Happy Birthday SSV!

A year ago today a large envelope arrived in the mail. As I slid out the thick crested paper a tear fell from my cheek. We did it!

I read, "The office of the Secretary of State heareby grants a Certificate of Incorporation to SHARE SOUTHERN VERMONT, INC. a Vermont domestic nonprofit corporation, December 22nd, 2008."

It would be a few more months and a ton of paper work later before the IRS 501 c 3 certificate arrived, but it did.

I wrote the by-laws tentatively, wording things so that if no-one else found this cause worth supporting, I could be the solitary board director for the first year. I needent have worried.

Over the course of the last year four other beautiful, talented, motivated, and selfless greiving mothers have found places on the board. Each fills a need the others cannot. Their grief journies span from 1 year to 24 years.

We are strong. Together we have accomplished more in the last 24 months than even I dared to imagine and big doors are opening for us in the new year!

Tonight we, the five board members of Share Southern Vermont, will sit around a table in a fancy resturant. We will reminise. We will share stories never told. We will pat each other on the back, just a little, knowing lives have been changed. We will raise our glasses high in memory of the babies who brought us together, hoping they are looking down on us, smiling.

Raising my glass will be like blowing out a candle for me, as I doubt there will be cake. I share my wish with you.

I wish that in 2010 every hurting family in southern Vermont learn of SSV and uses our services. I wish that by the end of the year on-site hospital grief care is happening, creating good grief practices from the very beginning of familiy's journies. I wish that every rainbow baby in our group will be born, alive and screaming cries of joy into their parent's hearts.

This is my wish.

Thanks for a great first year! If you would like to leave us a birthday wish...please do! Perhaps it will come true...