A Thankful to Give Story
Today’s blog post is “a thankful to give story” for this Thursday. As believers it should be overwhelmingly simple to recount times when we were thankful to give. This is one of mine.
Besides my own nieces and nephews, who are dear to my heart, I’m also blessed to know another family who consider me something of an “honorary aunt.”
At the time of this story, their family lived in a small older home in a semi-rural town. The property provided enough room for five actively growing boys and their new sister to play. Their mother tended a large and very necessary garden.
The house, built in perhaps the 1930’s, though cosy and charming, came from a time when households owned fewer items than we tend to do today. The bedrooms and closets were small.
These honorary relatives of mine knew other people who loved giving generously. As a result, the house almost overflowed with clothing enough to stock a medium-sized store. Add to that, five boys-worth of miniature cars, Lego bricks, marbles, crayons, and other toys.
Obviously, things got interesting. Interesting, but not much fun, because things got lost.
I said this was “a thankful to give story.” What could I do? Without money or connections to gift them with an addition to their house, I gave what I had: time, and organization skills.
Working with the children’s real aunt, we tackled one room at a time. Starting with “Aunt Heidi’s Rule” which was, only two things go on the floor: carpet and feet.
Oh there were days when those boys weren’t glad to see me, but I tried to reward their work by telling them stories when we’d completed a task. Given what they’ve said at Thanksgiving dinners in the years since then, I think they remember the stories, if not the organization lessons.
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joy melville
Heidi Kortman
Ruth DeMaat
Heidi Kortman