Blessing of the Week: pajamas!

more GOOD!


When I blogged a while back about all the household things that suffered corruption caused by the cold and damp while we were gone on our month-long roadtrip, I mentioned a baby playgym that mildewed. E had just recently lost interest in it, and so I had not yet moved it from its "home" between the pac-n-play and the end of our bed, and it must have slid down on the floor while we were gone and trapped dust and moisture between the fabric and the hardwood floor, so that we returned to find it covered in little black spots. And of course with mildew, even after you wash and bleach it, it is clean but still ugly. So sad! But it was saved from the landfill by the amazing community resource that is Freecycle, and so a young mom met me at the nearby Startbucks parking lot one day to pick it up for her own baby girl. As I was giving this perfect stranger the playgym and its accessories, we chatted a bit, and I must have mentioned that my baby was a boy. Because she asked, out of the blue, "Hey, do you want any boy pajamas? Because I have a bag right here that I was going to offer on freecycle, but if you want them you can have them." I honestly did not think I needed them, because we have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs from D's cousins, who all had boys, but I took them because 1) D and I have made it a kind of life-rule to be thankful and accept whatever people want to give us--making sure it is truly a gift and not a loan--and because 2) why not? I did not even know what age her boy was, but thought I could always just look and see if any of it was useful and then pass along whatever was not.

But this exchange happened in the brief time we were home between our two summer roadtrips, and I did not take the time to look in the half-full black garbage bag she gave me, but just tossed it on top of the washing machine under the house to deal with later. So fast forward to this week. The house is getting chillier at night this week, and so I was wanting to put warmer pjs on baby E--but for a while now have only had one sleeper and one pair of pajamas and one warm oversleeper, all of which were size 12 mo but were getting too short for him to wear comfortably. I have been assuming our lack of sleepwear is because we have boxes of 12-18 mo size baby clothes from D's cousins awaiting us up at his parent's house in Chico--but with the wedding reception hubub and D's illness when we were there last, I totally forgot to bring them home with us. I assume we will be seeing his parents sometime this fall, when all our lives have settled back down a bit, but until then I figured I would be dressing him in soft daytime clothes and hoodies for bedtime--which is completely fine, it just means his wardrobe ends up more limited for daytime.

Two days ago, as I was continuing "habitat restoration"--as my friend Alberta calls it--I decided to open up that black garbage bag and deal with the contents. And by now you have guessed what was inside--sleepers and fleece oversleepers for a boy ages 12-18 months. And the 12 months sleepers are longer than the ones we have, so are perfect.

It seems like such a little thing, but it is such a big blessing, and most importantly, it feels like a warm hug from Someone who cared enough to once again meet my need before I even knew I had it. Some would call this coincidence, but for me it is too much of a coincidence to be so--it perfectly lines up with my understanding of the character of a loving, present God. This has happened too many times in my life for me to shrug it off--I can only be amazed that the creator of the universe cares about me and my family in such a personal way.