The super lovely Sara of C'est La Vie has graced me with an awesome blog award! (Isn't she sweet?)

I've been thinking about inspiration a lot lately. Particularly about those people I find inspiring. My life has changed a lot in the last year, some good and some bad. In the midst of this chaos, I've realized two amazing people very close to me, have become my greatest inspirations.





My dad and I have always been close. So when he suffered a massive stroke while visiting me in Washington, it was like my world was collapsing in on itself. When he couldn't say my name, couldn't even focus his eyes on my face, I thought for sure, that this was it. I'd lost my dad.
Since then he has fought, struggled, pushed, sometimes even clawed, his way through months and months of ongoing therapies. He's still working on it, but he has come miraculously far in the last nine months. He walks, writes with his left hand, and has regular (albeit short) phone conversations with us kids. He is a man made of the toughest stuff. I just never really knew it under his gentle and kind exterior.






My mom has become my dad's lifeline. She's spent a lot of time taking care of other people (us kids, her mom, her dad), but seeing the way she has completely taken charge of this new, strange life of theirs, is completely inspiring. Being my dad's coach, caregiver, cheerleader and companion cannot be the easiest right now. But she's handling it with even more strength than I'd ever known she'd had (and I've *always* known she was strong). I have no idea how she's been able to juggle all that's on her plate right now, but she's doing it beautifully.

I've always known my parents were good people, who loved us very much. But to see them with adult eyes, handling the very worst life can throw at them, and they're STILL wonderful people -- well, it's a whole other kettle of fish.