Today is Kayli's birthday, the day she would have turned 23 years old.
Birthdays were always special for Kayli and she loved to celebrate. Three years ago, for Kayli's 20th birthday, her church family at Orrville Grace Brethren wanted to do something special to show they cared. But it can be a bit tricky to come up with an idea that a large group of people can participate in. The Lord brought me this idea, and I LOVE how it turned out. The idea went like this, each family/individual chose a word that described Kayli and wrote it on a piece of poster board. We then took pictures of each family with their "word board" and sent them to Kayli via email, one for every day of her "birthday month." To get more variety of words we had people sign-up for a certain letter of the alphabet. The Sunday we started the project I was blown away! I was thinking it was going to take more than one week to even get all the way through the alphabet, but there was such a great response that we had gone through the alphabet once and had started a second round within hours.
Most people from outside the church have never had the opportunity to see the pictures and I thought this would be a good way for us to look back and remember all the great qualities of Kayli Diane Hostetler.
Written by Joy Steiner
Kayli's Sis at Heart
Birthdays were always special for Kayli and she loved to celebrate. Three years ago, for Kayli's 20th birthday, her church family at Orrville Grace Brethren wanted to do something special to show they cared. But it can be a bit tricky to come up with an idea that a large group of people can participate in. The Lord brought me this idea, and I LOVE how it turned out. The idea went like this, each family/individual chose a word that described Kayli and wrote it on a piece of poster board. We then took pictures of each family with their "word board" and sent them to Kayli via email, one for every day of her "birthday month." To get more variety of words we had people sign-up for a certain letter of the alphabet. The Sunday we started the project I was blown away! I was thinking it was going to take more than one week to even get all the way through the alphabet, but there was such a great response that we had gone through the alphabet once and had started a second round within hours.
Most people from outside the church have never had the opportunity to see the pictures and I thought this would be a good way for us to look back and remember all the great qualities of Kayli Diane Hostetler.
Written by Joy Steiner
Kayli's Sis at Heart
See the "ABCs of Kayli" slideshow below:
Note of thanks from Kayli to her church family for the birthday surprise:
"Thank you so much for all the sweet things you all have said to me through your words of encouragement. Receiving them every day has made my days so much brighter. I miss you all so much and can't wait to see you all sometime. I greatly appreciate your continued prayers and support."
Love,
Kayli
"Thank you so much for all the sweet things you all have said to me through your words of encouragement. Receiving them every day has made my days so much brighter. I miss you all so much and can't wait to see you all sometime. I greatly appreciate your continued prayers and support."
Love,
Kayli