The Toy God Gave Us

I have wanted a play kitchen set for the boys for a long time. We aren't fans of collecting random toys in our house and seeing as we weren't sure if the boys would actually play with the kitchen set or not Paul asked me to not buy them one. I was totally ok with that - I agreed with his reasoning, even though I still monitored the price in toy fliers all through the holidays.

I have great memories of playing with my own toy kitchen and seeing as Judah loves to help us in our kitchen I thought he would get great enjoyment out of it.

But I didn't know for sure.

And I also agreed with Paul about not wanting to spend money on a 'fad' toy.

So you know what I did?

I prayed about it. Just once. It wasn't like this was a huge passion of mine to get my boys a play kitchen. But it was a big enough of a deal that I wanted to make sure I didn't get a bad attitude with Paul about him saying he didn't like the idea. And I kind of did want the boys to have the chance to play with a toy kitchen. So I prayed that I would be respectful and not push to buy a toy kitchen set.

God answered that prayer. While I did dreamily look at them in toy fliers, and even occasionally point them out to Paul as to how cute they were, I never did mind that Paul did not want us to buy a toy kitchen. Even in my heart, I never felt any sort of grudge towards him. Trite as that might sound, it sometimes irks me when I want the boys to share in a part of one of my childhood memories and he doesn't see the importance in it just because he didn't have that memory.

Looking back now I can see how God worked on my life and heart and it is really amazing to me that I didn't ever get annoyed with Paul about this.

Which is what makes what happened all the more beautiful to me.

We were given a play kitchen set - complete with burners, a stove, a pot rack, shelves and a sink.

And not just any play kitchen set, but a Pottery Barn Kids kitchen set! From what I have seen online this sells used for $150 on up!

I was sitting outside our local thrift store when a man pulled up and started unloading a car full of stuff. When I saw the kitchen set I asked him if he would sell it to me instead of tossing it in the donation bin. I wasn't exactly sure what I would do when he named his price, as I kind of asked him about it before I really thought through the whole "My husband doesn't want me to buy one of these" in the few seconds between seeing it and running out of my car, but the man laughed and said "Oh, I don't want money. I would love to give this to you." And he picked it up and carried it to my car.

If you ask Judah where he got his kitchen set from he will tell you;

"God gave it to me."

And indeed He did. He blessed us beyond what I could have imagined - for even if Paul had been excited about buying the kids a kitchen set we never could have afforded one this nice.

Oh, and in case you're wondering the boys love the kitchen. It is the only toy they have played with since Saturday.