Showing Gratitude

How do you show gratitude?  Do you send a card, make a phone call, buy a gift or surprise someone with something made especially by you?

After visiting with numerous people in Washington, D.C. for Advocacy Day with the Adult Congenital Heart Association and Mended Little Hearts I felt I had to do something special as a Thank You to the kind people who met with us and listened to our stories. I decided that the typical, Thank You note which I usually calligraphy by hand just wouldn't do. So instead I created very special Thank You notes thanks to Walgreens!

First I uploaded the photos we took at the event to my Walgreens account and then I came up with the following cards:

Since we didn't really get a chance to meet with Senator Cruz to talk, but just went for the Texas Tuesday Coffee (photo opportunity) I shared with him in my Thank You note what I wish I'd had time to talk to him about.

 I was thankful that I had a chance to let Senator Cruz know why Joey and I had traveled all the way from Texas to Washington, D.C. I don't know if he'll ever see that card, but if he does, and he sees Joey or me again, he'll have a better idea of what we'll want to talk to him about!

This card was special because Joey took it so I put the photo of John Coryn's legislative assistant Wes Hambrick,  Mary Adair and me  on the outside:

I put the photo I took of Joey and Mr. Hambrick on the inside.

Luckily we also had a chance to meet with John Carter's legislative assistant, Taylor Gilliam. She was very sweet to us and all of us had a chance to talk to her about what we thought was important. The inside of her card was the same as the previous card.

 The last Thank You card I made was to Amy Baskin at the ACHA. Thanks to Amy, I didn't have to call the legislators to schedule my own appointments. Thanks to Amy and the ACHA I had a chance to learn about how I could be a good advocate for our cause. I wanted Amy and the ACHA to know how much I appreciated what they did for Joey and me.

Here is the inside of the card:

It took a bit of time to create the cards but I hope they were appreciated by the people I sent them to. I sent copies to Mary and Joey, too, to remember our remarkable trip.

I would like to conclude with this quote I found:

"Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts." ~ Henri Federic Amiel