Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Worth Keeping...

My husband and I have been married nearly 15 years.  And, due to school, internships, job training, and jobs, we have moved 13 times.  Thanks to all this moving I have not collected as much clutter as I probably would have if we'd only ever moved a few times. 

I believe that we can't take our "stuff" with us when we die, so less is more anyway-right?

I do, however, have a few treasured objects that have been saved throughout 13 moves.

One of them is a pair of baby overalls. Just regular-looking denim overalls, Old Navy brand, size 0-3 months.

Do you remember how you felt when you were given certain gifts?  The gift, itself, probably meant little, but it was, well--for lack of a better phrase--"the thought, that counts?"

So it is with these overalls.

Back when I had my first child, we were seriously poor college students.  We could feed the two of us, for a month, off of only $100.  We walked everywhere.  Our combined total income was like $5,000.00 a year.  (Thank goodness for college scholarships and financial aid).

We prayed about it and thought that money shouldn't keep us from starting a family.  We had faith that if we worked and studied hard and put the Lord and family first we'd be financially able to care for our children.

Our first baby came a month early-quite unexpected.  This little girl wore lots of neutral baby colors--yellow and greens--because we had not found out her gender before her birth.  A lot of her clothes were hand-me-downs from a cousin and gently-used garage sell finds.  (Her two kind grandmothers had been so generous to supply us with a rocking chair, baby carseat, baby bathtub, and other baby gear).

During the first few weeks of her life, I received a phone call from a girlfriend of one of my brothers.  She wanted to bring over a baby gift.  I did not know her very well; we'd met only once before.

I was so touched when I opened the gift: a cute little photo frame engraved with the words, "good things come in small packages," a pink, flower-printed, long-sleeved bodysuit, and denim overalls from Old Navy.

Shopping at Old Navy was not in our mere $5,000.00/year budget.  New baby clothes weren't even in our mere $5,000.00/year budget.  I was so moved by this simple gift--something cute besides sleepers and newborn gowns for my new, little baby to wear.  Something that I couldn't afford to give her myself--yet would have liked to have given her.  I was so touched.

The only picture with the pink bodysuit is too blurry to post.  I eventually gave it away because I had boys later on.

But, the sweet little overalls have been worn by six precious babies, now.  From those starving student days to the able-to-afford-Old Navy present-- I treasure these overalls because they have touched the sweet, cuddly bodies of all my little babies. Freshly bathed babies who smelled of Baby Magic baby lotion (always in the budget).  My sweet babies.




#1, original wearer of the overalls. 




#2




#3, held by #1




#4, with his great, great grandmother--the last time we saw her before she died.




 

#5, held by #3



 
 
 
#6

7 comments:

Cheri said...

I love this! So priceless.

Tara said...

13 moves is just crazy! :) How fun that you have an item all of your babies have worn. I bet there aren't many people that can say that. I certainly can't.

Fun to see their baby pictures in number order. A cute bunch!

Jennifer said...

How neat! You certainly do have beautiful babies. :)

Camille said...

I love it! That is so sweet to have something that all your babies have worn. Definitely worth keeping!

MARY IN SCOTLAND said...

What a sweet story!!

I love that you have pictures of all of them in the overalls. Something to frame!

I hope we have something similar if we ever have more children {fingers crossed!}.

Ben A said...

What a great story! And your family is the poster child (family) for the quality and durability of Old Navy clothes! :) You have 6 very beautiful babies.

Ben and Carrie said...

Sorry- that last comment was from me (Carrie), not Ben!