Part of her worried that the day was going to bring on too many painful memories she’d otherwise forget. But it felt right. She was so grateful for the presence of this new family and the warmth they had all offered her. There was a lightness in the air that wasn’t just caused by Christmas. It was something more. Something she’d been missing for so long. Hope. For the first time in years she found herself hopefully anticipating the future. She was imagining doing this ten or twenty years from now. The same group around her, perhaps with more children, and the infectious and overwhelming feeling of love. 