Moments of solitude, worst-case scenarios, and gratitude.

All three of our children were delivered by Caesarean Section. Before Sara gave birth each time, as surgical staff prepared Sara for surgery and delivery, nurses gave me a set of hospital scrubs and left me alone in a long moment of solitude. It may have only been a few minutes, but the wait felt like an hour. 

During the moment of solitude before Graeme was born, I journaled. I reflected on Slane and Hanna and their personalities. I also posed, perhaps presciently, the question of the worst-case senario...which we almost experienced. Now, on the other side, our life has returned to unremarkable routine, full of laundry, meals, and foul diapers. 

In the year since Graeme's birth the question I get most often is, "How do you do it?" "I don't know," I answer. This is half true. We do it because we have help and we have changed our focus.

If you are reading this, you most likely helped us. Sara and I will spend the rest of our lives gladly paying forward the kindness and support you gave us in that worst-case senario. There is a composition book that documents many of the ways that you supported us. In her blog post, Sara attempted to catalog all the ways you supported us, but I don't know that all the blogs in the world could document all the prayers spoken, meals made, and other acts of kindness we have received in the past year.

Lamentations on the decline of community seem to be popular right now, but I no longer believe them to be true. Our family and many ways we have been cared for is a testament to the reality and power of the community that exists in our midst.

We have also changed our focus. We shop less. We watch less television. We spend less time documenting our lives for posterity or the ephemeral thrills of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Instead, we take bike rides, we read, we wrestle, we cuddle, we dance, we create art, we cook, we take daylong adventures. We spend time with family, friends, and each other.

"It takes a village to raise a child," the old saying goes. Thank you for joining us in the village.