Gifts

So Clint went to the farm (Ginya, Helen, and Joanne's) on Saturday to work on making a lean-to. He came back bearing gifts, arms laden. He had enough produce to feed us and every friend we've made since arriving in Portland, several dozen eggs, Omega-3 cereal, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, beets, a huge ham, and an Omega-3 filled salmon. I think Joanne wants to help this baby along, so she's feeding us Omega 3 to jumpstart those contractions. So last night, Jeanette and I cooked up our salmon. It was dee-lish!
(Michael pretty much decorated this fish! Isn't it pretty!)

On friday, we stopped by Jeff's, because he is leaving for the week to work elsewhere, and had a gift for us before the birth. I was thinking maybe a six-pack of wheat beer to help with milk production (while this may be a myth, it is certainly a good myth, so I will continue to act on the basis of it being true). Instead, we received a cherry de-pitter (because it had accidentally been in his shopping cart when he placed his amazon.com order), and a Flip Video MinoHD camcorder. Now, when you read the word 'camcorder,' don't be thinking huge thing that you lug around on your shoulder. These things have come a long way since the late 80's when we were first introduced to them. Ours is about half the size of the typical digital camera, and light enough to take backpacking. We were shocked when we opened the box. All you Grandma's out there ought to be rejoicing, because this means videos of your new granddaughter.

Finally, I got off work today late, because that one final customer at sprint wanted me to talk him through all the phones on the website. By the time I pulled my motorcycle into the garage (I like reaching into my pocket and pressing the garage door opener when I'm a block away so that when I finally come in sight, it is already open and I can ride right in), I was exhausted and ready to relax. I'm not a fan of shifts from 4:30am till 7:00pm. Anyway, right when I pulled in the garage and started taking my helmet off, our landlord Ted came out of his house and asked me to give him a call as soon as I got upstairs to our house, so that he could talk to me about something. He must have seen the look of worry/exhaustion on my face, because he hastened to add, "I have good news." When I called him, he came upstairs, and explained to Jeanette and I that someone had given them money to cover our rent and utilities for September, and that we didn't have to pay. We were shocked. I am planning on taking two weeks off of work for the birth, which is almost exactly the amount of money that rent and utilities would be. This relieved a huge load of stress about how we were going to pay our bills while taking this time off work.

Thanks God, for your constant provision and blessings. We have certainly seen your goodness at work, and this is but the tiniest bit of what we've seen. Just in the area of gifts to us alone, I've barely scratched the surface (how to write about all the many items our baby is already provided with from many sources!). Forgive me, for my typical failure to speak of the amazing things You do in our life, and for contributing to the feeling that the problems of this world are so vast, concerted, and prolific, that they overshadow the tiny bit of good that is being done.

written by Michael