Thank you, God, for Friends...

This week grace fell out of the sky when we opened our mail to find that our circle of friends from the Appalachia Service Project (where Seth and I met, y'all!) sent us funds to purchase a tree in honor of my dad. I think they did not know that my dad did the very same thing to honor his dad when my Grandpa died 15 years ago, and a beautiful cherry tree sits in their front yard (I still think of it as "their" house and "their" front yard), blossoming every spring. To all the lovely and beloved friends who took part in this effort--thank you! It was perfect. We will buy a cherry tree to plant in our front yard as a tribute to my dad. I couldn't imagine a kinder gesture of love in this hard time. If you're wondering why I haven't called to say thank you or sent a card yet, it's because we have been very busy with another endeavor that I promise to blog about tomorrow. (Uh, and we got Netflixed today...the Office, Season 4, disc 2...trust me, I need to laugh at the end of the night). Much love to all of you! I also had the joy of hanging out at Growing Young cafe this afternoon with a bunch of mama friends and their sweet babies. It's a new small business in town that especially accommodates mamas of young ones, enabling us to let our kids go to town in the play area while we sip on some coffee and chat. We have truly been blessed by friends this week, and we are grateful. Our garden continues to pump out tomatoes like it was still August. Fresh raw tomato sauce in October...what a treat. It's good to have some good in this season. In the words of Mary Oliver, "So. It is still possible."