Grateful.

Saturday afternoon Allan informed me that our computer had crashed. It was completely unexpected (I suppose it always is) and utterly devastating! We had lost ALL of pictures. We had backed up our pictures about six months ago, but that meant that we lost all our pictures of Josie. We would be able to recover the ones I've posted here as well as the ones we've sent people through email, but it was only a fraction of what we had. I cannot convey the sadness I felt! I was devastated. We also lost a lot of other things, including all my English documents (aka my entire English major career) but it was nothing to me compared to those lost pictures. For more than a day we thought we had lost it, and on Saturday night I balled for an entire hour before finally falling asleep. Yesterday Allan was still trying different things, really without any real hope, and--long story short--something that Peter (my computer genius for a brother) had left worked!! We recovered almost everything. I don't know enough about computers to explain with any coherence what happened, so I'll just say that it was a Christmas miracle.

The whole time I thought that we'd lost it all, I kept on thinking about this picture. I didn't send it to anyone, nor post it here, because I think I look like death-warmed-over. BUT, I realized how much it really meant to me, because when I look at it, it reminds me of the indescribable way I felt, and that really is invaluable.

I'm grateful today for modern technology, and Peter, and these pictures, and Josie, and for Allan of course, who miraculously recovered it all (with some special help I'm sure).