Today we would like to share with you a love story. It's one of the many wonderful stories we receive from our members about their use of Postcrossing.

Hi!

My name is Mircea and I want to tell you the story of the “relation” that I’ve created between my grandmother and Postcrossing. My grandmother (mamaia – in Romanian – which is her name in Postcrossing) is a 78 years old lady living in Timisoara. I wonder if she is the oldest or not. I’m just curious about that! She is a retired math teacher and loves postal services. For example one year ago, she has sent me a telegram (a really rare thing in this times) to wish me happy birthday.

I have made the account in her name because she is old and doesn't know languages other that Romanian and also doesn't know how to use a computer. I have asked every one to write her in Romanian. So I’ve created a pattern that can be copied and by the sender to include the sender name and location. In that way, my grandmother can read the postcards she has received. Every time she got a new one she makes a call to me and I registered the card. We live 600km apart, she in Timisoara in the western part of Romania and I in Focsani, which is in the eastern part.

I also chose, write and send her cards in the world. Some senders write something more in Romanian than I have asked them and that is a great feeling.

Love from Romania from KLMircea and Mamaia.

If you have an interesting use of Postcrossing, please share it with us!

On July 14th 2005 the Postcrossing project was open to the world with a goal: to connect people across the world through postcards, independent of their location, age, gender, race or beliefs. Any mailbox could be turned into a surprise box.

But what started as a small pet project quickly turned into a fast growing community spread through out many different countries. And today, 4 years later, over 2 million smiles have connected more than 100.000 members across the globe making this project surpass all its best dreams and hopes.

Over 4 years Postcrossing has evolved considerably and this last year was a specially busy one. It's been a long path in many milestones along the way and to share them with you, we have put together a Postcrossing History page. If you ever wondered how it all started, we hope you'll find your answers in this page.

We hope to continue to connect the world through smiles and postcards. A big thank you to everyone who make this possible!

Happy birthday Postcrossing!

Postcrossing is three years old today! Horray! We couldn't let this day go by without thanking the most important part of the project: you!

Since it's early days, Postcrossing has always focused on having its' members as a central part of the project. Without you, Postcrossing would simply not work. And what started as a single person pet project, now reaches 184 countries and 57000 members. Furthermore, we reached our first million of Postcards exchanged and we are now on the fast track to the second million! So, once again, thank you!

It's been a very busy year in the Postcrossing headquarters - the busiest so far, and also the most productive one! In February, after several months of work, we proudly published a major new design of the site with a fresh new look and several new features. This was a very important step on the Postcrossing life, giving it more room to grow and allowing for easy implementation of new features.

But several other events happened during this last year. We had the 1 million postcards contest - thank you everyone who participated! And we organized a donation collection for the SIchuan earthquake, proving once again that Postcrossers are a certainly very special community of users.

The new postcards limits were very welcomed by everyone, favoring the active users as they send more postcards and at the same time keeping a sensible limit on the newcomers.

More recently, we have created the Postcrossing Supporter and Ambassador virtual badges for those of you who help supporting this project by donating money to it or by helping it through an outstanding contribution. If you didn't noticed the nice looking badges on the site yet, then head to http://www.postcrossing.com/support for more information how to get one by helping this project grow even more.

By the way, have you heard the news? A marriage was celebrated between two postcrossers who met on the website, and have since moved to Finland! We are very happy to know that this project provided a way for them to meet. Do you know any other nice facts about Postcrossing? If so, be sure to let us know!

We hope you have enjoyed this last year as much as we have. Here's to another exciting year, filled with smiles and busy mailboxes!

Thank you!

Postcrossing HQ makes a point in checking whether every country from which we receive a postcard is in fact as beautiful as that postcard promises ***. We are happy to confirm that Malaysia, with its sunny beaches and spectacular cultural diversity lives up to the promise!

After a week there, batteries were recharged, ideas were brewed, and we returned home eager to get some work done.

So... check out your profile for some re-structured information and cute new icons!
As a bonus, if you are on the top 50 rank by most postcards sent or more distance sent from your country, you'll have a little medal there too. :-)

*** Well, not really, but if the job existed, I would be the first to apply!