(Apologies to Dave Matthews for using his song as a blog post title. It was the best I could do.)
I had plans to blog on Friday, and then… well. And then an elementary school in Connecticut got shot up and I spent the rest of the day crying in front of the news.
I don’t have any brilliant insight or words of wisdom here. I’m just as dumbstruck as everyone else.
These school shootings happen way too often, and normally they don’t get to me like this one did. I don’t know why. Maybe because this was an elementary school and the kids were all around Catie’s age. Self-centered worldview, I guess. It just really hit me in my gut.
On Saturday night, we were up late because we had spent the evening at my parents’ house. Lucy has a cold, and it took me a while to get her settled in bed. While she was waiting for me, Catie fell asleep on the couch. Rather than wake her up, I decided to just carry her upstairs to bed. My first thought was how big she is. She’s weighs about twice what Lucy weighs, and when I carry her, her feet dangle past my knees because she’s so tall.
But at the same time, I had this overwhelming sense of how little she is, because even though she’s heavy, she’s still little enough that I’m able to pick her up and carry her up a flight of steps. After I put her to bed, I went to my room and sat on the floor next to my bed, and I cried for all of the parents who don’t get to pick up their “really too big to be carried” babies anymore.
Last month, my friend Laura took some pictures of us for our Christmas cards. (Seriously, if you’re local and need a photographer? Go talk to her.) Today I’m looking at these pictures of my beautiful girls, who are still here with me, and I feel so, so incredibly blessed and lucky to have them.
I mean, seriously. How did I ever get so fortunate?
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My lovely friend Victoria lost her nephew Noah Pozner in the Connecticut school shooting on Friday. For info on how you can help Noah’s family, click here.
I know some people were posting on twitter about the crappy things people said and/or did after the tragedy, but I am so proud of how mostly quiet it was because I knew that meant people were with their families. I burst into tears many times this weekend, just thinking about how thankful I felt to have my babies.
Loved your card!
Laura Case´s last blog post ..A weekend of perspective
Beautiful pictures! We are all so lucky to be able to hold our children today. Great post.
Such beautiful girls. Love their outfits 🙂