Happy New Year!

Random photo of Evan sleeping on Grandma last week

No resolutions for this girl. I'm just going to continue my quest to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. Three more years to work on that! I'm also taking time this year to purge from each room of my house including closets with the grand finale being my basement. The basement is too overwhelming as is the house so if I say I am going to do one room at a time, then for some reason it seems more manageable. Today I cleaned under the hutch and the server in the dining room. Wow. All I can say is that it's been a long time since I've really looked to see what's under there. One treasure I came across was a letter that we received around the holidays in 2001. 2001 was a rough year for us not only because of dealing with Evan's birth and medical issues but it was hard on us financially. I had to quit my job when Evan came home from the hospital because we had no nursing when he came home and even after we got some hours, it wasn't enough for me to work. You can't just take a trached kid to daycare. Anyhow, I got the mail one day and opened this letter:

Michael, Anne and Evan,

Hello. We don't really know each other. We have heard about your sick little boy and thought you wouldn't mind a little extra money.

We don't need a thank you as we just want you to know there are people out there pulling for you and your little boy. Big and small miracles happen every day.

We found some money in a card for someone on our road one day and could never track down the sender or who it was meant for. So we just kept it until we heard of someone that may be able to use it. We don't know your financial situation but just assumed we may have a few medical and assorted extra bills for Evan. Otherwise, take yourselves out for a fun night or some new clothes!

We wish you the best of luck with Evan. You sound like wonderful parents and he sounds like a real cutie. He has a great smile-we laughed at the photo with the fez.

We'll keep you all in our prayers,

Your anonymous friends

The envelope contained $200. No return address. The postmark was from Steubenville OH and to this day, I still don't know anyone from Steubenville. Obviously they knew someone that knew us. What a blessing that money was, especially at Christmastime. What a gift it was for me to find the letter today.