Dear Mom & Dad,

Thanks for everything you have done for me.

Thanks for raising me with ethics, compassion, and an open mind. And stamina.

Thank you for moving to Georgia when I was 14. Risking everything for a change of life. I can’t imagine having spent my teenage years anywhere but here, and anywhere but with the friends and life I had.

Thank you for your support of me. And my husband. Thank you for loving him and including him in your lives the way you have. Thank you for embracing him, and our love for each other.

Thank you for holding me when I cried about the kids’ diagnosis’ – both times. Thank you for not saying “God wouldn’t give you more than you could handle” because I couldn’t hear that then. Thank you for being strong for me, even when your hearts were breaking. After all, you were sad too with the news your grandchildren would face life-saving transplants. Thank you for not looking at us with pity, but sadness. Thank you for teaching me the difference. No pity from you – sadness for your grandchildren. Sadness for us.

Thank you for being attentive and interested about every appointment, every evaluation, every medication change, every ultrasound report, every lab result. Thank you for being attentive to my needs as well. For the pain I feel sometimes. Thank you for your worry. Thank you for being strong when I need it, and fragile when I need it.

Thank you for celebrating the kids’ milestones with us and understanding why the milestones are so important to us, for the very real reason their lives are fragile. Futures unknown. Thanks for reminding me that it is okay to only think about next week, instead of three years from now. Thanks for helping me live in the moment.

Thank you for being a wonderful example of a strong marriage. And for helping us understand what marriage vows mean, of what true love means. The true love of family. Thank you for rallying around us. Thank you for being examples to us about faith, hope, love, and support.

Thank you for showing up at a moments notice when my world is hectic, or crashing around me. Thanks for stepping in when I need you, for the kids, or the house, or the store, or a repair. Watch batteries, making soup, hooking up cable, washing my car, going to FedEx, or the post office, or painting a wall, or hanging a picture, or handwriting envelopes, or even watching your daughter give your grandson a shot, for always having a handkerchief and so much more. Thank you for the little gifts of love you leave every time you do something for us. Thanks for putting things you want and need to do on hold for us.

Thank you for understanding that I appreciate you, even when I don’t show it. Thank you for the love you have shown. Your love is like a blanket. It surrounds me. And I feel very warm. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Julia