Being Number One and Missing Danny

I haven't blogged for a while, there's really no news to report on the adoption front. A week ago Friday, we received our monthly status update for April from our agency - it says we are #1 for children and #1 for siblings with our agency within the age range specified. I don't think you can get any more #1 than that, so we're very hopeful that things will fall into place shortly. Our agency had their second family travel this past week to pick up a beautiful baby girl. They posted pictures of the other children at the orphanage and that's always lots of fun. I was able to stare at the sib group referenced in the previous post some more. They certainly are on my heart; I will be very grateful to hear of the match with their forever family.

A dear friend died Friday morning and there've been several other bad news type things this week. On top of that, as a grief support group facilitator for children, a couple of times a year we do in-service training to develop our tools for the group. We watched a movie about terminally ill people in hospice who then die and we went through an exercise to remind us of some of the struggles "our" families go through when they've experienced the death of a loved one. It was very powerful, but on top of all the other emotional activities of the week, a bit overwhelming.

The friend who died, Danny, was one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He had an amazing heart for others. He was diagnosed with throat cancer over a year and a half ago and I've never known anyone to handle his situation with more dignity and grace. Danny would go out of his way to help everyone around him and even after surgeries, etc. he was trying to carry things to my car and insisting on doing for ME. When he couldn't eat which was one of his greatest pleasures in this life, he still prepared amazing meals and loved to serve and entertain his family and friends. We spent many holidays with Danny and Eva, his love with whom he shared his last 5 years, and one of my best friends. Eva has advocated for Danny tirelessly over the last couple of years and even woke every two hours to check on him for the last several months. She was selfless in her love and care for him and she will miss him terribly. I know that Danny's experience in Heaven exceeds anything he ever loved here on Earth - I imagine him with the wind in his face driving a boat, playing golf, enjoying all the foods and fellowship he enjoyed, and TALKING about Chicago sports teams and anything else. We miss you, Danny!