My Friends Rock

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Emily. Emily was having sort of a tired and stressful week. One morning she woke up, read her Bible, checked her email, and then walked to work, Trying (not necessarily successfully) to Be Cheerful.

Emily's cheerfulness factor soon got much easier to maintain, though, because upon arriving at the office to check in, the secretary handed her a package that had arrived in the mail the day before.

What! thought Emily, A PACKAGE! She then opened it, finding art supplies, chocolate(!), and beautiful letters. (And this amazing drawing):


And then Emily cried. And all of a sudden it wasn't as hard to be cheerful. And not only did the week get better, but Emily got reconvicted about how completely filled with undeserved joy and love and friendship her life is, and suddenly the good attitude came more out of gratitude than gritted teeth.

OK, writing in third person's getting a little annoying.

Not only is getting mail ever SO encouraging, but it really was perfect timing in terms of brightening a down-ish time. The letters of course are always the best part... and they also included this new favorite quote:

"...May joy be with you and the girls. May your capacity to love increase beyond all expectations. And may chocolate facilitate in all of these things..." -NR.

(yeah, they sent me DOVE CHOCOLATE... did I mention the FRIENDS ROCKING PART?!)

Wow. Amen. And thank you for providing me with a new life prayer.

However, once I brought the package home it became clear that I may not even be the person happiest about it...


Yes. Sending art supplies pretty much has you at superhero status now in this house. The kids immediately wanted to know where they came from and when I said, "My great friends Alex and Nate" they set right to work...

(They LOVED the orange pencil sharpener btw, brilliant idea... There have been a few fights over who "gets" to sharpen dull pencils :-)).

I bit my lip SO HARD to keep from cracking up but I couldn't help it... I laughed out loud with absolute joy when I saw that they each drew little pictures of "the three of you" (I tried to include a closer-up shot but it won't load...). If that isn't the cutest thing in the entire world EVER I don't know what is. If you guys ever want to come to Bolivia, you have a fan club ready and waiting, trust me. We've spent all week coloring in the living room after dinner.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so blessed and lucky.