Mail Time

It was 9 in the morning when I dropped my daughter off at my mother's house.  Shea was up and going, talking all the way to her "Noni's" house.  When we got there, mom was up and about and we chatted for a while before I left.  One of the last things my mother told me was to make sure and check the mail.

I forgot.

I forgot until midnight that night.  I went out to the mailbox in the middle of the night and fumbled around in the dark for the few scant pieces of paper I found there.  In the midst of the coupons, fliers, and junk mail, there was a red envelope addressed to "Daddy" with gold foil stickers.  In the bottom left corner of the envelope was a hand drawn picture of a girl with long hair.  It was obviously Shea as drawn by Shea.  On the back of the envelope there was "I (Heart) U" written in a shaky hand.

It took everything I had not to rip open the envelope right then and there, but I waited.  I wanted to open the envelope with Shea, who had obviously taken some time to put this together for me.  I set the envelope under my keys so I wouldn't forget to open it with her first thing in the morning.

I almost forgot this morning.  Good thing I set it under my keys.  As soon as I saw the envelope, I dashed upstairs to where Shea was watching a DVD.  I held up the envelope for her to see, but she was zoned out on the cartoons.  I paused the DVD while holding up the envelope.  The moment she saw it she smiled and said, "Open it!"

I lay back down on the bed next to Shea.  She reached up, grabbed my earlobe, looked at me, and smiled with her sippy cup still in her mouth.  I ripped open the envelope and looked inside.  The envelope was filled with different colored paper clips-pink, green, etc.  "They're for you."

"For me?  How come?" I asked.

"For your papers," she said.

"Thank you, Shea."

It was sweet.  I've never been so pleased to get paper clips in my life.  It wasn't the gift that was important.  It was that my mother and daughter took some time to send me a special surprise.  They thought of me.  And, after a rough day the day before, it made all the difference.