Sweet Shoppe Designs

Sweet Shoppe January Challenge #22 - Use the thought provoking inspiration at Baby Love Letters to choose a topic and create a layout which includes a letter to your child, a loved one or even yourself. (I used prompt #66 - How has your neighborhood blessed your child?)

Backgrounds and Elements - Lauren Grier, Silly Sprout, Sweet Shoppe Quarterly 2009 #3
Template - Chrissy W, Freebie 38
Font - Pea Times New Camileon, Downcome, Century Gothic

Journaling:
"It takes a whole village to raise a child."

When we picked a neighborhood while moving to Iowa, we looked for swing sets and fence-less yards. We even excluded some other nice homes due to their seemingly childless neighborhoods. Our goal was to ensure that you and Sydney had here what you’d never get in Los Angeles, a street full of kids playing outside. We wanted a neighborhood full of freedom, yet the watchful eyes of many surrogate parents. On our last drive-by (Iowa style, not Los Angeles style), we saw Kasey and Parker out in front of their house – the one across from ours. He was about your age. The yard was ready for Halloween with corn bunches and mums, pumpkins and gourds. Parker was just arriving home from preschool with his art work in tow. She waved, mindlessly, not knowing who we were or that we were even on the street for the house for sale, but knowing that nice matters. We went to sign the papers, feeling rather confident of our choice. Our offer was accepted that afternoon. We went over to meet the owner and get a final access to the house for measurements etc. before we returned to California to pack up. John, knowing we had struck a deal, hollered across the street asking how many kids and how old they were. He was elated when we told him about you since he knew Parker would have a buddy. We knew then, we got what we were looking for, a place to call home.