I started writing thank-you notes today. It’s one of those things that I know is good to do to let people know they are appreciated, but I still dread doing and put off as long as possible. I had gotten caught up while I was in the hospital, up until a week or so before Samantha was born.
Once we had her and went home, I gave myself some slack to adjust to life with a newborn. After all, I was exhausted! Showering and eating were often the last things on my priority list. Things like thank-you notes had to wait. But then after a few weeks I started to get organized again. We opened gifts, and I made my list. I even washed the baby clothes that were in sizes that could fit her in the next few months (why wash the 3-6 month sized stuff when it will just sit around for a while?) and put everything away. I’m sure that burst of energy to get organized was a gift from God, because the week she got sick I wasn’t feeling so hot either. Laundry fell behind, and then we were in the hospital. At least the biggest issue at my house was laundry – and my mother is willing to take care of it. While my parents were here mom got the laundry stuff taken care of. It’s just nice to know that with everything else going on, I don’t have to return home to absolute chaos. I know there are things I will still need to do, like packing up the breast pump and parts or beginning to file the massive amounts of paperwork we are already starting to accumulate. But all of this is stuff that has come up since she’s been sick. I’m not also sitting on a pile of things that didn’t get done beforehand.

Except for the thank-you notes. But today I got organized for that, too. I took my hand-written list and put it on the computer so I could sort it (some people have given things more than once). And then I wrote 8 thank-you notes. My goal was to write five, but since the package had 8 I figured why stop before they are done? And because some wonderful new friends brought me stamps, I addressed them and they are going out with tomorrow’s mail! 8 down, 50-some to go. And I don’t have to mail all of them, either. I plan to work on the church family ones over the next few days – hopefully I can have them done in time for Travis to take back and put into mailboxes next Tuesday (I’m not going to push myself for Sunday at this point, that would be too much).

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am completely grateful for the outpouring from each and every person on my list. That’s part of why writing thank-yous gets to be so daunting for me, because I can’t just write the same thing to each person. I could (as in, I am able to) create a pat message and tweak it slightly for each individual. But it feels wrong to me to do that. So then writing 60 separate, individualized thank you notes becomes a mountain. That’s why I’m breaking it into manageable portions, so I can spend time thinking about what I want to say to each person instead of cranking out an assembly line.

And if you are reading this, have given us something, and haven’t gotten a thank-you note within the next month or so, PLEASE let me know. My mind is so scattered that I am sure I’ve forgotten to write down at least one person who deserves to be thanked. The oversight is not intentional, it’s just based in the stress and exhaustion we’ve experienced over the past few months.

That being said, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for reading and commenting and supporting us. As I wrote on our caring bridge today, please write comments, send messages, whatever. We love to read them as much as you enjoying reading our posts. Thank you!