After my initial freak out and shopping spree (in which I was able to get all of the absolute necessities), my "real dad"/bio father/whatever you wanna call him sent me a message asking if we had everything we needed for Charlotte. I was honest and told him that while we had all the basics, there were still a couple things we'd like to have (a high chair and Ergo carrier) that we couldn't afford to get. I also told him that we didn't need them right away, so it wasn't the end of the world. Guys, he ordered them off my registry the same day. This is just amazing to me because not only did he spend like $200 on those things, he also bought us a Pac N Play and Exersaucer. And he gave us a decent amount of money for Christmas which I used to pay for fabric for her bedding. So basically, he's given us a lot. And I...am completely overwhelmed by this generosity.
Then, my bestie did a little shopping for me. First she went and got me some reasonably priced bibs, burp cloths, etc. She also went "shopping" in her own little girl's closet. All this stuff is coming to Hawaii with my MIL. I am beyond excited to get all the cute stuff from her! And I'm relieved that Charlotte will have more outfits. ;-)
A while back one of my bloggy/Twitter friends sent me a box of clothes, bottles and burp cloths for Charlotte. This was before my panic/nesting began, but I was still very thankful to get them!
Yesterday, another Twitter friend said she was going to go through her kids' baby clothes and send some to me. Then, my neighbor texted me telling me she found 2 seemingly new baby swings on someone's curb for trash day and picked them up. Only one of them ended up working, but I now have a baby swing. It doesn't have a power cord, but it does take batteries and I can order a cord from Amazon if I need to. So...this FREE baby swing is sitting in my house ready for my baby girl. (And, yes, I washed and cleaned the whole thing immediately. ;-)) Also, do you know how much these things cost?! This one is over $100 brand new! I paid $4 for batteries today. Four. Dollars.
This morning, my sweet friend Miranda (who also threw my baby shower) texted me to ask if I wanted some of her daughter's recently-outgrown clothes.
Seriously, y'all, I'm surprised I haven't broken down into tears by now. I can't believe how much God is blessing us through these amazing friends and family... And even through friends I've never even met!
I'm just gonna be honest with you - I'm convinced that all of this is because we recently started tithing again. We'd been in between churches for a while and had "gotten out of the habit" of tithing, for lack of a better excuse, I guess. Even after we joined the church we're at now, we didn't tithe for a while. And our finances took a hit because of it. Trust me, they did. But for the last few paychecks we've been faithful and obedient and God is blessing us because of it. Not only are we being blessed by amazing people, but for the first time in I-can't-tell-you-how-long we have extra money this month. Not a lot, but it's still extra. If that's not God's doing, I don't know what is because we haven't done anything different other than tithing.
And in just under two weeks, we'll receive the biggest blessing He's ever given us - our baby girl. I'm excited; I'm ready; and I'm very...humbled.
So, yeah. This is one of those {many} times in my life where God is very seriously rocking my socks off.
