I can't really describe the relief and joy I feel at finally being settled in one place, but it is wonderful.
One of the benefits of putting down roots is that we can start traditions, like giving gifts to our neighbors at Christmas. We hope to build genuine and lasting relationships with the people living on our block and in our neighborhood but we decided to start small this year with 7 houses on our street.
I had the idea to give small gifts to our neighbors especially since I had intended to do something when we first moved in but never got around to putting anything together. What really inspired me to get on the ball with gifts this week was a short conversation with Adriaan. He asked me, "Mama, do you know what makes me kind to people?" I was curious about what was going on in his little mind and said, "hmm, what makes you kind to people?" "Getting to help you bake stuff and use the mixer helps me be kind to others!" "Well I guess we better bake something!!!"
So, Adriaan and I baked four huge batches of chocolate chip cookies. We packaged them up with a home made (mostly by Ado) note that said, "Happy Christmas, from your neighbors on Willamette Drive." We spent two evenings with the babies in the stroller delivering the cookies to our neighbors as well as the library staff where everyone knows us by name. Adriaan didn't just walk along side the stroller, he skipped and bounced. He ran to each door holding a bag of cookies and was so eager to give them away! For the most part, he did really well when a person would actually answer the door. There was one person whose cookies were kind of thrown in their general direction. We learned valuable lessons about door bells, that they should only be rung once and not 10 times!
I was finally able to meet several neighbors who had come over to introduce themselves and met Will while he was installing flooring. I heard from more than one person that they didn't realize we had twins, which I thought was both funny and sad. I'm out with them a lot in the stroller and front yard but mostly during the day when working people wouldn't notice us.
We prayed that God would show his love through us and our simple gift of cookies. Adriaan had a blast giving our gifts, I've wondered more than a few times if gifts may be his love language. I really enjoyed watching his excitement about the whole thing. We wrote down everyone's name so that we can pray for our neighbors and friends at the library by name.
This week has been about enjoying roots by starting traditions that help me to teach our children to pray for others and that it's better to give than to receive. I praise God for our home and pray that he'll bless our desire to love our neighbors and to make Him known to those around us on Willamette Drive.
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