Those of you who have been around here a while know that we are struggling financially.
We only live about two and a half hours from Boston, but it’s too far away to drive up there the morning of the race.
Plus, you need to pick up your race packet on either Saturday or Sunday, and you have to do it in person.
So I need to stay over on Sunday night.
I wasn’t quite sure where the money would come from.
If you’ve been around here a while, you also know that Maureen had to stop working with me because I couldn’t continue to pay her, and that I was pretty torn up over it.
Shortly after that, a reader contacted me.
She wanted to help me. And she did something amazing.
She sent me enough money to pay Maureen for another month. Although she also said, “…no strings attached. And do with it as you see fit.”
I was going to have Maureen help me for another month.
But then I thought about it.
As much as I wanted to keep her here, there were better ways for me to use that money.
I never let that person know how I used her gift to me.
And she didn’t expect me to.
But because of that money, I was able to pay for a hotel room without worrying.
And I am able to take some of the kids with me, too.
Number 3, 4, and 5 are coming with me to Boston tomorrow.
It is one of the best investments I think I could ever make.
And that means the world to me.
Because they are going to see me pushing myself to the limits.
They are going to see me doing something to pay it forward.
And they are going to experience the excitement of the Boston Marathon.
All because of an unbelievably generous reader, who I’ve never met, who lives clear across the country.
Thank you.
Thank you for giving that to me.
And thank you for giving that to my kids.
Number 5 (who is 5 years old and in kindergarten) showed me what she wrote in her journal tonight:
She wanted me to read it out loud.
So I did.
Hi, I’m Number 5. What’s your name?
(I’m not sure who she is writing this to, but that’s beside the point.)
Tomorrow I’m going to a hotel.
(When I did not read it with enough expression she stopped me.)
Mommy. I put an exclamation point after hotel. That means you have to read it “happy.”
(Whoops.)
Tomorrow I’m going to a HOTEL!!!
And Grammy and Papa are going with me.
It is gonna be so so so so so fun and I am gonna watch my mommy race.
Thank you to this special reader.
Thank you so so so so so much.
Thank you for giving my kids this opportunity and for making my daughter so so so so so happy.
I am going to do my best to make them (and you) so so so so so proud.
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Wow, that journal entry is so so so so cute! Staying in a hotel is right up there with going to Disneyland for a little kid. This trip will be a special thing that your children will always remember, and that reader is storing up treasures in heaven for blessing your family in such a way.