A Finished Love Letter

Last weekend, Martin and I celebrated our anniversary. Just as the night was ending, I handed him this book:

Every month, I’ve been writing a page of the {Love Letter} from Gadanke. I’d doodle, add stickers, and paint. Then I’d stamp the date and paste in a photo.

It was so easy. And so fun.

The poem in the book prompted me. Sometimes I’d wrap up the whole month on the page. Sometimes I wrote about a specific day. There were no rules except for that photo.

I shared my process of creating a September page, October page, March page, and the personalized cover page. Then I even had Martin add peeks into his future gift on the Gadanke Peek in Journals page. (He posts all that stuff over there for me.)

After that, I quit talking about this journal project. I wanted Martin to kind of forget about it. I wanted the pages to be a surprise, not something he’d (1) already read and (2) edited online!

I had sooo much fun making this project.

When we were traveling in Germany in May, I didn’t bring this journal along. I emailed Martin a little note. Then when we were back at the tire house, I wrote those words into this book.

There have been so many of these {Love Letters} going out to customers around the world. To an unborn daughter. To a husband fighting in Iraq. To spouses and children. To moms. To dads. And yesterday… to a groom on his wedding day.

“Thank you for doing this,” Martin has told me at least a dozen times this week. He’s even got a special spot on his desk for his new book. (I’d better hurry and put it back before he notices I grabbed it for a few photos!)

I think that’s the coolest thing about the {Love Letter}. It’s such a great symbol of love – for the people who write it and the people who receive it. And I can’t wait to make another.

Happy weekend everybody! And Martin? Thanks for being my guy.