Gratituesday(y’all know I love a good pun)

I am not one to easily accept help or delegate tasks to other people. I prefer to be the helper, the giver, the listener, the doer. Over the past couple of months, I’ve realized that accepting help is also a way of giving. You are giving someone else the opportunity to realize their value to you and to feel a sense of purpose. You’re allowing them to experience that feeling of pure joy when you know you've made someone’s day brighter or helped them through a tough time in their lives. There’s no better feeling in the world to me than that rush after doing a good deed, no matter how big or small.

I will never be able to sufficiently thank you all for your prayers, meals, text messages, books, advice, wisdom, cozy socks and blankets, internet searches, social media posts, gift cards, letters, special videos, stuffed animals, taking care of things back home for us, etc. The fact that complete strangers have reached out to us asking how they can help is so overwhelmingly kind that it brings me to tears and I promise we will pay all of this kindness forward.

Hotel staff, Uber drivers, retail employees, hospital workers and, of course, our dear friends and family that have gone above and beyond to make us feel so incredibly loved has left me speechless. At some point in each of our lives, we will need help and support from others. Take it and know that you are giving someone the greatest gift of being useful to you during your time of need.

It can be really hard to keep faith in the goodness of humanity, especially since we are shown the worst of it if we turn on the news, read the newspaper, etc. Our family has personally witnessed and received the love that still floods the world and the hearts of the people in it.

Kindness is a privilege that we get to give away for free. What a blessing to be able to make someone’s day brighter with a smile, compliment, or words of encouragement. My amazing friend, Tyler Merritt, (who is tied with my other amazing friend , Bakari King, for having the world’s greatest laugh and smile), says in his book, I Take My Coffee Black, that “proximity breeds empathy. And with empathy, humanity has a fighting chance.” I know this to be true from everyone who has shown up for us. You’ve gotten into the trenches with us in Victoria’s battle and we could not do this without your support. We read and save every text, instagram message, email, and letter we receive. We know we can get through whatever comes our way thanks to our army of empaths.

We will be here when it’s our time to step up for any of you.