Team Gray!

I have been singing myself hoarse this fall. I can’t seem to get the children interested in singing in praise and worship once a week. That’s all the time we have for it anymore! Once a week to get together and sing. And it’s usually just Yanni, Xay and me singing, with Imani concentrating hard on everything else, Joy in and out, and Esteban distracted.

But today we used a microphone! And I heard singing. Did I ever! The only one not interested in the mic was Yanni, who has plenty of mic experience from church. At one point, Esteban had the mic, was singing ‘Holy,’ and it was all I could do to keep from crying.

Never underestimate the ham factor.

Ever heard the adage, ‘if you give someone something, they get mad at you?’ I hadn’t heard it until my Pastor said it. I thought, surely he jests. And he is a funny man. But he kept going on and on about it, and made a joke about the van ministry being more trouble than it was worth. . . and the next thing you know, the van ministry is down. Indefinitely.

So, I’ve been getting huge boxes of clothes in the mail from one of daddy’s ladies. She has a grandson Imani’s age, and he had a LOT of small clothes he couldn’t wear anymore. I’m sure Daddy had something to do with our being the recipient of such a generous gift. Now, I know what you’re thinking. I’m mad at her. Well, maybe, but that’s not where I’m going with this. I’m more perturbed with the fact that she also put McDonald toys and a huge bag of gum, which we don’t chew, which also happened to coat all the clothes with the most malodorous scent. Which meant I had to cause a bottleneck in my regular laundry schedule to wash three large loads of extra clothes.

But I’m not bitter.

No, this story is about how I sorted through the clothes, finding many articles way too big for Esteban. I thought about the people across the street, who had so graciously accepted the gift of clothes once before, (the last time we received a huge package of clothes in the mail). I called first, to make sure they wanted them, and then carried three bags of clothes and shoes across the street.

The first thing I noticed was a bag of clothes sitting by their basement stairs. A pair of shoes I’d given them was on the top. I assumed this was a giveaway bag, as I tend to keep a bag of giveaway clothes by my front door, too, but I didn’t say anything. The next thing I noticed was a dining room table covered with clothes, and I felt I’d made a terrible mistake, but before I could rescind the gift and run, Nate, their oldest son had grabbed the biggest bag and dumped it all over the floor, and Walter, their middle son had claimed a pair of flip-flops as his own.

The children happily greeted our ‘babies’ later on when all went out to play. An hour or so later, Nate poked Esteban in the navel with a stick. Come to think of it, the last time we gave them some clothes, Nate got violent with Esteban.

I think I’ll take future clothes surpluses over to Good Will. Anonymous giving doesn’t incite rage, does it?