Embarrassed

Last week I decided it was time to pull out the next size of baby clothes. Charlotte is growing so fast and I am constantly purging and sorting. I went to our storage area downstairs - TWO huge bins marked 9 - 18 months. I dragged them upstairs and began unpacking. I was overwhelmed by the amount of clothing, embarrassed even that my baby has so much.

I counted:

51 dresses (like, seriously, even my baby who attends church regularly doesn't need 51 dresses!)

33 pairs of pants

26 sleepers and pj sets

A laundry basket FULL of shoes

5 bathing suits

numerous sets (track suits, skirts with matching tops, etc)

20 sweaters and hoodies

and an uncounted pile of shorts and tanktops for summer!

These are, of course, all hand-me-downs from Sarah. And in my defense, I could literally count on both hands the items I purchased myself. The rest were hand-me-downs collected from our older nieces.

So much! My mother saw it all and shook her head.

And then a friends sister, was literally stuck among the forest fires in Slave Lake, Alberta. Her family, including their little girl, finally got out (Thank God!) but lost everything. That hit home and reconfirmed it all: these things mean nothing. Yes, we need some things. We obviously need clothes. But not even close to that much!

Embarrassed, I tell ya!

So I am packing up my favs and giving the rest away. Does anyone know someone specific who could use baby girl clothes (I have sizes from Newborn - 24 months)? I'm hoping to send little Chloe (the friends little niece in Alberta) the girl clothes she needs.

Have you been embarrassed by your material things lately? I think we need to be overwhelmed by it all sometimes to put things in perspective...don't you?