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Connecting Through Distance

In this time of social (I mean physical) distancing, my husband and I are doing fine. We enjoy quiet and solitude, and the pace of life is much less chaotic. For our girls however, they feel the isolation every day that they aren’t hanging out with their friends, hugging their teachers, or visiting their grandparents.

When we heard that school would move to a distance learning model, I reached out through Facebook to our friends and asked if anyone had children who would want to be pen pals with my girls. We’re talking old-fashioned, pencil-to-paper, stamp-on-the-letter-and-mail-it pen pals, and we had a GREAT response! So many friends from our previous church family and from our school.

A day later, I received a text out of the blue from a woman I had not met yet but who also attends St. Nicholas with us. Mother Beth saw my post on Facebook connected the two of us as part of my pen pal request. This woman is a soon-to-be first time grandma and is feeling isolated like many of us. We texted back and forth for a while, exchanged addresses, and today the first letters arrived!!!

My girls squealed with delight when they checked our mailbox and tore into the letters. Their new pen pal offered a great welcome and included an ‘unofficial application for pen pal writers’ full of questions and great things for my girls to share. She also included her own completed application full of wonderful insights into who she is.

We are so excited to make this connection that is reaching out to us through our new church family during this time of social (I mean physical) distancing. We are making more profound connections in these days as we are focused more on what really matters and not the frenetic life in which we usually live.