11/4/2018 0 Comments Best Goodwill Purchase Ever**I have written a 7 Sorrows Devotional booklet specifically for Catholic Women facing Infertility... you can find it here. Please reach out if you would like me to pray for you!!** Let me tell you about this sweater right here. I’m a bit of a ‘goodwill-er.’ Every so often, there’s an inner voice urging me to go browse. I find it very enjoyable to search through the racks to trying to find a treasure. Most days are a bust, but every once in awhile, I find something really special. Like this sweater. I’m sure I was looking for jeans or maxi skirts (an endless quest) and this precious little piece was hanging at the end of a rack, quite out of place, as if someone had thought about buying it and then abruptly changed their minds on the way to checkout. It stopped me in my tracks. Why in the world would someone have put this back? I looked it over for holes, a pull, a stain… Nothing. It was in perfect condition. The only way it could have been more of a ‘no brainer’ purchase was if it was tagged with the ‘color of the week’ and was 50% off. I took it home. Washed and dried it, fully intending to gift it to my nephew. It seemed something his mom would go crazy over. As I pulled it out of the dryer, I held it up at eye level and just stared. And then I gave it a hug and cried. You see, I found this sweater when we were in the midst of figuring out why we weren’t parents yet. I was going in for monthly blood work, taking all kinds of supplements, praying novena after novena, and waiting. Losing hope as each cycle started without any sort delay. Never a day or two late to get excited over.** Definitively Not Pregnant. I know it sounds crazy. But I kept the sweater. I put it in the closet of the room we hoped would one day be a nursery. Did I know we’d ever have a child? No. Did I know my first child would be a son? No. Did I know this would even be ‘his size’ in the right season? Of course not. But in that moment, keeping it gave me a small taste of hope and a little bit of joy in a very dark time of my life. And today, when he wore it to mass, putting it on without the usual fuss and struggle, my heart exploded with love and awe at God’s work in my life. And just as on the day I bought it, I felt hope, something that I am tired of allowing myself to feel as we again find ourselves in a season of waiting. You can bet he is gonna wear the heck out of this sweater because I need the reminder that God has done it once. He can do it again. I’m sharing because maybe you have a friend or an acquaintance with a collection of baby clothes or toys with no child. Maybe they are open about their desires or maybe they just laugh it off as a quirky habit. Maybe this is even You. And I want you to know you aren’t being foolish. We need to do things that give us hope in the journey. Make us feel Joy. I pray that those items are put to use someday in a way that makes you stop and thank God for the good he has done for you. And I pray you don’t have long to wait. ** Looking back, I realize this was incredibly merciful… I have friends who have a 3 or 4 week wait as opposed to the dreaded 2 week wait
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