Sadness and Celebrations

It's a sweet and sad time right now in the Lawrence household. Geoff lost his only living grandparent on Saturday. His grandfather was deeply respected and loved by Geoff and many others. I never had the chance to get to know him well as he's always lived in south Texas, but from what I know about him, he was very worthy of admiration. Earlier in the week we found out that my Nana's housekeeper who was like a family member growing up passed away, a friend from Needle's Eye lost his girlfriend to breast cancer and Charlene's step-daughter gave birth to a baby that died only hours later of hydrocephalus. While at a memorial service last week Geoff and I were reminded that when we leave this earth, our life and what we did with it is represented in that small dash that separates the day we were born from the day we died. What are we doing with this dash? Things that are worthy? honorable? Things that matter?

I sat here earlier with tears worrying my stress level is already impacting Mary-Michael and the last thing I want is for her to feel that stress or be hurt by it. I hope she knows how much she is loved and nothing else.

Amidst these things we did celebrate Mary-Michael's impending arrival with a baby shower this weekend. My mom and company did such a beautiful job of making it special for me, and we are so blessed with so many generous family and friends. I felt so loved and grateful knowing that already Geoff and I have a great support group and many willing sitters for our baby girl. I will post pictures soon as well as pictures of the nursery as it transforms.