Blessings

Here are a few things that were blessings to me recently:

::  A friend of my landlady has breast cancer.  She bought all of the best baby items, intending to have a lot of kids.  Her little boy is two, and they are still rather uncertain if she will come through this cancer.  She will not be able to have more children.  They donated their {very nice} swing and bouncy seat to us.  We never had a bouncy seat with Elaine (though I wanted to get one for this baby), and I sold my swing before leaving VA because I knew I couldn’t store it.  Blessing.

:: It’s a really long story, but there ended up being several diapers in my inventory that could not be sold, though there was nothing wrong with them.  We have been compensated, and we added the diapers to Elaine’s stash.  These replaced the ones she grew out of a few weeks ago.  Blessing.

:: I felt the baby kick me for the first time on Sunday.  Psalm 127:3  “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”  It’s a blessing to be a parent.

:: I’m getting a little tired of snow.  Mounds of snow everywhere I look.  Its makes things really difficult in the city.  But it afforded us an afternoon of family fun on Saturday when we found ourselves with nowhere to go, except the sledding hill.  Elaine loved it.

:: I had a really bad “blonde moment” (no offence to any blondes out there) on Friday.  I was testing the doorbell which had apparently ceased to work.  I didn’t quite get the inside door shut tight, and the cat slipped outside.  Not my cat.  So I chased him.  In my socks.  In the snow.  And in my haste, I shut the outside door, not the inside door (to keep smaller, but harder to catch cat from escaping also).  The door locks by itself.  Elaine was at the top of our third floor steps waiting for me and there is no baby gate.  The neighbor was not home.  I had no cell phone.  1st blessing – the cat didn’t go far (but he was the least of my worries at that point).  2nd blessing – the lady digging her car out let me use her phone.  3rd blessing – Ben answered.  His was the only number I knew, and he has no numbers stored in his phone.  We still couldn’t contact anyone.  He was at least 35 minutes away on the train.  So…in desperation I called 911.  A few minutes later, the 4th blessing came home.  My neighbor that is.  She let me inside, and Elaine was fine {5th blessing}. She was hunkered in the closet crying.  The police were not angry with me for the false alarm, and I was every so grateful that they sent only a squad car and not a million fire trucks with their sirens blaring.

:: God’s Word and good literature.  I have been challenged in several areas of my life lately, and I am so glad for both of these things that God used.  Blessing.

:: Elaine.  She always amazes me.  A couple of weeks ago she said, “Thank you,” “Cat,” and “Dog.”  Ben was home so he can verify I did not imagine it.  I didn’t blog it because she wouldn’t do it after that night.  She would not speak on command.  This week she is trying very hard to talk.  When the cat comes to visit, she follows him around saying, “ki, ki, ki.”  We assume this is her version of “kitty.”  She added a syllable to indicate something else that she loves – “koo-ki”.  Yes, she will point and say “cookie” when she wants one.  I must be a terrible mom for her first words to be cookie and kitty instead of Daddy.  She also popped in two more molars, with the third close behind.  Added to the one she already possessed, I think we are don’t teething for a little while.  Big blessing!