Life Is What You Make It

I am surprisingly emotional this morning.  I am so proud of myself and my family.  We are separating into 3 groups: mother, father, children (with grandparents), and each doing fabulous things.  We would not be doing any of these events, if we were not able to turn a life altering diagnosis into something positive and beautiful.  I think the reason I'm so emotional about this weekend is that to me it is a metaphor for how well my family has managed Linden's cancer.  Nobody wants their child to be diagnosed with leukemia, but even at the very beginning of this adventure, I said to the executive director of YANA, "I don't know about Linden's life, but if the cancer goes away and never comes back, and she is left with no mark, my life is better for this."  I got a stand up high 5 for that, and I've committed my life to honouring that high 5.  The RNB is the vehicle for that commitment.  Linden's cancer has gone away, to the best of our ability to detect, and there is a 90% chance it will not come back.

My parents have been such a great support and help through this, and they have taken Max and Linden to a charitable gala dinner where Linden will have her hair and makeup done and she will be one of 10 runway models in a stunning gown.  Pretty cool for a 7 year old girl.  My wife is hosting a women's retreat this weekend that she has been planning for months.  Our life events have inspired her to become an event planner and this is her first planned event.  I'm hoping that we can make our Wonder Twin powers activate in the form of many fabulous future charitable RNB beer related events.  It's fabulous if your wife's career and your hobby can complement each other.  I'm leaving later today for a Luxury Home Brewer's Retreat in Colorado with some of the best professional brewers in America.  For what the event offers, it is very well priced, but it is not within the budget of most home brewers, and I wouldn't be going if I weren't powered by a higher purpose.  I'm sure the RNB beers will only be better for the experience.

These 5 days hold so much potential for me and my family, that I'm nervous to let my expectations get too high.  I've come up with so many fabulous lines about this situation, one of my favourite is, "If you apply great pressure to a piece of coal, it either crumbles or turns to diamond."  My family is dazzling like a diamond this weekend and I'm just so proud of them.