Community

These last few months we've experienced the richness of community.  Especially our church community.  We have lived in California for 5 years now and have developed great friendships.  But the fact remains that our families live over 2,000 miles away from us.  (They would point out that we live 2,000 miles away from them.)  I don't know what we would have done if we did not have a church family to step in and fill the gap.  We had wonderful baby showers, financial gifts, and endless amounts of diapers given to us.  (after 2.5 months we've spent a grand total of $10 on diapers!)  We had so many meals delivered we couldn't eat all the leftovers fast enough.
This is not to slight the support that our biological families did give us - they all came out and visited and bought us groceries and changed many diaper - but sadly, they all had to leave and go back home too.  Our church is still here.  And we are grateful for them.
Even more exciting, are the opportunities we've had to support others at our church recently.  I've been able to help give a teenage boy rides to work, after his mom had surgery.  We gave some friends rides to the airport for their vacations.  We were able to help our friends demo, paint and move into their new house, and we are in process of doing the same for some other friends these next couple weeks.
I love when people ask me for help.  This is what being part of the body of Christ is.  People who realize how much we've been given in Christ, who can't help but give to others out of gratitude to Jesus.