Hand Me Downs & Upgrades

When dad was in seminary, we lived down a one lane road, had to have water trucked in, and had next to nothing.  That house is where I remember falling in love with hand-me-downs.  The UPS truck would come rambling down our road.  Next came a knock on our door.  The UPS guy would be holding a huge box and Christmas had arrived (regardless of the month!). I recall going through piles of clothes from cousins and friends. (I even had some with my exact initials on them! Thanks, Aunt Marge & Alison!) And the lure of the hand-me-downs was born.

As we had girls of our own, we continued to be blessed by family with fantastic hand-me-downs & upgrades.  It was so fun to see the girls wearing a cousin’s dress or boots. We would giggle about how we remembered the other kid in that outfit and bonds grew tighter.

Now hand-me-downs have a bit of a different tang.  Hand-me-downs & upgrades are typically the result of someone moving (although not always! whew!).  Around here, that moving comes with airline tickets and new countries or islands.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to get hand-me-downs and have a way to create tighter bonds as our local families follow His leading to other lands.