a surprise tea party for {emily}

As most of you readers know, my bestie, Emily, lost her mom to a two yr battle against lung cancer late June. It's been rough on all of us; the family, obvs, is trying to find a new normal & settle into their new roles around the house, but it's been hard on us, her close friends & extended family as well...trying to be there when anyone of them wanted to talk or to help them through this time.


Enter Emily's blogging community. She originally posted on her blog that Miss Molly passed away & asked for prayer as they sought their way through this time. Many comments of sympathy & concern were left on that post, but that wasn't enough for Emily's blogging friend Lucia {whose now one of MY blogging friends}...

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A couple months back, Lucia from Umbrella Girl had decided to put together a card filled with the most beautifully written notes from other bloggers who wanted Emily to know her & her family were in their constant thoughts & prayers. Originally the card was going to go to every blogger via the mail, but we quickly realized that we needed to get this card to Emily soon so we nixed that idea. However, Hannah from Aspire came to the rescue & used her smarts to come up with the idea of every blogger sending in a little note and letting Lucia put them in the card she had made.

Once that was done, Moriah & I came up with a way to present her with the card. Or, if you want to get technical, Moriah did all the planning & hosted the event complete with a CD playing in the background, yummy food and tea, & the card in a gift bag.

Side note: Emily was so confused. Like, really really really confused; she thought she was going to Africa with Katie, Andrew, Clark & I {she might not admit it, but I know the thought crossed her mind that she actually WAS going to my dream place, Africa}. By the time we hitched a ride with them to Moriah's house, she was getting m-a-d because we wouldn't tell her anything, and the icing on the cake was when I asked her to go get my camera out of the van in the 100+ degree heat while Moriah & I ran upstairs giggling like crazy people.


All that to say, she was very surprised & fighting tears back when we finally saw the tea party...and then again when she opened the card. I think speechless is the right word.  

The set up, which Moriah so graciously set up in their beautiful new schoolroom:

 

Her face? Priceless.

Opening the card {!!!}:

Reading all the wonderful handwritten, thoughtful notes by many many MANY blogging friends:

We talked, we laughed, we discussed our future wedding colors, and we {meaning ME} stuffed ourselves with yummy cookies and trail mix while sipping peach tea. New fave tea found, ya'll.

as always, there were shutters clicking left & right. i love my photography friends.

This is now one of new favorite pictures of the 3 of us...

Again, a HUGE thank you to all the bloggers who had this possible...with 49 bloggers coming together & writing notes of encouragement for sweet Emily it would be super long to list all of them here. Ya'll know who you are & all 3 of us thank you so very much for putting a smile of our friends face. This card is something she's treasure forever; she's already told us as much. So, thanks again blogging friends!