a sentimental birthday gift for women we love

I mentioned we put together a sentimental birthday gift for the women in our church congregation this year. And I also talked about how my church calling changed, as well as the alignment of our ward. All kinds of emotions in that post so I’ll spare you the details here. I’m here today just to talk about the gift. Because I had lots of questions about it.

This is what it was:

It is a bracelet in the shape of a “horseshoe” because we loved Brooke Romney‘s thoughts about how horseshoes never close. (My friend, who makes all kinds of jewelry, was able to get these for us with her wholesale license.) We figured that bracelet could be a symbol as a reminder. We used those thoughts (with Brooke’s permission) for our card. This is one side:

And this is the inside:

(I just whipped up those cards on Canva…I love Canva!)

You see, our theme for the year was “Everyone Belongs,” and Brooke’s thoughts matched so perfectly with what we wanted to convey:

Horseshoes never close. They let others in. They make room for “everyone to belong.”

Well, we made up lots of those to pass out and told the women about them. We them out to each woman on her birthday and all was fine and dandy…

…Until our ward boundaries got all messed up.

And that theme seemed to be even more relevant since we were all getting switched around and needed to keep our “horseshoes” open more than ever!

An opportunity to give love after the realignment

Some of the women texted in hopes that they would still get this symbolic little gift, and of course, we were still going to give them out.

It gave my presidency and I a really good opportunity to gather together again and put together the rest of the wrappings.

Love those good women forever!

I wrote a little note to go with the ones we were delivering:

Organized them into neighborhoods:

And we had a little “delivery party.”

Driving around together and dropping them off on doorsteps.

The new Relief Society president in my now current ward wanted to continue with these gifts, so we kept the ones in our new boundaries for her to hand out…and add to with all the new people we’ve gathered.

Anyway, just wanted to share since I love the horseshoe message so much, especially right now. (Thank you Brooke!)

I wear my bracelet all the time, and I’m so grateful for the reminder that everyone belongs. Always.

May we all keep our horseshoes open and let others come and go as we love and lift. We have such power as women to nurture and build and give the benefit of the doubt. And that’s such a beautiful thing!

XOXO