words fail me right now.
…and all i can say is thank you to some very special people in my life.
i could give you the long version, but i am certain i wouldn’t stop rambling. pages & pages.
so, the short version is this.
i met the closest thing to a sister without a blood test to prove it when i came to florida. (okay, so i’m blessed to have a few of those)
and i went on a journey with her for years as she tried to have a baby.
and while she was going through all of that, she held my hand while i pushed and breathed and brought my own into this world. and she cried happy tears for us the moment lainey was born.
one year, two in-vitros and many tears/cheers later, kelly & david had lily.
and i was there to see her born…and what a day that was.
i loved her from day one and despite ironing out a few logistics, taking care of her while her mommy went back to work was a no-brainer.
and they thank me every day…and send me letters and notes and give me praise so far above what i deserve. because watching lily & lainey is like watching my own two girls. it’s natural and it’s easy and it’s perfect.
but, tonight they went beyond.
i casually met them for dinner and after a few minutes of small talk and getting “the girls” happy and settled in our booth, the hostess walked over to our table carrying a large box and said, “this is for nanny k.”
i opened it.
and inside was a note, and it said…
(first a lot of praise i don’t even feel worthy to write on my own blog)…
but then this…
everyone says you should write a book…
now you can tell them you did.
and underneath were five hard-bound books. real books. and my pictures were on the covers…and they are titled enjoying the small things, volumes I, II, III, IV, and V.
they took my blog…every word i’ve ever written from day one to 365 days later (just a few days ago) when it celebrated its first birthday…
and all the accompanied photos…
and they had it printed. in color. and bound. hard bound with glossy covers.
and i cried. and i couldn’t find any words. and the waiter had to come back three times to take our order because i was too overwhelmed to think about food.
and i came home and could not stop touching them. reading them. inspecting them.
my books. my words. my pictures.
i feel so complete and loved and unworthy.
david, kelly & lily…i love you so.
…enjoying the friends-who-are-like-family things. ~k
…and if you’re in the naples area and didn’t get a chance to read the following post, please do…
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that made me cry…but then it also made me laugh because you are still logged into blogger as me, you blog hacker, you. so it looks like i just said a lot of really nice stuff about myself. you may be going to bed with a full heart, but if i really wrote that about myself, i’d be going to bed with a full head. bwahaha. oh, i love you.
I think giving you this gift was more exciting for us than it was for you if you can believe it! For weeks, we’d just randomly walk through the house saying “she’s just going to die” becoming giddy with excitement knowing you would light up seeing your words, your pictures, your life in print.
You are worth every word, every page, every volume and more! You are so loved by so many and you turn around and give so much in return to everyone. Karma is a sweet thing.
Going to sleep with a full heart tonight. I think I saw some love oozing out of Lily’s ears before she turned in for the night.
The words thank you seem to almost cheapen how grateful we feel for the love you give to our Lily everyday. She is a better person for it.
And so are we.
OH.
MY.
GOODNESS!
i heard that you got this gift tonight from kelly while we were out with friends for dinner. i COULDN’T wait to get home after i heard, to check this blog for the great reveal and emotion!!!!
you are so loved and this gift is totally from the heart of people who love you so much. what beautiful books…that you wrote!!!
xoxoxo
oh, and the pictures of the girls and newborn lily are so sweet and special…i love both my kelly’s (e), and this posting is perfect and shows how special both of you are:)
I love the beginning of this post when you tell the backstory of us!
Why didn’t you tell your readers how I stole Carin’s bridesmaids dress?
I’ve never seen that picture of me kissing Lily’s forhead… immediate tears formed when I saw that.
Lots of tears tonight by everyone…happy ones! The very best!!
Tears at 7am!!!!
wow…WHAT a friend.
WOW! Kelly and David….what a loving,creative, thoughtful, AMAZING gift!!! That’s incredible!!! Kelle is such an incredible friend to many, and gives her heart ans self to so many! Food karma, I like that! :o)
FOOD KARMA….WTF???? LOL!It is way too early!!! I meant to say GOOD KARMA!! OMG, I am SO beyond embarrassed;-)
you are so blessed!! those are beautiful and such a priceless way to say thank you!! ENJOY!!!
SPEECHLESS!!!! That is yhe most amazing gift! WOW!!!!!
Goosebumps……lots of them! How SPECIAL! I wish I could see them in person they look beautiful! I bet you are still in amazement!
What a special gift! And are they on amazon.com yet? I betcha’d be surprised how many people would definitely buy these! Your words and how you put them together is (to use one of your words) magic!
Oh this is incredible Kelle. I love it. I’ve always wanted to have my blog printed as well but just can’t bare the thought of sitting down and formating all 2.5 years of it. I don’t know how and I can’t find the time to learn either. Such an amazing gift. They sound like incredible people. Really! Enjoy – friends like those are priceless!
Big hugs to you and them,
Angie Seaman (Indiana)
http://www.angelicagracedesigns.com/blog/
http://www.angelicagracedesigns.com
what a beautiful gift.
that is such an incredible gift! how did they even go about doing that? those are very special friends
crying! what a PRICELESS gift!
TOPPER for sure! can you say JESSIE BEAR!?!?!
and kelly…you didn’t STEAL my bridesmaid dress :o)…I WANTED you to have it…never even thought twice.
feeling the LOVE!!!!!
wow that is amazing. there are no words.
oh wow! What amazing gift. Friends are family…and we get to pick them so it is like our little custom family.
So happy you two have each other, that Lily has Nanny K and your girls will grow and thrive in the warm warm Florida sun.
Can’t wait to see the books in person. (wink wink)
I just realized that sounds creepy. No, I am not at your door step.
Lots of love from west of the continental divide.
Hi Kelle, im going back and reading old posts (cos i love reading your words like it is my favorite book!) and OMG!!!! this is the most awesome gift idea ever! I love love love that your sweet friends did this for you! maybe as well as your sweet babies yearly books you need to yearly hardcover your blog posts? this is so cool. and you just know that in 15 years lainey and nella are going to get such a kick out of reading about their lives from your beautiful and loving persepective. Loving the ‘hardcover and bound perfection things’!
what company did they use to do this?
What an amazing and thoughtful gift! Your friend is over the top lovely! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Just bumped back as a link from your current post and a few posts sooner and look at this one. Wow, amazing to see what you wanted come into fruition. And the Christmas card posts with some cards by Dec. 18th – I’ll bet you got more than that now huh?
Hope your day is good!