Heavy Hearts

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So our weekend started out with some really sad news.  On Friday night, Matt's good friend Lara died from complications related to Cystic Fibrosis.  

Lara and Matt met in high school.  Lara was a year ahead of us at Monte Vista but I didn't meet her until we were all at UCSB.  She was a regular runner and in amazing shape so it seemed impossible that she would also have CF.  Being ill might have given her more than a few excuses in life but she didn't take any of them.  By way of example, when most of us were really "busy" being self-absorbed in college, Lara was spending time helping mentally retarded people gain the skills to live on their own.  Talking with Lara about her volunteerism seriously kicked my butt into gear...

It seems like this is always the way of things, but she was an awesome, kind and wonderful person who really didn't deserve to be born with CF or suffer through everything she has been through- all of the treatments and hospital stays, a lung transplant 5 years ago, and the past month of being seriously ill.  
I'm not sure if anyone deserves that but Lara really didn't.

Lara's death made Mothers' Day truly bittersweet.  I feel so thankful for Lily and for the joy she brings me by being alive.  In turn, I feel such sadness for Lara's mother, knowing that her heart is broken by Lara not being alive.

Holding her Abby Cadabby ring.

Opening eggs.

I love this photo!

Looking through her Easter basket.

Reading a book with Mommy.

Playing outside a few days after Easter.

She loves running through the Easter wind sock.

And trampling through the "jungle" in my parents' front yard.

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