okay, i'm SERIOUSLY considering just calling these thursday letters because i seriously cannot remember to write them on wednesdays. it's unreal. but i'm not going to do that, because i'm just gonna get my stuff together & do my best to write them on wednesdays. but i digress.
tbh, this week has been ROUGH. there have been lots of tears over our sweet mackie. however, in the same breath, i have to say that we have been so blessed this week because today will be the first day that we eat dinner at home. our family & friends have really stepped up this week & it has been incredibly humbling. we have been so grateful. i was telling parker the other day that this whole experience has made me realize how i can be a better friend. from the two year olds in our lives to the 84 year olds in our lives, we have felt love from all of you. & we are so grateful.
i've learned that empathy comes down to simply feeling the core feelings-- not necessarily understanding those feelings, but just feeling them. i learned that from 2 year olds and 3 year olds, guys. our nieces & nephews have seriously showed up in grieving with us & i am so impressed by their love. they were sad, simply because we were sad. they all wanted to make sure that we were okay & that mack was okay. their ability to love & feel empathy is incredible. i want to be a friend like that.
we were given heartfelt & thoughtful gifts. people sent us gifts & notes because they knew we were hurting & wanted to brighten our days, even just a little bit. we're grateful for the meals, the texts, the calls, the gifts, the comments, the prayers, the pictures (our cute nephew painted us a picture to help us feel better, it was so sweet), the time you've spent with us. seriously, we cannot even begin to express our gratitude. i want to be a friend that doesn't just think about sending gifts or notes, but just does that because i'm thinking about it. i want to be the friend that doesn't ask how i can help, but just tries to help by inviting someone over for dinner, taking them dinner, sending them a sweet little gift in the mail or dropping something off to their house. it takes FIVE minutes to do any of those things but i can truly say that it makes such a huge difference. i want to be a friend like that.
like i said, we have been so, so humbled by this experience & even though we miss our sweet pup, we are grateful for the love we've felt & the spirit of kindness that has been shown to us in the last 5 days. & honestly, through our entire marriage. we have seriously been blessed with the best friends & family that this world has ever known. if you're reading this blog post, consider yourself a friend/family, because i'm definitely writing to YOU. you've all changed our lives & we hope from here on out that we can be the kind of friend that you all have been to us.
