What goes around … comes around

A friend of mine and her family has been sick – for two weeks. She has three young ones between the ages of three months and five years and her husband is on a submarine in the great Atlantic. The kids keep passing the same bug back and forth & she has managed to catch it a time or two.

I had this nasty bug back around Christmas at my folk’s house and it was no fun! I was visiting my mom and dad, my husband was there … if there was a place to be sick that was it!

Now imagine (and some of you don’t have to imagine too hard – you’ve done it!) holding your child’s hand while they lean over the toilet and well… puke their brains out, yet in the middle of all that you have to ask him to watch out as you lean over and do the same.

NO FUN!

I got an email from her Sunday afternoon:

“Pray for us. We are all still so sick.”

That was the whole sum of the email. So I stepped up the plate & not only prayed but brought over dinner Monday. Talk about a simple way to make someone’s day. Dinner. The best part was I made enough for her family & mine; a perfect example of killing-two-birds-with-one-stone.

I dropped the meal off at her house around noon on Monday and she had a huge smile for me. Although I wanted to stay and talk, I did have to think about my family & not bringing that bug back to my house. We did talk long enough to find out that they were all headed to the doctor that afternoon. Thank goodness!

I returned home and the phone rang around 1:00. It was my neighbor, Lori. She called to tell me that my four closest neighbors had organized themselves enough to want to each take my boys a day during each month that Paul is deployed. She wanted to let me know that they were thinking of us and trying to think of ways to help. We probably talked for 30 to 40 minutes. (My youngest was sleeping, otherwise, that would have never happened!) But I hung up feeling ‘taken care of’.

There is something about friends taking care of each other! What have you done for a friend-in-need lately? We all have our moments when friends are who we lean on. Whether it is making dinner, just calling on a whim, or offering to baby-sit for a few hours there is so much we can do! Be sure to reach out this week.

PS: What did I make for dinner for my friend & family? I used a recipe from a previous blog post, Tomato Soup. But I threw in cooked-meat from a roast, some sauteed carrots & onions, and a can of leftover greenbeans. Then I brought it over in a crockpot with a loaf of frozen bread from Peppridge Farms. She could then start it 3 or 4 hours before she wanted to eat. I happen to have a ‘few’ crock-pots so it was easy enough to put half of the soup in one crock pot for my friend and one for my family.byLeanneonMonday, February 11, 2008Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestMilitary Life:friends,Leanne