A prized possession.

I am up again at 4 am preparing a bottle to feed Spencer-yes I still get up with him and feed him in the night. I actually don't mind. Both of my boys have very big appetites. I am not sure how to keep up sometimes. I feel like I should have named them Paul 1 and Paul 2 after Paul Bunyan. They eat crazy amounts of food, grow chubby and then it seems like I go to bed and over night they become as skinny as a rail and about a foot taller. It's pretty amazing to watch.

I thought I might make better use of this up-time and switch the laundry over.

While I was doing this I ran across a darling romper a friend of mine (Andrea DenBoer-Rossbach) made for Grant while we lived in England. She happened to be the wife of one of Matt's professors at the University of Kent and my friend as well. She was working on a dissertation (is that the right word?) for her PH.D. We were also in a Mom's group together our boys were about a month apart in age and she always came with plenty of conversation and warmth. I never sensed that she was rushed, tired or working on a project of such magnitude. She was consistently genuine kindness personified.

First let me give you a little background on how the Romper came about. It all started because Grant was a little chubby as a baby. Well,... he was a lot chubby. He was about 30 pounds at 12 months. Which meant great difficulty for me in finding clothing that fit him. I was telling my sob story to Andrea one day and a few weeks later I received a package in the mail. Can you imagine how I must have felt as I opened the package and found the little outfit inside. I was a new mother and I was quite overwhelmed with pretty much everything, including but not limited to finding clothing for my wonderfully round baby, however, any feelings of being overwhelmed completely dissipated as I opened the package and found myself completely speechless. The outfit was darling. I was stunned and overcome with emotion trying to figure out when she found the time to make this outfit for my Grant. I knew what the answer was. She worked on it exhausted regardless of the hour and certainly at great personal expense. I will never forget this great kindness as long as I live. I wish I were more articulate in expressing my thoughts.

I am not sure if I ever properly thanked her for her generous and lovely gift. I must have sent a thank you card, but how do you properly thank someone for a gift like that? I think I would do well to surround myself with friends--like Andrea--who help me see a better way of living, a more elevated way of thinking; that goes beyond myself. This is one article of clothing I wish I could take with me to Heaven, that is if I am going. :)