It's hard when everything and everyone around you must declare disclaimers to protect their ass when all you want to do is surround the ass (poetic license not intended to be crass) you want to protect with a hope the compromise of which you must not make with even a scintilla of doubt.

Hope really is eternal, promises the eternal, wraps both of you in a blanket of steadfastness, keeps your love for each other at a high pitch while you count on that same future you've always counted on.

Don't let those disclaimers lower the curtain of despair. Pull it down and let it crash to the stage we're all players on. Players who pray, who love, and who entwine our lives with yours.

We're here. We're cheerleaders like you never seen or heard before but now.

But now! Live each moment yet know that the future promises Maya will see her sons graduate fom high school and college, dance with them at their weddings, and hold her grandchildren with all the firmness she held them with, and you, as you have held her.

Hold her now!