Happy Thanksgiving!

There's nothing like a visit to my father and stepmother and from my brother and his family to put me back into good spirits, to remind me of the importance of family and children and simple pleasures. I appreciate all the good thoughts and wishes during these past few weeks, from many people who really only know me through my blog but have come to care about my family and have become a community of support for me. I feel disloyal dropping off the face of the earth for 3 weeks.

I was bereft when I lost my last camera. I know, something so simple and easily replaced but I couldn't easily replace it due to circumstances in my life and I suddenly found myself unable to capture all the magical moments and subsequent thoughts that went along with this photo journal. I realized how important this process has become to me and yet, because my family was going through some trying times, I didn't feel inspired to continue blogging, to try and capture the joyful moments. And not having a way to capture the visit of our family from Boston, after so much anticipation and excitement, left me feeling defeated.

Does all of this sound dramatic? Well, maybe so. But we never really know when we will suddenly be faced with challenges, and of what nature and magnitude. I think we ALL know that there is much left unsaid in a blogger's world, things that remain too personal to share with such a public forum. And because my blog is quite personal, I couldn't write about certain aspects of my life and couldn't hide behind pictures that easily cover things up. I couldn't read about other people's lives, either. I just had to step away.

I am feeling better, more hopeful again. That's all that needs to be said about that. There will be pictures coming again and hopefully, my amazing community of support from people whom I don't actually know personally are still out there. I will catch up on all the blogs that I follow. It feels good to be back.