The $70 crib

I have not blogged in weeks! I have been bogged down with moving house, packing and unpacking. I think I have finally got myself into a rhythm now, so no more long absences away from my precious blogosphere! I have missed everyone too!
Departing from my usual motivational style of writing today, I will share a story from my life.

I was pregnant with my first daughter and really excited. I was a stay at home wife and my husband…..well let’s just say his job paid more of a stipend than a true salary. On our first shopping trip for our yet unborn baby we stood in the aisle of a department store looking a different cribs.
A young lady approached us: “I have a brand new crib I can sell you for $70. I bought it but never used it because I put the baby in the bed with me and he never left!”
Long story short, we got a brand new crib for much, much less than what we would have paid for it in the store. Shortly after that, we had our baby, who slept in said crib for nearly three years! For some reason she never thought to try and climb out even though she could have( she was a tall three year old). We transitioned her to a toddler bed.
By this time we had had a second baby who after sleeping in a bassinet for 3 months, was transitioned to the $70 crib which by this time had lost a few screws. The screws were replaced, the crib was glued and it carried on with it’s job. ( Did I mention that somewhere in between the crib was used as a collection center for clean laundry?)
Now, our second child is more feisty that the first and she of course attempted to climb out of the crib and eventually succeeded. One side of the crib was lowered and placed next to a bed so that she could get in and out with ease.Fast forward a few months.
We are now moving out of the little town home that has been home to us for 6 years. It is a great community, with good neighbors, and an effective management company. On the day the movers came my little girl who is only two years old kept saying, “Don’t let them leave my bed here”,”What about my bed?”,”Don’t forget my bed”. It was as though she knew deep down inside that the $70 crib would not be going with us, to our new home.

I partially dismantled the $70 crib. Its joints were weakened, some more screws fell out in the process. I twisted it through the bedroom door as I looked around my daughters’ old room for the last time.The $70 crib had seen us through the last 6 years and now it was time to let it go. A few tears fell, not for the crib itself, but for my comfort zone which I was now leaving behind. I will miss my old town home, the neighbors, the noise of the children in the summertime, the grassy field where my children used to play. I would miss the community, the close proximity to the highways, church and downtown. The $70 crib, to me, was symbolic of everything I was leaving behind.

I carried it out of the house and placed it by the dumpster.
Goodbye $70 crib, goodbye old house, goodbye.
The end of an era.