Friday Letters

Dear Britain,

I know you make fun of Americans for how patriotic we are, and yes maybe it's a little over the top, but I actually loved how patriotic you were this last month. I wish the Queen had a Diamond Jubilee every year. It's pretty cool how much you love her.

Dear Summer,

I'm getting amped up for you! Next week we travel to Sweden, our first stop of many this summer. I feel so blessed to be able to do all of this traveling and I know it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Someday when I have kids crawling all over me and I'm lost in a pile of diapers and laundry, I will think back on this year and be so grateful that I got to experience it.

Dear Victoria,

Ever since you left, we haven't had one day of sunshine or warmth...this only further supports my belief that you brought the Florida weather with you. I miss it and I miss you, come back!

Dear Kurt,

I am so proud of you for handing in all 4 of your 15 page essays on June 1st! I know I had my freak out moments, but I tried oh so hard to support you in your work without taking over (or nagging you to death). I'm thankful that things like essays can help teach me to love you well, study differences and all.

Michaela Rae

I linked this post up to Ashley's, Friday's Letters. 

Friday's Letters

Love birds outside my window.

Dear Kurt,
I'm so excited to surprise you for our anniversary! I feel so proud of myself for figuring out what to do and that I haven't fully given it away yet. You may know that they're tickets of some sort, but you have no idea what to. :-)

Dear Primark,

You are so cheap, both in price and quality. You're perfect for me and my current situation. I don't want to spend large amounts of money on necessary but mundane things that I won't be able to take back home with me. I'll just donate or throw your products all away once I'm done.

Dear self,

You need to examine your self-talk more. You can be so subtle sometimes that you fly under your own radar, but you need to bring reinforcements in to keep you in check. You are a child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made for great things. The job you have, tasks you accomplish during the day or how your hair looks today doesn't change that one bit. Cling to what is good and always speak truth.

Dear love birds,
Thanks for making-out by my window. It made me smile and reminded me that spring's here, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Also you reminded me to hug and kiss my hubby today. We're love birds too, you know.

Michaela Rae

Friday's Letters + Other Exciting Things

I'm pretty excited about a few things right now, one being that I finally found a dress for Kaitlyn's wedding. I didn't end up getting the one I mentioned in this post. Instead I found one from H&M. I love it because it's flowy and soft and I feel so feminine and pretty in it. Plus it was cheap, which is always a bonus.  I'll have to get the wrinkles out with a dry clean of course.

I've also started planning our mega road trip through Europe this summer. I even made a Pinterest board to start getting me pumped (as if I need to be more pumped). It's surreal to think that we'll be able to do this, and I know it'll probably be the only time in our lives that we will be. Here's our tentative plan, we'll fly to Madrid and then rent a car for the rest of the trip. Once we reach Berlin, where we'll fly back to London. We hope to do the trip in July over 2-3 weeks. We haven't done that much traveling since being in England, so this will be our big shebang.

Have you been to any of these places? I would love to hear any suggestions for places to stay and things to see. do, etc. It's a little crazy researching each place and knowing which things to make a priority over others, there's just so much and we want to do it all. Please help us out!

Dear Oxford,

I'm excited to visit you again today, you're a magical place. I'm going to walk on your pebbly streets, admire your bell towers and take pictures of it all.

Dear husband,
Thank you for being so patient with me this week. Need I say more?

Dear blogging friends,
I've really enjoyed interacting with you recently. Thank you for your encouraging comments and feedback. I didn't expect to find myself enjoying the blogosphere so much, but I really do. When you're living in a foreign country and away from all of your friends and family, being connected with people is huge, so thank you!

Dear Lord,
Thank you for reminding me this week that it's ok to not have it all figured out and that sometimes the best and most relieving thing to do is to just admit that. You are God, and I am not, and I'm ok with that. Life is better when I just trust you.



I hope you have a fantastic Friday and weekend!
Michaela Rae

My First Friday's Letters

I follow a few blogs that participate in the link up, Friday's Letters, every week. And I think it's a really cute idea. I figured I'd join in the fun for the first time today. :-)

Mt. Tamalpais, engagement weekend, 2010.

Dear London weather, 

Please stop playing dirty tricks on me. Cut me some slack, I'm a Florida girl. Don't play with my heart by giving me three days of sunshine only to then give me five more of rain. But, at least thanks to you I finally understand the expression, "feeling under the weather." I now also treasure my previous Florida and California living experiences more than ever. 

Dear loved-ones-who-mail-me-letters,

Everyday when I walk down those four flights of stairs, unlock my little white mailbox and see one of your USA-marked envelopes, my heart leaps. Every letter I've gotten since moving here has meant so much to me. They always have the best timing too, so you've picked me up on a down day many times. Thank you for taking the time out of your day(s) to show me you care and to remind me that distance doesn't mean the end of friendship. Instead, it means a new type of friendship, a more intentional one, one that I know will last a life time. 

Dear homeless man,

I see you pushing your cart full of belongings on the busy sidewalk or laying out your cardboard sleeping mat in the shadows. I know you sit in your blue sleeping bag outside the British Heart Foundation every evening because I watch you from our living room window. I see how many people ignore you. I genuinely ask myself (and Kurt) what it means to reach out to you. We've given you food, asked if you wanted to talk, smiled at you as we passed and yes, told you, "Sorry we don't have any change." You challenge me to ask questions, mainly, what does love look like? And you serve as a constant reminder that even if I don't always know what it looks like, I still don't have an excuse not to try.  

If you haven't yet, head over to the giveaway I posted yesterday and enter to win one of my favorite books! Happy Friday everyone. :-)

Michaela Rae