Friends For Life: The Connection

I feel so blessed that our family was able to make the trip to Orlando this summer for the Friends For Life conference.  It was our first FFL experience - as you can tell by our "First Timer" ribbons!

I sat in the ballroom, overwhelmed by the beautiful people that filled the room, listening to Tom Karlya's keynote speech.  I was thinking about how I wished everyone in the diabetes community could experience this atmosphere.  My eyes were bouncing from one green bracelet to another.  Earlier Ally had commented to me about all the green bracelets...she couldn't believe that so many people had diabetes like her. 

The green bracelet of belonging for the Type 1s. 
The orange bracelet of belonging for the people that love someone with Type 1.

Tom Karlya said that support is just as important as knowledge.  He said, "We need to work together to move forward." 

I told myself that I needed to carve out the time to blog.  I'm sure that I've said before that I blog for different reasons.  I blog to vent (it is therapy you know!).  I blog to educate.  And maybe more than anything else, I blog for the connection.

Connecting with other parents of children with diabetes - it is something so amazing that I can't even put it into words.  Well maybe one - SAME.  My orange bracelet gave me the same sense of belonging that the green bracelet gave Ally.