One down, Over Nineteen Thousand to Go
Back in the Caringbridge days, i.e., the days when people followed my health through CaringBridge.org, I became one of those people - one of those people who "wishes I could thank everyone personally, but..."
Every day at least one person left a message on the site, telling me they were praying for me, thinking of me and Jake - then known only as "the baby" - anxious to hear the latest update. It was always at least one because on the day that no one wrote, Uncle Kris wrote again.
And there were so many - people who knew me before I was born, people who didn't meet me until fifth grade when I moved to Edina, people who'd only known me a few years. I was constantly afraid I would run into one of them in town - a person who'd taken the time to write on that site - and in the midst of the stress I was facing and the fact that there were so many, I wouldn't think to say it. "Thank you so much for writing. It made all the difference in the world." And that would be awful. How in the world could I possibly thank each one? How could I make them know that their words, their quotation, their scripture, meant as much to me as the next person's did, as much as the person's before that. Each one as special as if that person was the first and only person to think of me.
I couldn't. I couldn't convince anyone of that. I would run into people I wouldn't stop to thank. And no one would ever know exactly how I cried or laughed when I read their comment, or when I took a breath and realized that oh-thank-God, perhaps I can face the next day after all.
Luke was one of those friends, and his wife Angela. And maybe this one little thing I can do for them will mean as much to them as their emotional support meant to me.
If you like coffee - take a look at the link to the right and consider buying Grounds for Hope*. It's certified Fair Trade. So it doesn't just put money towards an adoption Luke and Angela are pursuing. It means something to families in developing countries as well.
If anyone else who left even two words on that website needs to raise money for your own adoption or a barn-raising or world travel, you know where to come. And if any of you wondered if I noticed that you wrote, I hope now you know that I did.
*Link no longer available.