Grateful

With a kid in tow, I often think about how wonderful it would be to have family nearby.  Living on the far east coast of the US, our closest immediate family member lives in Indiana.  Other than that most are overseas (all of Clint's family and my parents).  My other 2 siblings are on the far west coast.

Lately I've just felt so blessed at how God provides people, though, when we need it.  Last year we did a lot of swaps, which was wonderful.  Swapping tends to come and go in seasons.

I'm enjoying a swap right now, in fact.  It's Sunday, it's been a weekend of lots of activity, Clint has been away since Friday (it's now Sunday), and a friend (who's husband is also away) and I are swapping this afternoon. 

So even though Clint is gone, right now I'm sipping on a drink, enjoying some time alone and writing this post :).  It's a beautiful thing and was wonderful timing.

Moreover, in the last few weeks each of the following has happened...

• We were coming home from church trying to decide whether we should go out for Valentine's day and thinking about who we may be able to swap with to save some money.  As we were walking to our apartment a friend called out of his apartment, "Can we take Evee tomorrow night so you guys can go out?"  Um, yes.  I think my answer was "seriously?". 
• Then I was in a wedding 2 weekends ago and there was a last minute get together of all the bridesmaids.  I had a friend who offered to take Evee for the 6 hours or so that Clint was in class so that I could leave a day early.
• Last weekend we went to a prayer retreat and that same friend (above) and another friend helped us out for a good portion of the day (8:45-3:15pm) on Saturday.
• I have a conference at the end of April, but it's during the week.  So, hard to find childcare.  Our backup was to have her in daycare all 3 days, but we were hoping for something else, but not sure how it would work.  Last Sunday a friend comes up to me and says that she has been thinking about it and would really like to offer to keep Evee as much as we need during that time.  

Isn't that amazing!  That each of those literally happened?  I just feel so amazed and blessed by people's generosity.  So many blessings...