Better than Chocolate, Note from Adopted Daughter

I was having one of THOSE weeks last week - the kind where it seems nothing goes right. Some issues were minor but irritating such as our satellite dish service having us tear our systems apart and then not doing the job that they promised. Another more personal disappointment (among several) was that an important and lucrative appointment canceled.

Even more upsetting was that I lost every digital photo I stored on my old hard drive because it crashed and seems the back up service that I PAY FOR rescued documents and recent photos but not older photos in sub-folders. Prom photos - GONE. Vacation photos- GONE.

Mid-week when I was reeling from one bad day after another I began self-medicating with my brand of vice: Chocolate. In fact, if someone offered me intravenous chocolate last week, I would have paid for that.

Unfortunately, the tried and true self medication tactic wasn't working too well. Aside from sabotaging my fitness goals, (I will be on the beach in bathing suits in less than a week - yikes!) I was still blue even afterward. I tried shopping too - another form of medicine - and yes, I know this is unhealthy. (My closet is painfully aware as well. )

Then at the end of a long week, I received a thank you note from one of my daughter's friends in the mail. I have spoken in the past in blogs about my daughter Elissa's wonderful choice in friends, and how I love to have them in my home, doting on them as if they were my own children. (I like being Mom to anyone that spends regular time in my home.)

Aside from my two birth children and three step-children, (I hate that word) that I have many other "adopted" children who have lived with me, either briefly or through years and years of hanging around my house. These include a few exchange students that we have hosted that will always refer to me as their USA Mom and I am still in touch with them years later. Even ones I have hosted short term I have adopted into my fold.

Back to Jaime - she just graduated college with Elissa and I gave small gifts to some of her closest friends. So Jamie sent a thank you note - but not so much for the gift itself, she was in essence thanking me for being her second mom.

Elissa and all of her friends are all scattering about, some going on to graduate school, some to jobs in other cities, some taking the next year to travel. I will miss her gang which I saw intermittently through college due to school breaks when they would all gather round again.

My little pick-me-up in the form of a thank you note from Jamie:
Dear Gary and Arlene, (aka Mom #2)
"Thank you for your generous graduation gift. It means so much that you were thinking about me when you had your other daughter's graduation to tend to :).
I can't believe Elissa and I have already graduated, it honestly feels not that long ago when we first became friends and I was introduced to the many baked goods always available at your house.
I know Elissa and I will always be close so I will definitely keep coming around. (especially for sticky bread!)
Thank you for making me feel like a member of the family and thanks again for the great gift - I love it. Love, Jamie"

People often tell me that I have touched them with my writing, and I love to hear that I have a gift to share. Still, I think it's far more valuable to be able to touch an unrelated child with food and warmth in my home and make her feel part of my family. That is a gift that keeps giving.