pulling it off

this post is WAY overdue, but i've been swamped since my "blink and you missed it" trip back home to toronto. my dad, stepmom and cousin were sworn to secrecy about my trip. i returned home to participate in the "light the night walk" to benefit the leukemia & lymphoma society of canada. my family decided to do the walk in memory of mom, and do it altogether, even though the assumption was that my own family wouldn't be there to participate. nevertheless, i listed my name as a participant for our team, collected donations (thank you everyone!) and even made plans to speak to the team before the walk began.

i slipped across the border under the cover of night last thursday (it's almost therapeutic to be driving on a barely occupied road at that time), stayed at dad's and then the next morning, started phase 2 of my trip - pray that nobody sees me before it's time. after work, i met up with my cousin and we drove around for a while to kill time. just before the walk started, she took my camera and set it to the video function to take a "picture" of the team. what they didn't know was that i was standing about 50 feet away and was going to reveal myself as the "picture" was being taken. here's the outcome of that moment (watch it high quality, it's much better). and i have to say, i handled it much better than i thought i would. for weeks, while keeping this secret from them, i have been a blubbering mess, crying at the most random times, thinking of how sweet the moment would be when i could finally be with them during the fundraiser. and it was.

i felt so proud of our team that night. our goal was to raise $1000 and we ended up raising almost double that - $1900+! our most heartfelt thanks to all of our sponsors who supported us in this campaign. we couldn't have done it without you!