THANKS TO SPAM!

Italy Journal 

Monday, February 18, 2013

THANKS TO SPAM!

We were excited to get almost an hour long Skype with our unofficially adopted son Steven tonight.

Steven’s family used to live 4 houses down the street from us when he was growing up, and we came to love him like our own children. As time went by, he just started calling us “Mom” and “Dad,” and we liked it a lot! He and his birth parents were very close, so they didn’t feel at all threatened by it.

When Steven would come home from college, he would usually drop by for a chat…and some snack, of course…while he was there. At times, we would drive to his college and meet him for a meal, too. We always enjoyed our time with him.

We have kept up with Steven, even though he moved with his family to Wyoming a few years ago. We swapped emails, and he visited us when he came to town; but, when we left for Italy a year ago, the emails stopped coming from Steven and we lost track of him.

Then, yesterday, I received a suspicious email from Steven. I was excited to see his address, but there was no subject, and there was a URL on the first line that I could see.. I immediately recognized the pattern as spam and deleted the email before I sent him a separate email telling him to contact his email provider. That led to an email back from him, “I’ve found you, Mom! I sent 2 emails months ago before I decided you must have changed your email address! When can I Skype with you and Dad?” We had never received those emails, and he has received over 40 returned emails from the last year in the past 2 days.

Peter and I were so glad to spend so much time catching up with our “3^rd son.” Steven’s doing well.  He is happy in his current job and has paid off his college loan. (We raised you right!) He had a blast going to Denver to help his brother celebrate his 30^th birthday a few months ago.

He wanted to hear all about our year in Italy, and we let him know that he would be welcomed here if he could come over sometime while we’re here. Peter told him all about our upcoming gastronomic tour business, and Steven immediately wanted to start saving up to go on one with us. He was interested in what we had been doing, and we loved catching up with his life, too.

So, when we ended our Skype, we agreed that we should THANK THE SPAM for giving us the opportunity to reconnect with a special young man in our lives. So good to get to spend some time with you today, Steven. We love you lots!

Mom and Dad