We got a package in the mail yesterday from a friend. Inside was a precious, handmade gift and this letter:

Ryan and Elizabeth,
I’ve been tracking your journey with Grayson through Elizabeth’s blog. I was especially moved by your friend’s description of living with a special needs child. I don’t have a child, but I could relate to the feeling of being prepared for Italy, but instead, finding herself in Holland. I have taken that very trip. I was going overseas to study in Italy, but instead of direct travel, I spent a miserable week in early January in Amsterdam. It was so cold your eyelids would freeze together. I was jet-lagged and restless in a country where I didn’t speak the language, had no friends, and my wardrobe was ill-equipped for the weather. The few times I ventured out it was to discover that it was so cold the restaurants could not cook and only had cold, raw salted fish to eat, and the paths I thought were sidewalks were actually a disgusting frozen river. For me, I was only there a week, but I vowed never to go back. It had tainted everything I’d ever felt or hoped about Holland. After a few months, some people asked if I would like to travel back to Holland with them. NO THANK YOU! I knew it was not a place I ever wanted to return, but, after much persuasion, I begrudgingly agreed to return. It was spring and oh! how my hated place had changed. The tulips were out, the windmills were running, the snow was gone, and the sun cast a new glow on this place I had vowed to hate for life or longer. There was life, there was change and finally there was beauty…only I could not see it in the middle of winter.

I know this is different from what you are experiencing. I only write this to remind you that, YES, winter is here. Sometimes it is bitter cold and we cannot see that it will ever end, but always remember spring is coming.

You are forever in  my prayers and my heart.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Love  you,
Tiffany

This is what Tiffany made for us- it is so precious and perfect.