abundance

One of the women in my moms group (at church) is moving next month, and she asked if there was anything I might need for Benjamin/Rutabaga. She has a 5-year-old son and isn't going to be having any more children, so she has everything from the past 5 years just hanging out in her garage. I went over there last week to take a look and ended up driving home with a packed-full Jetta (I swear, I felt like a college student again, cramming every nook and cranny of the car). She's keeping her crib because it transforms to a daybed, but everything else is up for grabs. I came home with 10 boxes of clothes, from newborn to 4T, blankets, a swing, an inflatable bathtub, a learn-to-stand toy, an old-fashioned metal dump truck (still in the box!), a bouncer, and several boxes of random toys/books/gadgets. I probably came home with more than that, but that's what I can think of at the moment! I'm going back tomorrow to grab a pack-n-play and highchair, as well as a breast pump and a few other miscellaneous things that didn't fit the first time. Some of the items are repeats -- we have a pack-n-play, but needed another as Benjamin still uses his; we have a highchair, but it's wooden and doesn't recline, and Benjamin is just now big enough to sit up straight in it; and I have a pump, but she convinced me to take it "for a friend" because otherwise she's dumping it -- and those things are $$!!) Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty prepared for this baby... especially if it's another boy ;-)



Along those lines, if you know of anyone who might need some baby items, let me know. I passed on an exercauser, a walker, a stroller, an umbrella stroller, a tub mat, and about 3 different doll houses (random, I know, but her son had some developmental delays and they were part of his therapy)... and if I don't take them, she's just sending them to goodwill. Obviously there's a breast pump to pass along too (minus the intimate parts -- for sanitary reasons), and more baby boy clothes than we know what to do with (especially since we still have all of Benjamin's). I'm totally serious here -- I'm taking practically all of her stuff so that she can move in a month, but we really don't need much of it, and I'd love to be able to pass on the blessing.

(I suppose it helps if the mother-in-need lives in Oregon, too... just a detail.)