Thanks and Gratitude

My family and I wish to extend our thanks and gratitude to our families and our community; the residents of our town.

At the end of October, the well-funded start up with which I was situated shed over 1/3 of its staff. Normally this type of event would be challenging in and of itself, however given that I funded the start up of my own company in 2005, the current poor economic conditions and the recent, rapid increase in living costs, this loss of income for our one-income family was particularly unnerving. My wife and I started planning for situations and circumstances that I would never have predicted only a few years ago and we prepared ourselves for a very modest and rather disappointing winter holiday season.

However, as we began the process of reining in expenses, a largess that we had not ever expected has been given to us that has made our holidays the most profound we have experienced. A multiplicity of support and generosity has been given to us in the form of gifts from our family (my nieces and nephews asked that their holiday gifts be given to our family), school lunches and assistance with our energy expenses, gifts provided to four of our five children from the elementary and middle school, and even an anonymous donation (yes! a check from an anonymous donor was delivered to us) that has enabled us to provide our children with a warm and intimate holiday celebration. We feel that this holiday season has been the most meaningful we have experienced and we owe a tremendous amount to our friends, neighbors and community.

Therefore, we wish to say "Thank you." Thank you to our families and friends; thank you to our neighbors; thank you to our community for all that you have done to help my family.

The generosity we received has also had another effect. Inspired by the spirit of giving, my eleven year old daughter decided to donate her hair to the Locks of Love program. So, she cut off a braid about 12" long and packaged it up. As pretty as she was with long hair, I think she's even prettier with short. Of course, I may be biased.