As you may know, it’s been a tough week for me and my family, to say the least. Words cannot begin to express my gratitude to all of you that sent kind words my way in the form of comments, tweets, e-mails, and most importantly, for lifting my family and me up in prayer.

One thing I did not mention in my previous post was that my brother took his own life. I only say that now to bring awareness to the reality of hope. Unfortunately, he felt he had run out. But, I want to send the message that there is ALWAYS hope. If EVER you feel that you have run out of hope, please, contact me or someone you trust. There IS hope, I promise.

There were days of intense pain and grief (and many ahead, I’m sure,) but I felt great calm at times as a result of knowing that there were many arms around me, especially the Lord’s.

Thank you, thank you.

On Tuesday, very unexpectedly, I lost my big brother Tim.As you can imagine, there is much grief. I will be returning to my childhood town of Colorado Springs tomorrow to meet with my sister, Jennifer, who will be flying in from Missouri. Together we will do our best to handle all necessary arrangements. We would greatly appreciate your prayers and good thoughts.

I will be away until late next week and look very forward to returning to my family and my dear friends in blogland. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my next post scheduled for Friday, a great giveway, that will run while I am away.