Two Little Words

It’s been a stressful week.

• Last Thursday, Rob found out that he has to work in Detroit for 3 weeks (driving 2 hours each way) or else be out of a job.
• We STILL haven’t heard from our licensing worker about when our home visit will be to finish up our Foster Care License.
• Our kitchen and bathroom pipes are leaking onto the kitchen floor. Rob says it’s condensation. There is NO WAY ON EARTH that it’s condensation. My kitchen is in complete disarray and I cannot function well with it like that.
• With Rob’s new work schedule, he has to go to bed early and get up at 4 AM. I usually sleep until 7:30 but can’t if he’s not there with me. So I’m going on little sleep.
• Mindy wanted to join the gym that I belong to, and I finally let her. Only I suspect there’s a reason she wants to get into shape. Her mom is fully in favor of … let’s say “Go-Go Dancing,” because she used to do it herself. Mindy will be 18 in October and I promise if she uses this gift from Rob and me for dark purposes, I will…. well I don’t know. I haven’t thought of something quite bad enough yet. Suffice to say I will be disappointed. So I need to really nip this in the bud with her and make sure we talk about it before she’s old enough. Want to talk about nasty? Mindy’s dad goes to the local club. And Mindy’s half-sister, I suspect, dances in a nearby town. Hopefully I am freaking out for nothing.

So the two little words referenced in the title of this blog?

THANK YOU

Why? Because it’s been a common theme this week.

• Mindy thanked me 8 times in the past 3 days for allowing her to come to the gym with me.
• Rob thanked me tonight for dealing with all the stress we’ve been put under lately.
• Dotty, my twin thanked me for being open to her dating a man from a different ethnic background than ours.
• My mom thanked me yesterday for going to Chicago and said to telL Rob thanks for being such a good man with such a good heart.
• She also thanked LaMar, Dotty’s boyfriend, for making Dotty so happy. (I thanked him too!)
• I thanked my folks and Dotty for THIS AWESOME JOURNAL they gave me.
• A customer thanked me today for doing my job well.
• My boss thanked me last week for a good idea I had.
• Little Jack (age 2.5) from church called me tonight to say thanks for the bag of (dollar store) gifts we sent with his mom for him last night. He said, “The bubbles were FANTASTIC!”
• A friend of a friend is a dog breeder, and received a thank you with the following photo from the Michigan Leader Dogs foundation. The friend donated a puppy to become a leader dog and Albert (the dog) has been placed with a man in Idaho. Isn’t he BEAUTIFUL?????

Albert and his new “client”

 It’s amazing how much it means to hear someone say “Thank you” for a job well done, or for caring, for loving, for giving of yourself. It’s a welcome surprise. Because I think we live in a world of not saying thank you enough, and not expecting anyone to say it back to us. Chivalry and manners seem to have gone by the wayside, but how awesome is it when someone remembers you for what you’ve done for them… even if you didn’t do it for the gratitude?

God is with us always, dear friends. Even in those two little words that seemed to make my day go so much better than it had started out.