13 Months Later

Today, December 24th, Lucas would have been 14 months. Today exactly 13 months ago, we said goodbye to the most precious little boy and gift of our lives. His life and death changed us forever and at the same time taught, as well as continues to teach, us such wonderful lessons. There are many things that we learned during the past year, but most profoundly what we learned from Lucas can be summed up in two very profound words -- Love and Gratitude.

Love…
The dictionary describes Love as “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child or friend.” Our little guy taught us that there is no greater love and joy that comes with holding your child in your arms. We knew as he was growing inside my tummy that we would love him, but never had we imagined that a parents’ love for their son is so deep and infinite. There truly is no greater joy on this earth then feeling that love first hand. Our lives are changed forever, for the better, by experiencing this love for him. We also learned that the love for our son made our love stronger. I loved my husband before we had Lucas, but this love changed during the 4 weeks of our baby’s life by significant magnitudes when I saw him holding Lucas and the two of them just looking into each other’s eyes. Today and any other day, we miss him deeply but we also feel truly blessed to know that our little bundle of joy is in the happiest and safest place there is surrounded by the greatest love of all.

Gratitude…
The dictionary describes gratitude as “an appreciative attitude for what one has received; it indicates a warm or deep appreciation of personal kindness.” And how grateful we are for all the personal kindness that has come our way over the past year. We knew that we have kind, loving and caring family as well as a great group of friends. However, we are humbled and in awe of the love and support that has poured out to us over the last year. The selflessness of our friends that were there, and continue to be there, during the most difficult time of our lives continues to amaze us. We are forever grateful to those who have been there for us and the thank you’s that have been said don’t seem nearly enough to show our appreciation. Nonetheless, THANK YOU to each and every one of you for every hug, card, for flowers, food, gifts, visits, for visiting us when Lucas was born and making memories with him while he was here on earth with us, for listening, for offering a shoulder to cry on, for crying with us, for just sitting with us silently, for helping plan and attending his funeral, for loving us even at our darkest hours, for reminding us to laugh and creating distractions, for loving and missing our little boy too, and for every single kind word, thought and prayer that you shared with us. We are so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful and generous people in our lives.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that the New Year will be filled with many special moments for each and everyone of you.