What Happened After the Bank

I must tell you about my day.  For a moment I am going to wipe from my memory the fact that there are several items of note in our family to update you on and simply pretend that we have blogged faithfully for the past, I don't know, 6 months.  God's goodness just blew me away to the extent that I've got to share it. 

A little background.  We are in the process of getting rid of lots of (hmmm..how do I put this..) STUFF.  No-longer-useful-to-us items.  Things we don't need.  Excess.

We will soon be moving into a smaller house (well, duplex actually, but that update is yet to come) and I am trying to be on top of this "downsizing" issue before the baby comes (yes, another one of "those things" that begs an update).  To the casual onlooker, or nosy neighbor, our garage probably looks like it imploded.  Kind of pharisaical...you know, white and clean on the outside (yes, our garage door is, in fact, white) and messed up on the inside.  We have twin minivans that are forced to endure this Florida heat and sunshine because there is no room for them in the inn even though we have a two-car garage.  However, I am pleased to inform you that these piles that together make a large garage-y mess are well-sorted through stacks that are destined for a better home.  They can hardly wait.

One of these particular piles is one that has been set aside for a crisis pregnancy center just down the road from us.  I had a couple of medium-sized bags/boxes packed up and ready to go, but the two "bigger-ticket" items were a double stroller and a highchair.  A note about the double stroller.

This stroller happened upon us less than a month before Eliana was born.  It was right after we had moved into a condominium complex in Stow, OH, where my dad is caretaker.  The week after we moved in, my dad asked Trevor to help him clear out an apartment that someone had simply left for him to clean up the mess.  They left all kinds of things...everything from almond extract to a nice king-size mattress...never intending to pick it up.  Some of it was simply junk, but there were certainly some gems in the rubble.  One of them being this Graco double stroller in great condition.  While Acácia was not too little by this time, she was still small enough that a double stroller would be a *huge* help in adjusting to life with two little ones.  I cannot begin to tell you the use we have gotten out of this thing during the two years after Eliana was born.  Every time we used it I was reminded of God's desire to bless us in ways we never even imagine.

Fast-forward to present day and here we find ourselves with a baby about to be born, but with a toddler who is really old enough to walk around on her own two feet.  No need for a DOUBLE-stroller.  I didn't really want to sell it because it came to us without cost.  And so, in my heart, I began praying that God, at just the right time, would place this stroller in the life of one who needed it and could get a lot of mileage out of it.  I wanted it to be a blessing to another new mommy in a way that it had been to us.

I had known that we were going to take it to the pregnancy center for quite some time but had just never found the energy to load it up and take it there.  Somehow it seemed like a bit of a hassle.  So there it sat in our garage.  Shame on me, but as you'll see, what a testimony to God turning our ashes into beauty.

This weekend we made leaps and bounds in clearing out some of the piles in our garage (going to Goodwill, recycling, etc. etc.) that by the time today rolled around, that pile was one of the last two left.  And so, I loaded the girls up in the car and went on a mission.  We had to stop at the bank (where my girls happened to be blessed with two purple suckers by the lady at the window who most certainly could not see in the van to know that there were exactly two little girls in the back seat) and then we would make our drop-off at the pregnancy center.  In the car ride between the bank and the center I gave my best shot at explaining (in 4 and 2-year-old language) what we were doing.  We've talked about this kind of thing before, but I think it finally "clicked" at least for Acácia.  The girls shut their eyes tightly and we prayed very specifically that God would give that stroller and highchair and bags/boxes of other things to just the right people.  They finished off the prayer with a hearty "Amen".

We pulled up and for a moment I considered not going in since there was a questionable looking fellow standing in front of the entrance door, not looking in any hurry to move, and giving me a bit of a stare-down.  Thankfully, I did not listen to fear and simply asked him if the place was closed, to which he answered, "no".  As I walked back and forth a few times from my car to the front door (which thankfully was even closer than our own front door from our driveway) in order to bring everything in, I noticed a girl, probably about my age, in a pink shirt with a very obviously pregnant belly.  As I was dropping off my last item the secretary asked if I wouldn't mind showing how to fold/unfold the stroller.  She then informed me that this girl in the pink shirt with the largely protruding belly was pregnant with twins and going to be induced in one week.  She also went on to say that so very rarely does it happen that the owner of the stroller is able to show the recipient (or any of them, for that matter) how it works.  This very pregnant girl with twins JUST HAPPENED to be there at the exact moment I decided to drop everything off.  Even down to the decision to go to the bank first was God orchestrating all this!

I couldn't believe it.  I asked her what her name was and shared with her and the other ladies that we had just got done praying that God would give it to just the right person.  God is AMAZING!

I proceeded back to the car so excited to talk to the girls about what had all happened, but in my pregnant state was overwhelmed with emotion (a.k.a. I wept) at God's grace in not only allowing me to meet this new mommy who would have the stroller, but then allowing me the joy of sharing with my daughters the very real and practical and awesome goodness of our God.  So after choking back the tears I told the girls all about it and we simply rejoiced in God's goodness (after I explained that my tears were in fact "happy tears", of course).  How I long for them to see His heart.

Praise be to our God and Father who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.