Hello loves, today is Sunday. Last week flew by with a lot of heavy emotions, both good and bad. More to come on some of that later, but I will share what I can with you now.
Wednesday evening, I got the most thoughtful, surprising and loving gift! My baby sister, Freddie, and exchange student who lived with my family when I was 19 years old sent me a care package that filled me with tears of joy as I opened it. I had just asked my husband if the book I ordered; I Want to be Where the Normal People Are, by Rachel Bloom, had come in yet. Unfortunately, it had not, but I was so eager to get my mind into a new book.
Side Note: My I Want to be Where the Normal People Are, just arrived, and I already started reading the first 3 pages.
And when my husband went out to check the mail, he said I had a package that contained a book.
I came running out of our bedroom and saw that all the writing on the outside of the package was in German, so I thought that didn't seem right, but I saw the sender's signature and it was my baby sister! I started crying immediately. It was such a surprise and so thoughtful, I wouldn't have ever expected a package, "just because."
She had painted the loveliest painting and thought of me and sent the painting so I could look at it every day and feel love from her from far away.
She sent a chocolate bar from Zotter, and it was the best chocolate I have ever had! Writing in her letter that her favorite way to eat the chocolate was with a cup of tea wrapped in a blanket. So after dinner we were so eager to try it, I made a cup of tea and got comfortable with a blanket to open the candy bar. It was such a lovely end to a very difficult day for me. I had a terrible stress response to a nightmare and could not get it together. So this surprise package was a gift of pure love.
Freddie included a book, Educated, by Tara Westover that she had read and enjoyed so she wanted to share it with me. This was the answer to my hopes of the day wanting to find a book that I could sink into and feel outside of myself.
I am disappointed to state that I have not started reading the book yet, but I hope to begin today. I can definitely use the escapism.
This gift meant the world to me, and couldn't have arrived on a better day.
Freddie had sent it in October, as a loyal reader of my blog, seeing the pain I was going through with the loss of my twins. She wanted to send love to me while we are all banned from traveling with Covid cases so high still. It took 6 weeks to get here, but it came on my lowest day since October. And what a way to change my mood! What fears once felt hopeless earlier in the day, I was then reminded love is everywhere and there is so much to live for no matter the circumstances.
Freddie has always been a warm, accepting and caring force in my life as long as I have known her. I was so blessed to have experiences having many exchange students live with our family while I was growing up, getting to learn so much about different cultures and hopefully having family all around the world.
My parents and I visited Freddie and Franzi in 2018, both in Germany. It was such a lovely trip and so fantastic to get to spend my time with my little sisters. I fell in love with Germany and still discuss moving there with my husband someday.
I would love to get back soon, but Covid has cancelled so many travel plans. I hope once there is a vaccine we can plan a trip to Germany and the UK.
I suggest if you are given the opportunity to send a surprise, thoughtful gift to a faraway friend, that you take up that opportunity. It is a way that we can feel close while we are all social distancing in our own painful ways.
You cannot even imagine the love and joy that is felt in opening that surprise.
We had planned our first Christmas cards this year but I have yet to decide if we will send Christmas cards or maybe we will save up the cost of that for a greater gift for far away loved ones at Christmas time.
I think this year the holidays may be weird. I am not sure if we will just do Thanksgiving with the 3 of us who live here. That would be safest for us, but our roommate may go to his family's Thanksgiving.
We will see if my in-laws want us to come over but I don't think they will. My father-in-law must work in a public facing job still. While my mother-in-law, husband and myself are getting to stay home and safe. So we will have to weigh risks . It is not something I feel is worth risking.
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