My "Show and Tell"

If you were to come over to our house, you would find the above scrapbook on display on the end table in our family room. It is a treasure that we are so grateful for for countless reasons...First of all, it was a gift! The day Jason and I got home from the hospital (the day after we gave Noah to God) we opened this huge package that was waiting for us with a return address of someone whom we have never met personally, though through blogville and email. Her name is Heather and she's from Georgia and she's pretty remarkable! She shared that God laid it on her heart at Thanksgiving to make this book for our family. Jason and I just sat in awe, reading every detail, looking at the pictures, savoring the memories and being humbled by the time and love that had been put into making this beautiful priceless gift by someone who didn't even know us! Also in the package was a wonderful picture CD set to music (an awesome Third Day song that I can't think of the title to off hand, but it starts out "Father in Heaven"...I'll try to get Jason to post it on You Tube as I'm not technical...) of all of the pictures on the blog to that point. This was made by Heather's dear friend, April (also someone I have yet to meet). Anyway, I wanted to show and tell because the keepsakes, cards, gifts, calls, visits, etc are all treasures that encourage our hearts and help us have visual memories...Also, I just wanted to say that I am forever grateful for these gifts because, one, I am not a scrapbooker, though I think it's a blast looking at other people's creativity, and two, I couldn't make a photo CD if you paid me. I know how to put pictures in frames and flip albums and I know how to type on the computer. If it's more complicated than that, you've lost me! So, THANK YOU, HEATHER AND APRIL, for these two priceless gifts!

And, as far as thank you's go, I just wanted everyone to know I am still working on them...We have hundreds of cards, have received countless packages, have thousands of emails, been treated to meals, have been given monetary gifts for Noah's medical expenses, donations in his honor to different organizations...the list goes on and we are so very grateful! One friend said that the reason she gave was because God laid it on her heart, not because she expected a thank you note. Another said she'd help me write them and another suggested I write 2 notes a day...If I did that, I would go way past timeliness as far as etiquette goes because it would take me well into 2008 or even 2009. All of this to say, my desire is to email everyone back, to write letters of thank you (though in the chaos of coming home to a house full of friends and family, many return envelopes were thrown...) and to somehow express to all of you the gratitude that fills our hearts for so lovingly walking this road with us. I know it hasn't been easy, and it gets long at times, but like I said before, if we were meant to walk it alone, God would have stopped at Adam...