Thank You Amy

It never ceases to amaze me that people mail us stuff. And by stuff I mean packages. Heavy ones. Expensive ones. It's like $10 a pound to send anything here from the U.S. And people keep doing it! Boxed chicken broth? Saline solution? Glass jars of garlic? Those are really heavy! Even now, it makes me want to cry with gratitude. If Nathan isn't home when a box arrives, I just stare at the postage price and shake my head until he busts out the scissors and we open the loot. And then I want to cry even more when I think about how much sweetness and time and money went into the items inside the box.


I remember sending a box to my friend Kristi in Israel a few years ago, completely naive about how much it would cost. I filled a big box full of magazines, food (there were some girl scout cookies in there, I remember), clothes, and some other random stuff. By the way, magazines are really heavy. It was almost $80. I almost fell over. But I paid it. Because I love her. And because I had a good job and we are cheap except when it comes to 1) feeding lots of people at our house and 2) spoiling our friends overseas.


So my sweet Amy, my little Amy... once just a high schooler in a Bible study group I led fresh out of college, now a middle school Language Arts teacher like I was (and hope to be again soon)... mailed Nathan and me the most incredible care package that cost $75 freaking dollars to send. And the value of what was inside must have been at least that much. Good gracious! It's humbling and awesome to be on the receiving end of that kind of love.

So, the delivery man came to the door at a perfectly reasonable hour of the morning, but, like I said last time, I was still in my robe and pajamas. Thankfully, Nathan was home so we could open it right away. This is his fake excited face. Except he was really excited.

He ripped off the Trader Joe's bag exterior...

and dove straight in. Every gift was sealed in its own Ziploc bag with a fun message on it. Here is a gift just for Nathan - a potato gun. 

He was ripping through the contents of the box really quickly. I kept saying, "Slow down! Slow down! I have to document!" But that only made him go faster.

Mac and cheeeeese! The box I got from Sandy was consumed about 2 hours after it arrived, so hopefully these will last a little longer.

A Vons bag full of taco seasoning and a Christmas card from Kelee. Thanks for contributing to the box of goodies!

We were in shock and awe when we opened these gifts. Signed pictures of us by Brian Regan! Holy cow! Amy got tickets to see him last month, and she thoughtfully printed out the pictures from our sun stare post and had him write us a special message. Nathan was cracking up, as seen in the photos above and below.

Brian Regan is a really awesome comedian that we and Amy and our youth group loves. Check him out! He's actually going to be in Durham tomorrow. Durham, North Carolina that is. Amy, you are so creative with your gift giving! I wish I was one tenth as creative as you are.

These are bag closer thingies. They close bags. Like chip clips. They're awesome. I've already employed two of them. One is on cheese, and the other is on chips. You probably don't care about that.

There was lots, lots, lots more in the box but Nathan was opening things so fast I couldn't take pictures quickly enough: coloring books and SAH-WEET hi-tech crayons like mechanical pencils, invisible ink pens and pads of paper for secret message writing, two kinds of soup mixes, a darling spring canvas purse (I'm sure I'll be busting that out soon), magnets, Crystal Light peach mango green tea mix, and lots of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head right now. It was like Christmas. Our living room was littered with all of the goodies and all of the Ziploc bags. In short, it was amazing. It was truly amazing.

Amy, you are so, so, so, awesome. I appreciate your kindness more than words can say.

Sometimes I say little things off hand on this blog, like "I couldn't get contact solution because they were out and then the store was closed and then it was ridiculously expensive," or "I haven't seen any straws here," or "Why is there no resealable packaging?" or "I hate to chop garlic," and then a few weeks later a remedy appears in the mail. It's like magic. I seriously don't mean to fish for gifts or anything. I just feel very loved and listened to!

Nathan says I should start saying things like, "I haven't seen big stacks of money in England, and I really miss those. I also wish I could see some low utility bills and rent. I also miss a job." I'm not really sure how that would work, but if you could mail me a teaching job that pays in British pounds, that would be great. I'll pick up the postage.