Star has her 18th birthday party tonight. Friends have generously opened their home to her friends. I’m currently resting on the couch while Poppy sleeps on me. I’ve made 36 small pizzas so far and I have another 12 to go. Star had severe tonsillitis earlier in the week but is looking much better and jittery/excited. She has cute balloons and a photobooth.

My family has a week of birthdays all in a row which is hectic to say the least. We are spacing the celebrations this year. Poppy’s was last weekend in a local park with hot soup, nature crafts, and umbrellas on standby. Rose will be in a couple of weeks in a cafe with delicious chocolate treats and boardgames.

I’m just so glad to be doing this. So glad Rose is still with us and able to be part of things. Happy Star is 18 and doing so well in her own recovery! She’s house hunting and excited about the next stage of her life. And Poppy is 2, fearless, loving, and funny. We are such a mess. And we are all okay. Such a beautiful, vulnerable collection of people I adore.

Our tribe have surrounded us with so much love. Some days I can’t feel it but no one seems to be taking that personally. Funnily enough it’s easier for me to feel the love around us when it’s directed towards someone else I love. A friend of a friend is making a cake for Star and I damn well cried when I heard about it. That we are trusted and loved and considered deserving of informal support when the formal family, health, and mental health supports have been so much less than excellent this past few months… To have not just our people care for us but have them draw on their own networks for us. To have people who are not in such pain welcome us into their lives in so many ways so we can rest in their peace for awhile… It’s healing. It gets us through the day, and that’s all I’m thinking about at the moment.

These birthdays are so worth celebrating because each of these people are so awesome in their own way and I’m grateful they are in my life. ❤️