All you need is love
This morning, I awoke to another Beatles song banging loudly in my head. Seriously, Emma, what's wrong with Pearl Jam, George Clinton, or even Beck. Why the Beatles? This morning she chose "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles as her own special alarm clock.
As has become the norm these last few days, awareness leaked into crying. Well, I was awake, so I figured I might as well do something to take my mind off of things. As a software engineer, I find comfort in numbers. They make sense to me in a way that life does not. So I've had Google Analytics running on my blog for some time, and only this morning did I check to see how this weekend's events were being received. The latest blog entries have received hits from 43 different countries, including even remote war torn places like the Sudan. We had over 6,000 page views with a couple thousand unique visitors. I did some digging and found twitter entries from people grieving/praying for Emma in languages I can't comprehend. The largest contingent of support outside of the US was in Germany where many people initially found our story on Twitter. In the US, I found that people in 45 out of 50 states had been glued to the blog as well.
I mention all of this statistical info to provide insight into how many
people have been touched by my little girl's struggle for survival.
Long lost friends have contacted me asking how they can help.
Acquaintances of mine have become my friends. My friends have become my
family and the love I've had for others in my family has become
stronger. This may speak to the power of the internet, but it also
speaks to the power of love and friendship.
A bunch of you have even blogged about the tragedy that my family and I are
gripping with. Every post I've read has been touching, uplifting, sad
and moving. Thank you. They all are very special and mean a lot to Ellen and I. Even though I wept when I read each entry, every single one
of them has brought me one step closer to dealing with reality. Seeing
support from people I do not really know and others that I do know has
changed me in ways I may never be able to comprehend.
I wasn't sure if everyone has seen them, so I figured it best to link to them. I apologize if I missed your link, feel free to add it in the comments or email it to me at emma@climbforkids.org and I'll update the post with the additional link.
We hope that people who were touched by Emma's story will do what they can to become an influence on someone else's life the way Emma became an influence on ours. If someone who only lived 4.5 months and never left the hospital can have this kind of effect on people's lives, imagine what a full grown healthy person can achieve. Emma brought people together, even for a small instant of time for a reason. She wanted to share with us this lesson. A little love can go a very long way. You only have a short period of time in this world; use your most powerful tool to make a positive impact on other people's lives.
Love is all you need.