I’m supposed to show you more photos of all the Magic Hats that have come to my door today. It’s Wednesday and I promised Wednesday hat updates.
But instead of showing more photos today, as I had planned, I needed to stop for a minute and say a few words about what has transpired:
You have knocked me off my feet.
Not the kind where the guy with the big check comes to your door and the little old lady answers and looks shocked for a minute and then screams and jumps up and down. But the kind where you draw in air and hold your breath and cant’ let it out…and when you do it’s so slow and deliberate that you just cry. And cry. And cry a bit more because you just don’t know what else to do.
I think what put me over the edge was a box from one of Aaron’s cousins. He included a poem, written in honor of their grandmother, who used to write poems for just about everything…including the day I became a part of their family.
Many of you hand made me hats. You painstakingly used your hands, something I can’t do, to make something just for me.
Or some of you went and picked out something you knew I’d either look fabulous in or would laugh at hysterically or would love, not matter how tacky.
The point being you took the time to truly think about me, even if it was just while shopping for the holidays or grabbing yarn at the store. I’m thinking i really do know some of the most amazing people on earth. And am related to a lot of them.
The other reason those photos are missing is because I’m holed up inside my room, after a long day of all my in-laws being here, including my husband’s brother and his family. Yes, my kids are playing with their cousins for essentially the first time….since the last time everyone was really too little to remember. My home is filled to the brim with laughing and yelling and kid noises that somehow don’t sound nearly as bad as playdate squeals or sleepover threats to ‘get to bed now kids….’ because it’s family – family that probably won’t be together again for another long stretch of time.
So yes, I am overwhelmed because the hats KEEP COMING and the love just keeps enveloping me until nothing, not even Lupus, can break through. Ok, maybe it does from time to time when I need to excuse myself to lay down for a bit…but even then there are hats all over reminding me to stay strong. They are up in my bedroom and down in the living room and by the front door and coat rack…and soon to be hanging on my new hat racks…made with love by my three greatest loves on this planet- my husband, my son, and my daughter.
Thank you. All of you. Those words seem so easy to write but please, please understand and feel the weight behind them. You all inspire me to try harder and to fight harder. Thank you.
Lovely. Absolutely lovely. 🙂
(P.S. Have you gotten a Colorado Avalanche hat yet? I will find one to send you if you haven’t. 😉 )
Well, you deserve it. Keep that in mind.
I love the visual of the house slowly filling with hats until there’s no more room to move. There’s a kid’s story in that somewhere.
So glad all these hats are filling your bucket.
This — and the original post — made me teary. And grin like a fool. How wonderful and generous! You’re quite an amazing woman and absolutely deserve to be showered with these hats 🙂
Any words or thoughts that buoy you through the rough and painful seas of your treatments. Believe it or not I grumble and gripe less because I really don’t have much to compared to what you have been through.
aww sweet.I love the new hst racks to 🙂
Those hat racks make my heart melt. I am overwhelmed by the simple generosity of the blogging community.
Keep fighting the good fight and rock those hats!!
When you no longer need these hats, you can put them in the Erin Kotecki Vest Museum of Marvelous Memories. Each hat is a visible symbol of the love your friends have for you. Every person who sent you a hat knows that if the situation was reversed, you’d be sending hats, socks, scarves, Underoos, and everything else you could think of.
The hats are the way your friends show you they understand what you’re going through. The hats are also therapeutic. we all know how tough this is for you every single day. people want to help but there’s so little they can do that thing is pure genius. it gives people a chance to reach at and help.
May each hat bring the hug to your head that the rest of your soul needs and deserves.
You are so beautiful, and you and your hubby are so lucky to have one another! Two years ago, my then 14-year-old had alopecia and lost half of her hair in the last month of 8th grade. It was HORRIBLE – but she ended up getting so many amazing hats! I hope you end up with more than you know what to do with. xoxo
Those are the most beautiful hat racks, made with love.