Um, Thanks.

I've mentioned a few times how much I love Google Analytics. I can track blog stats and readers and all that fun stuff.

Here are some things I learned from Google Analytics, I have had visitors from 6 continents, Tennessee and Missouri are my top two states for readers, followed by West Virginia (shoutout to Kelli, Brittany, and Amy!), most of the people who read this blog click through from facebook, and that the love you friends showed me last Friday was actually very very much love.

Several of you passed the word along about Straw Heart Project. You put up links on facebook and twitter, you sent me encouraging words, you showed an interest that I wasn't expecting. You tripled my normal blog stats. TRIPLED! Just because you cared about what I'm doing.

This weekend, I went to a youth camp for girls and we learned about love. We talked about loving others well, loving ourselves well, and the love God has for us. The night we discussed loving ourselves well, the speaker (my friend Ellen) said, "we tell lies to ourselves over and over. The things we think about our lives are not always true. When you find yourself believing a lie, replace it with truth." The lie I keep believing about myself is that I can't do Straw Heart Project. That I'm not good enough or focused enough, that other people won't care about it, and I'll be trapped into doing it all on my own and the whole idea will fail because I don't have what it takes to keep it afloat.

Those are lies. The truth I had to see was that you, friendly blog folks from 6 continents, really cared about what I was doing. You believed in me enough to tell your friends about it. You liked my idea enough to say, "This is a great idea. I can't wait to see the work you do." I was in tears several times on Friday and this weekend because of the words of encouragement you sent my way.

I get sappy on this blog pretty often, I know that. And I know that some of you are probably sick of the serious posts and want me to get back to writing about whatever ridiculous things I think of (i.e. Garth Brooks) but I HAD to tell you thank you. Thanks for your support and encouragement over the past few days. Thank you for reading my blog when it's normally filled with nonsense (i.e. Garth Brooks) and for coming back to see what else I'm up to. This little space started as a way for me to keep friends and family updated on our lives in Tennessee. It has turned into so much more than that. It's therapy. It's encouragement. It's a way to make new friends; it's an idea springboard.

I love that. And this sounds super-incredibly cheesy, but I love YOU, blog readers. Thanks for making my Friday the biggest blog day ever and the biggest boost of encouragement I could never have imagined. I rather like you folks.