Our Cup Runneth Over

On Tuesday, Vince's parents came to visit us. Fortunately, we live fairly close to both of our parents, so we are able to see them more often than most who have family living out of state. After all the sickness we had experienced in our household, we were in need of some good family fun. We met at our neighborhood playground and the boys had a blast! Peyton enjoyed showing off his new learned skill of how to dribble a basketball. He is like the guy in the movie Hoosiers, he loves to carry around a ball with him everywhere he goes. Peyton really does have what seems to be a natural gift with playing ball.

Then, after the playground, we came back to the house and it was like Santa delivering all kinds of goodies! They brought in a big cooler packed with frozen chicken, beef, and other great staples for cooking. Recently, Grant and Peyton had been wanting some string cheese and I told them we could not get that right now because we did not have the money to buy it so they were so excited when Nana and Papa pulled out a bag of string cheese. The neat thing is we didn't even tell them they had been asking for this. This was just a nice surprise for them!

Then they had a box of other things that we needed and also things our boys love! Carol made some delicious sausage balls which is one of Vince's favorites and then she brought dinner for us to enjoy together. In that moment it just seemed like the door opened and blessings just poured in! Of course, just their very presence was blessing enough. In all seriousness, they are a huge blessing to us in so many ways!!! David and Carol have always been so generous and they are such cheerful givers. We are all blessed to have them in our lives and God has and continues to use them to help provide for our needs. Our boys get spoiled rotten by their Nana and Papa! There is nothing they wouldn't do for their family and we truly are so blessed by them.








As they were bringing in provision after provision, our boys were just getting so excited! I have never seen our kids get so excited to see all the food that was coming through our door. Please know that our kids are not going hungry but these days we buy bare basic necessities so the frills like string cheese are out the window along with the meals that require a lot of ingredients. While I was a little sad that our little preschoolers were getting as excited from seeing food come in our door as they would their favorite toy, there was another part of me that was glad they were experiencing such a great lesson at a young age.






Before this all happened with Vince's job, we thanked God daily for meeting all our needs and we talked about how there are families who did not have near what we have and we prayed for those. In fact, we still talk about how there are so many people out there who don't have what they need and that God has really helped us so we should always thank God for what we have. Grant would always ask questions about these people, even if we were not even discussing them at the time because he was concerned. However, he has not ever seen or met a person who doesn't own a toy or who is hungry because they don't have food. As much as I want to shelter our kids from these sad truths and let them just enjoy being a kid, there is a part of me that is glad they are learning what it truly means to be thankful and excited for every meal and for that matter, everything they have.

As parents, we can tell them all day long they need to be thankful for basic necessities but until something is taken away, you don't truly have an appreciation for that very thing. Like I've said before, I've always been thankful for the basics like food, clothes, and a home. However, recently when we sit down and ask the blessing, it takes on a different meaning as we truly thank God for our food and not just do it out of habit or because it is the right thing to do. We used to have one person say the blessing, but now our boys want us all to say the blessing so usually our food gets quadruply blessed, along with some coos from Landon. :) I believe that asking the blessing and remembering the things we really ought to be thankful for will take on a new and fresh meaning for our family forever. So, while part of me is sad that our kids are experiencing some hardships that I wish that we could always shelter them from, there is part of me that is glad they are getting excited about things that really do matter like our basic need of food!

I don't know if our boys will remember the magnitude of these days in the life of our family, but I hope the posts in this blog will allow them to look back someday and see God's provision and faithfulness and the indescribable blessing wonderful family and friends are along the journey of life!