A Big, Huge, Giant, Heartfelt Thank You

Dear reader,

I want to take a moment to thank you for being here with us. We started The Property Lovers six years ago (!) as a way to document the renovation of the first house we ever bought together, right before we got married, not knowing what would ever become of it and definitely not thinking that it would turn into anything more than it was. But it has, and it’s completely changed our life in ways we never could have imagined.

One of the biggest ways is getting to know YOU. Yes, you!!! You teach us so many things about life, about the world, about how to be better people to ourselves and each other and our children. You show us love and support and acceptance. You give us your honest opinion when you don’t like something we do and when we mess up. You give us feedback when things don’t work and cheer us on when something good happens.

You also shower our children with love and support, and you have for the last two and a half years, even though the first two years you never saw their faces. You send us emails and real mail! and comments and messages and packages for us and packages for our kids and sooooo many books that we get to read to them every night (we always them them who they’re from, of course). They feel the love, too, and even if they don’t understand that not every kid receives coloring books and markers from people in the U.K., they know you’re here with us, and that you have been here for the entire adoption journey. And it means a lot to them, too.

I can’t tell you what your support has meant to us these last few years as we’ve grown our business and our family; as we try new things and try to better ourselves. We all only have one life, and you’ve made ours so sweet just by…I don’t know, leaving a sweet comment, or emailing just to say hi. It’s the little things that, these days, don’t seem or feel so little to us. In fact, they feel big, meaningful, and kind. So very kind.

What I feel so deeply sad about, though, is our inability to respond to all of the letters and packages you’ve been sending lately. There was a time when I would write back every single letter we received in the mail. I loved it. It felt like a personal way of saying thank you from an era all but forgotten. We still have every letter you’ve ever sent us in boxes and on our bulletin board in the upstairs landing, and we cherish them all greatly.

I hope you will understand and forgive the silence on our end when you don’t receive a response after sending us something in the mail. I promise you it’s not on purpose, it’s just I am finding it hard to find the time to devote to little else outside of work and family lately. And this is no pity party: it’s not breaking news that jobs and kids and relationships take up a big portion of your time. I think I’m just still trying to figure out how to fit everything in. I know I can speak for both of us when I say we’re stretched thin right now, but I don’t think it’ll always be like this.

So to wrap up this already long post, I want to say one more time, a simple thank you, thank you, thank you, for all you have given us. I only hope we can return the favor somehow.

xoxo