A Huge Thank You and a Sincere Apology

Nothing like starting the week off with an apology, right?

This is on my mind today so I wanted to talk to you about it. First, I want to start off by saying thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

Thank you for the kindness and the love you have extended to our family over the last five years. Having this community of smart, strong, brave people has been so incredible and we feel incredibly grateful for you every day. And ever since the kiddos came to live with us a year and a half ago, seeing the love you have sent to them has been overwhelming in the best way possible. To know that so many of you care about and send love to them is the best feeling in the world. Thank you for that.

I am trying to say thank you in a way that doesn’t sound pretentious or self-absorbed. We never take your presence or your time for granted, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here with us. Hearing your stories and learning your backgrounds has taught us so much about life, about the world, and about ourselves. The lessons we’ve gained from you are irreplaceable and honestly, we’re so much better because of them.

We read every email, letter, comment, message, and package you send us and are immensely grateful for you, for all of you. But I want to say I’m sorry. Lately I have fallen behind on responding to the things you send us and I feel so awful about it. The letters and cards, though they have been read, have started piling up in my “respond to” stack and they glare at me with seething eyes every single day. It’s so bad, y’all. And I am so sorry. I think about you every time I walk by and see them and I think, “If I just sit down for 10 min I can write them back and it will mean so much to everyone involved!” But then a dog needs to be fed or a kid needs to go poo-poo or dinner needs to be made and I lose track of time. Rinse and repeat.

I feel guilty for us even having a PO Box when I can’t respond to everything you send in. The kiddos received SO many gifts for Christmas from you all this year, and I think that was the hardest thing to not respond to. You put so much time and effort and love into everything you send and we can feel it as soon as we open the packages.

Please know we see everything you send in, even if you don’t get a response from us (or it takes us weeks to get back to you!). I don’t think I could have anticipated, no matter how many parenting blogs I read or people I got advice from, just how busy and all-consuming (in the best way!) kids would be. I feel like by the end of most days I have zero energy left and all my bandwidth is used up. What then?

But the truth is, lots of people have kids and still find time to get done what they need to/want to. So I will keep working on it and in the meantime, I ask for grace in responding to your sweet, kind correspondence. The quickest and easiest way to reach us is by email (propertyloversemail@gmail.com), so please always feel free to send something that way! I hope you understand and again, thank you SO much for showing our family so much love. You mean more to us than you’ll ever know.

xoxoxo