A Message From Erin

Hello my friends...

I was going to only include this in review replies, but as this is something I would like to share with all of my amazing readers, I decided to post it here on the blog instead.

I would like to start with something I say every week but it is something I don't feel like I can ever say enough. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking this journey with me. It isn't an easy one, though I think that is more from the fear of the unknown than the story itself, at least I hope so. It is my hope that while there is a bit of difficult subject matter to deal with, the focus is on the love story between Edward and Isabella. That is my intention anyway and the main reason for the bonus scenes. I have always wanted TGG to be Edward and Isabella's story and the story of Edward's redemption; though it would be unreasonable not to include the thoughts and viewpoints of others, especially because this is written in 3rd person. I chose 3rd person POV for that very reason, even though I know it is a writing style not everyone enjoys.

With that being said, I'd like to address something else since we have the 'hard' chapters out of the way now. I still have to be vague in some things so I hope you'll bear with me. I know there are a lot of conflicting thoughts and feelings based on what Edward revealed and most especially Carlisle and Esme's actions once Edward went to live with them. I anticipated that and would probably find it really odd if everyone thought the same thing. We all have different thoughts and feelings that are borne out of our own life's experiences and those color how we interpret what we read.

The Greatest Gift is about forgiveness, plain and simple. I know there are a lot of you that don't understand how Edward could forgive Carlisle and Esme so easily and maybe if Seth never appeared he never would have, but we don't know. What we do know is that Edward was told he had little time left to live. Keeping that in mind, once he took the step to tell them all his past, it wouldn't make much sense for him not to forgive them, would it? His gift to his family is much the same as Isabella's to him...a second chance.

Forgiveness is a process, and Isabella tells Edward in Chapter 26, "Forgiveness doesn't automatically make things all better, it just makes it easier to go forward." Because of Edward's supposed timetable, his process is accelerated, but he isn't going to go from calling Carlisle by his name to Dad overnight, he's just opened the door to having a relationship with them both that is more significant than it has been.

Carlisle and Esme's actions and non-actions as the case may be, are confusing, I know they are, but I wrote it that way on purpose. When they decided to selflessly...(please note I did NOT say selfishly!) to take Edward in, they didn't consciously set out to hurt him. Nothing could be further from the truth actually. Edward was already so damaged when they got to him that they were in over their heads before they even had a chance. Perhaps if Edward hadn't overheard what he did things would have been very different; but he did...and all the actions that followed were because of that. He was fourteen-years-old when that discussion took place and again like Isabella told him, he had no idea of what their life was like with William always berating Esme or that Carlisle's natural instinct was to try to protect his wife.

I think that is kind of the way real life situations happen though, and that is what I wanted to portray. Someone overhears something, doesn't say anything, and then resentment builds and builds until a wall is formed that nothing can get through. Guilt, jealousy, bitterness...all are emotions that will eat away at you slowly, bit by bit, until you are a different person and that is what I have in my mind happened to Edward. He isn't totally blameless in all of this either. When he was younger, he had an excuse, but twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, surely he was self-aware enough to know that his actions were unreasonable. Of course, taking that first step and admitting it is the most difficult, and it was only after he got a rather abrupt wake-up call that he really took a hard look at his life. Would he have done it without Seth? Who knows, but the point is he did. He could have resisted Seth, though let's all admit, who could really resist our favorite angel, but he could have dug his heels in and said no.

So, I hope that by sharing these thoughts with you, you all will have better understanding of where I was coming from when I wrote those chapters. Your views and/or beliefs may be different and if they are, your perceptions and interpretations of what I write will be influenced by that and that is what makes FFn so great. We can all read the same thing and every one of us will take something different from it, and that is okay. I just thought it would help to share what I hoped to get across.

Love, unconditional love, is a force that can heal everything and make life worth living.

Forgiveness is a gift and a second chance to correct a mistake... everyone deserves that.

I truly do love and appreciate each and every one of you and the feedback and support you've given me and this story means more than you can possibly imagine. We're not done yet, Edward still has some work to do, so I hope you are planning on sticking with me until the end. I know I've said it before, but I'll keep saying it, have faith in me...I promise to give you all the ending Edward and Isabella deserve. You'll see!!

Thank you again for...everything!

See you Sunday. Feedback from betas and pre-readers indicate this is the favorite chapter so far. I'm excited to hear what you all think.

Hugs and much love,
Erin~