You've Got Mail

It seems we never lose the wonder of receiving a letter in the mail. For fifteen years we lived in town and had a post office box. Every day we would either walk or drive up to the post office and check the box. As the kids grew older they took turns running inside with the key to see if we had any mail. It's been almost five years now since we moved, but they still think it's funny to say "Can I check it?" whenever we stop at the post office to buy stamps or drop off a letter. They still love to check the mailbox at the end of our driveway and are always saying "Did I get a letter?" Hannah often writes to her friends and sometimes she even gets a letter back.

Several years back when Ben was about eight, he used to write letters to Chris from Adventures in Odyssey. Of course, it was never Chris who wrote back, but it was fun to get a reply none the less. For a little while he even wrote letters to the mail carrier and got cards from her until her boss told her it wasn't allowed. Sad because I think they both enjoyed it.

Bethany used to have a painting by Diann Dengel of an old woman, all wrinkled and wearing glasses, standing by her mailbox waiting for the postman. It's still the same today. We still love to check the mailbox but there's rarely anything we really wanted there, just bills, credit card offers, and junkmail. Now we check our email boxes for notes from friends and family. And, of course, we check our blogs and hope for connections, conversations, and comments from not only our friends and family but from anyone out there who cares to check in and leave a note or two. So thank you to all of you for connecting and dropping a letter into my "mailbox".