Tori Close

Everyone that has children knows what it feels like the first time your children say “Mama” or “Dada”; your heart does a little flip-flop, and the love that you thought couldn’t grow any bigger for your little one immediately expands even more. There is just something about hearing your name come out of their little mouths that plucks your heart-strings.

I am here today to tell you that the same thing happens once you have grandbabies. :)

<--- This is my first granddaughter, Zoë. She was our Halloween baby, and will be 2-years old this fall. Today, my daughter Rachel brought her over for a quick visit while the boys were doing some clean-up work from their recent move to a new home.

I went into the kitchen to throw something away when Zoë spied my bananas sitting on the table. She immediately picked up the bunch, and started doing her baby jabber.

Rachel told her, "I'm sure Grandma would let you have a banana ... go ask her, "Please Grandma, can I have a banana?" whereupon Zoë came toddling over and clear as day says:

"Grandma! [insert baby jabber here]"

Then she holds up the bananas to me.

Now, this may seem like a silly story to you all, but to me, it was a defining moment in our relationship; she called me Grandma for the first time. :)

She has been calling Derek "Papa" for quite a while already, but even though we have been trying to find a shorter word for her to call me, it just hasn't happend. So to hear "Grandma" today ... very clearly ... was simply beautiful.

I sure do love that little girl.

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My husband and I are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but neither do we consider ourselves poor; Derek has a good job, I am able to be a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, we never want for food or shelter, and we are always clothed. We may not have as much as many other people do as far as luxury items or “toys”, but the Lord always provides for our needs and many times, even for our wants.

As you all know by my previous post, my family and I are moving to a new home. Not just any home, but a gorgeous home. A home that we never envisioned ourselves living in. Why? Simply for the fact that we don’t make a six-figure income and assumed that until something drastic changed, we would always be in a small house or apartment.

However, the fact that we are able to move into this home is the perfect example of the Lord providing one of our “wants”. We didn’t truly need a new house, but we did desire one because we feel cramped in our apartment, and we wanted a bigger place so we could expand on both our comfort level as well as work on some business matters.

I am sure our family could be much more comfortable financially if I worked outside of the home, but we came to the decision many years ago when we were first married that our children and our family were our first priority and we believe in our heart of hearts that the Lord wants me to stay home to take care of our family. That may change once Draylen graduates, but for now, home is where we believe I am meant to be – even if it does mean living paycheck to paycheck at times.

I was thinking this morning about how many people consider themselves “broke” or “poor” in this day and age. You always hear complaints from people about not having enough money to go out to a movie, or fretting that they can’t afford a huge Christmas for their kids; wondering when they will be able to go to the salon for a new hairstyle, or being disappointed about not having enough money to purchase a new car. Shoot, I have been known to make a couple of those complaints myself at times.

If you were to stop and think about it though, how “poor” are you … really?

Do you have a home to live in?
Do you have a bed to sleep in? With blankets for warmth?
Do you have electricity?
Do you have running water?
Do you have food each day?
Do you have clothes on your back?

My guess is that you can answer yes to most, if not all, of the questions above. Considering the fact that you are reading this online tells me that you have enough money for those basic needs, as well as enough extra to have a computer with internet access.

To me, this says that you are not poor.

Now think about this; if you were in our situation and had to pack your house into boxes to move …

How long do you think it would take you to pack up every possession you own?
How many boxes would you have to use?
How much “junk” would you throw away, or give to a second-hand store?
Would you need to rent a truck to move your possessions?
If not, how many trips would it take with your current vehicle to move your things?
How many people would you need to help you?

After spending so much time packing up our house over the last couple of weeks, I have to tell you, I feel very wealthy. We have so much “stuff” that it is taking me a long time to sort and pack. We have so much stuff, that we are giving away many, many things to the thrift stores. We have so much stuff, that we had to go out and purchase boxes to transport them in. We have so much stuff, that we are going to have to rent a 1-Day U-Haul to move over to the new house. In my estimation, that makes us very wealthy.

We may not own flat screen TV’s, have new vehicles, or have a boat or jet-ski’s to move, but what we do have, we own outright and we have no monthly bills to pay out for them. No car payments, no credit card bills.

We have coffee (with creamer!) each morning. We can take showers whenever we please. We can wash our clothes when needed. We can go to the grocery store when we run out of milk. What luxury! These things we take for granted, others would give their last 2¢ to have.

We have more than enough, and we are blessed.

View this video below. These are the faces of some of those who are truly struggling. After viewing this, my guess is that you will be thankful for what you do have, even if it didn’t seem like much before. Aren’t you glad you are so wealthy?

So thankful for the blessings the Lord has given us, and praying for those who aren’t as “rich” as we are,