For The People Who Decided What Happened To Our Family…

This is for the people who made decisions about our family.
During the holiday season, your office says “closed.”
And truthfully, it feels like that closure extends far beyond the office door.

Closed hearts.
Closed minds.

For us, it means empty chairs around our Christmas Dinner table. It means every place we go is a reminder of what should be – rather than what is.

While you’re given the day off to spend with your family, we’re left wanting nothing more than ours back. Our 5 a.m. wake-ups aren’t filled with the giggles of excited children – they’re filled with dread, grief, and the weight of another day survived.
Christmas looks different when a chair is empty.
When traditions are fractured.
When children ask questions no one prepared you to answer.
When the reason your family feels incomplete can be traced back to paperwork, protocols and people who never had to sit in the aftermath.

The holiday mess we’re facing isn’t torn wrapping paper scattered across the floor. It’s the emotional wreckage we’re still sifting through – alongside the paperwork waiting when the world resumes.

Watching joy shared so freely this time of year doesn’t feel comforting. It feels like another reminder. Another quiet wound. Another dagger pressing into places that never had the chance to heal.

This isn’t written in anger.
It’s written in truth.

Your decisions don’t end when offices close.
They don’t pause for the holidays.
They follow families home.
They sit at dinner tables.
They echo silently through seasons meant for togetherness.

Some of us are still carrying what was decided – quietly, carefully – while the world tells us this should be the most joyful time of year.

Please remember that.
Take it to heart.