The Gift of Family (and a Gift from them too!)

I am awed.
I am amazed.
I am overwhelmed.
I am humbled.
I am blessed.
By your generosity.
By your kindness.
By your compassion.
By your thoughtfulness.
By your love.

THANK YOU to my "Iowa family"!

I just recently received my 30th birthday album. It is absolutely beautiful and I will cherish it FOREVER! I must feel well enough to bring it to Iowa for you all to see the final product! (Or, more realistically, make sure I send it along with Dad and Abbie on their next trip to visit!).

You all worked so hard on your pages! How wonderful it is to have a page from EVERY family, including a page with Grandma, Joe and Tom! I thank you for all of the time, energy and effort you each found to put into your pages. I don't know how you found any 'extra' time with all of your own busy family lives! What an amazing team effort!

I love seeing how each of you designed your page--each family's own personal flair! Also, it has been over eight years since I have been to Iowa to see you all. Many of the cousins have married and had children since then. The cousins I DID see 'back then' have grown and changed so much. And, many of the spouses and babies I have never met. I LOVE pictures so much, and I love being able to see all of the faces of the family in one book--those of you I know and all of those who have joined the family since I was last out for a visit.

Also, I loved the black and white pictures of Dad and the rest of you growing up, pictures of grandma and especially, the fun pictures some of you found of me 'growing up in Iowa' with the cousins! Some of them are a riot! They are so much fun! Rob, did you know your Mom put a picture of you in there with your headgear on? Did she get your permission first? I know Jay is thrilled with one of the pictures Jeanette chose! But, I loved it!

Abbie and my step-sister, Meredith, assembled the album. Perfection! They did an amazing job putting all of the pages together, creating a beautiful album of our whole family. I am so grateful to them for taking on a task that was not orginally theirs, with such grace and kindness, to create such a wonderful final product. Abbie and Meredith--You went above and beyond the call of duty!

Thank you to my friend Jeannine for planting the seed that started what became this album.

I am sorry that you all went through so much stress waiting for me to receive this album. In some ways I see it as serendipitous that I got it after I committed to doing the family newsletter. I had NO idea this wonderful gift was in process from all of you! This way, when I committed to doing the newsletter, there was no sense of 'obligation', just an absolute desire to keep our family connected and honor Grandma. So, this actually made receiving the gift even sweeter. My only sadness is that Grandma did not know I had it in my hands before she died.

I am filled with gratitude. The album brings me such joy. I do not know how I can ever thank you all enough for executing this project and creating for me a gift that touched me so deeply. Grandma truly created a family of love.

With love, blessings and gratitude,

Emily