Cookies, Breads, and a Cast
Between my brother’s family and mine, we have 5 children ranging in age from 11 months to 7 1/2 years old. We figured the best plan was to bake a bunch of cookies and breads and distribute them around to various groups of people as part of our iserve project. The kids would be able to participate in every aspect of the project and we would enjoy ourselves in the process. We were left with only the task of selecting the people that we wanted to serve. Lots of ideas were batted around and we finally decided to serve the people who are always serving others. For example, the people who work in the nursing homes taking care of the elderly on a day to day basis, our local firefighters and police, a neighbor couple who take care of their grandkids every day so that their daughter can work and another couple that served as foster parents to a couple of young sisters last year. Finally, we had a plan. The baking would commence on Friday night.
Then my four-year-old son broke his foot on Thursday afternoon. He was put into a half cast and was told that he couldn’t walk until he saw an orthopedist for a walking cast.on Tuesday. This meant that my incredibly mobile boy had to be carried everywhere. Suddenly, our great plan for baking and delivering all of our baked goods to these wonderful ‘everyday’ servants looked doubtful. To be truthful, I was completely ready to bag the whole idea. I was overwhelmed with the cast and the carrying and pretty much got caught up in the enormity of it all. I told my 7 1/2 year old daughter Caitlin that we might not be able to serve like we had planned. She asked me, “Why?” and I explained that it might just be too much. She looked at me and went on to explain in great detail that it was definitely not too much to do. We were all going to help. That what we were doing was more important than having to work around Nathan having a broken foot. We were serving like Jesus did when he was here. Out of the mouths of babes. My attitude was successfully adjusted.
Well.we did bake cookies all day on Saturday and delivered them on Sunday. One nursing home, the one where my grandmother lived until she died, welcomed us back with open arms and told us some stories about my grandmother that we had yet to hear. The other nursing home was somewhat suspicious, at first. They told us that they had never been brought cookies before. They kept asking us why we were bringing them cookies now. It was actually kind of funny in a Who’s on First sort of way. The Police and Fire Departments were happy to accept homemade goodies and the neighbors said it was nice to be recognized. We all felt wonderful and the kids loved being able to hand out their handmade cards to each place we delivered our goodies to. They were addressed, To Those Who Serve Others.
We are talking about how we can do this on a more regular basis. Hopefully without anymore broken bones.
