We've reached the end of the 31 days of Patrick. Tomorrow is Patrick's birthday--he would have been six. I thought about calling this post "The End" because it's the end of the yearly Patrick cycle. But it's also "The Beginning" because we're starting over and it's a chance to do things differently. And thinking about the cyclical nature of Patrick's life and our grief, and the end being the beginning, I decided that we had come full circle. So, in that vein, I wanted to share two very personal pictures--the very first of Patrick's life, and the very last.

In the almost 11 months between these two pictures, he lived such an incredible life. He found joy, smiled, laughed, and loved fully. He touched so many lives in so many different ways. And I was lucky enough to be his mom. I was given the honor of being with him for his first breath and his last. I hope that, going forward, I can use all of my breaths to live my life with the kind of joy and laughter Patrick did.