Letting Go

For a few years Josh and I have had an ongoing discussion. The debate is over the decision to get rid of our baby stuff. We have so many baby clothes, the baby tub (which is huge!), a saucer, a door jumper, a baby bjorn, another bathtub ring, the cradle (which is a keeper), etc., etc. It's just ridiculous. And while, at times, I think having another little one would be awesome, Josh and I feel that we are done. I'm fine with our family the way it is and since all of our kids are close in age, having another one now doesn't make sense unless we have two. Six kids might be a bit much!

So, today we finally decided to pass our baby things onto others who can use them. With the economy so bad we really hope that others will benefit from using our things - especially since everything is in really good condition. I had always talked of doing a garage sale, but Josh cringes at the thought of all that work. I can see his point. For a small amount of money, it's probably just not worth all the time and effort.

We brought up the many boxes of clothing and I set aside one to use for "keepsake clothes". These are clothes I want to pass on to my kids. Ones that were special - like Zack's giraffe costume from when he was 7 months old, a few items that all the kids wore, handmade sweaters for Abby, the outfits the kids wore for their one year pictures... I probably kept more than I should, but my rationale was that if the outfit brought me to tears, it was a keeper. Let's just say that I shed several tears today.

I loved being the mother of babies. I love my kids now too, but there is something about the baby stage that is so very special to me. I have memories of my children in each item of clothing and for most I could even tell you who gave us the outfit. It's amazing how just looking at a shirt can bring you back to an exact moment of time and a precise memory of the person who wore it.

But, it's time to let go. My baby days are gone. We're making more memories each day as the kids grow. And, as I reminded myself today, it's much more important to enjoy the kids than to hang onto the stuff. I have to hope that others who end up with these items will also someday have cherished memories of their own little ones in these clothes. That thought makes the letting go worthwhile.