby Will, for his birth parents, and for his safety. Thank you for refraining from trite condolences. Thank you for sincere words. Thank you for heartfelt hugs. Thank you for letting me cry until I couldn't breathe, for laughing when I said that snot was God's way of stifling overabundant tears, and for handing me tissue. Thank you for feeding my stomach and for soothing my soul. Thank you for letting me be sad and mad and irritated and all the in-betweens. Thank you for encouraging me to smile and laugh but not forcing me to. And --last but not least -- thank you for not giving me guilt when I said I felt like kicking a puppy mid-week (sorry, PETA). Lest you worry, I'm much better at present; I now want to kick a mean, mangy person.

Again, thanks.