The Power of Giving & Sharing

About 3 years have passed since our friend, Ivy, decided she was done having children and no longer needed all her baby stuff. Since I myself was pregnant with our son, Ivy happily gave all her son's baby stuff to Rod and I. We were so grateful to receive such great gifts; clothes, blankets, toys, swing, exersaucer, basically everything we needed.

Right around the time our son turned 1yr old, we found out that baby #2 was on the way. This time it was a little girl. How exciting! Since our son was only a year old we still had almost all of the baby stuff that Ivy had given us. Once again we were so happy and thankful that we would be completely prepared for baby #2.

Our daughter just turned a year old on May 5th and my husband and I have both been anxious to get some of the "baby" stuff out of the living room, like the swing and the exersaucer. We contemplated what to do with it. Should we store it in the attic? Should we donate it to Goodwill? My brother and sister-in-law are having a baby in a few months, but they live 1,600 miles away. We both said "I wish we had someone to give it to."

Have you ever heard the phrase "ask and you shall receive"? Well, the next day at work I had to put a call into one of our co-managing retinal specialists, I was happy when my good friend Stacie answered the phone. I love her and she always makes me laugh. It had been a few months since the last time we spoke, so she had a lot of news to tell me. She told me that Ivy had had just had another little baby boy. I was excited to hear the news. I hadn't talked to Ivy in probably a year. Of course, I got Ivy's phone number from her. I called to congratulate her on the new little boy and to ask her if she would like her baby stuff back. She was so excited and thankful to hear from me. I told her to give me a few days to round up a bunch of stuff for her.

As soon as I got off the phone with her I called my husband and told him the exciting news, he was as excited as any man can be expected to be.

When I told my 2 1/2 yr old son that we were going to go through his and his sister's toys and give them to Ivy's new baby he wasn't very excited about it. Then I explained to him that Ivy was the one who had given him all his baby stuff. I explained how generous she was to let him have all of Austin's baby clothes and toys. I said "Now don't you want to be nice to her and share your stuff with her new baby?' and he said "Yeah, Mommy I wanna share."

We spent a whole afternoon going through every toy box and toy bin. We got all the "baby" toys together and washed them. We dug deep into the closet and found blankets and burp cloths and cute little stuffed animals. We gathered so much stuff that Xavier's bed was completely covered. Once we got everything cleaned and bagged, Xavier kept saying "I want to go share now Mommy, I want to go share." I had to explain to him that we had to wait for Daddy to get home and then we would load up his vehicle and he was going to meet Adam (Ivy's husband) to give him the stuff. Xavier was very persistent and kept saying he wanted to "go share right now". Eventually I got the subject changed with the help of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The enthusiasm and joy that Xavier got out of finding the "good" baby toys to share with Ivy's new baby was worth a million dollars. And it felt good for me too. It just proves that when you give to someone else you not only help them out, but you also get an extra boost of happiness out of it. Xavier ran around the house all day and night on "cloud nine" talking about all the stuff he was going to share with the new baby.

I encourage you to help yourself to a jolt of "feel good energy", find some stuff you haven't used in a while and give it to someone. The feeling is great!