Life Lessons

Up until now, parenting for us has involved enjoying our children grow and teaching them the little things...like sleeping through the night. We have watched as Olivia has changed from a tiny, helpless baby to a brilliant little girl. While we have loved all the little baby stages, we are now faced with the challenge of raising this little person and making sure we pass along the values and beliefs that are important to us and to our families.

Growing up, I remember my parents being very community-minded people. They supported various local clubs and sports teams in our area and I remember them attending the Silent Auction for the Stettler Youth Center every year. Cam remembers his parents also supporting local organizations as well. I know they used to volunteer at bingo when they lived here and have been actively supporting and promoting our local SPCA.

We both come from very fortunate families and know that giving back to our community and helping people who are not as fortunate as we are, is very important to us. Right now with two small kids, we are not always able to afford to donate money to charity but I recently was given the chance to pay it forward a little.

As anyone who has kids knows that you tend to accumulate massive amounts of stuff that you may only use a time or two then it sits in a drawer or closet or, in our case, storage bins. Since we are done having kids, I decided it was time to go through and get rid of the stuff I am done with. So I went out to the shed and grabbed the 3 HUGE Rubbermaid containers full of Olivia's old clothes. I went through and sorted out my sentimental favorites and stuff I wanted to pass onto my own family one day and was able to empty out 2 full bins!

Through the magic of Facebook, I was able to find a group that was geared towards helping local Moms and Moms-To-Be who are in need. So many people are out to make a fast buck these days, nobody seems to hand things down like they used to. I see people selling anything and everything on Facebook, Kijiji, whatever. While some things are worthy of being sold, selling used clothes seems almost wrong to me. I mean, yes I am an excellent bargain shopper and have never felt the need to buy a $40 Hurley or whatever brand T-shirts for my kids, the thought of using clothes for my kids or getting clothes as gifts for birthdays, Christmas, whatever and then selling it for 5 bucks....I dunno, not my cup of tea. I got my moneys worth out of everything I bought or was given.

Anyways, back to my original story....Without getting too much into this girls story, I was able to find a local girl who is due in a few weeks with a little girl and has recently fallen on some hard times. It makes me feel good to know that something as small as cleaning out my closets may make such a huge difference in her life and her baby's life. Olivia helped me sort the clothes and pack them up in bags. She asked what we were doing with her stuff and I told her that we were giving all her baby clothes to a new baby so that the new baby could use them. At first she seemed a little sad I was getting rid of her stuff. But I told her that she is very lucky and that our family is very lucky and it is very important for us to help others. To which she said "Are we fortunate, Mommy? Like on Caillou?"

Yes Olivia, we are fortunate....beyond words...