7 am, the usual morning lineup

When Kurt and I got married, we didn't have a lot of money. We paid for the wedding ourselves with some help from our families after saving for a year and a half. We wanted to go on a honeymoon and with the help of our generous wedding guests we were able to go to London and stay at a family friend's flat. We had a fantastic time and I will always treasure the memories of that trip, but sometimes it makes me weirdly sad that we didn't get many wedding gifts and don't have, say, wedding china or dishes that we can say, "Oh, so-and-so gave us this for our wedding."

I was thinking about this while dressing Liam this morning. I don't think it's exaggerating to say that at least a third of his current wardrobe was given to him by his Oma. He has a handful of clothes that were once worn by my brother, Tan, when he was Liam's age--baby clothes my mother has carted around from house to house over several moves and more than two decades. And maybe because little boy clothes are so fun to shop for (but more likely because we are friends with such giving people), a lot of Liam's tshirts are gifts from our extended family made up of friends from high school, college and beyond who think of him whether they live in Providence, elsewhere in the country, or elsewhere in the world.

Today, Liam is wearing pants that Lisé (Oma) gave him for his birthday this year. His shirt was a gift from John and Tyler. And he's playing right now with some toy cars that are hand-me-downs from a different friend named Tyler, found while cleaning out his childhood bedroom. He's playing with them on a table he got from my grandparents. When he got up this morning he was snuggled in a blanket two of my aunts gave me for him at my bsby shower, thrown by my friend Jessica, in a crib given to us by my Mom, Lisé and my grandma Sally (Sayah). When I rock him to sleep for his nap in a little while, it’ll be in the rocking chair given to us by my friend and former coworker Audrey, the same one she used to rock her girls to sleep 12 years ago.

I don't have any wedding china, it's true. But I have this amazing kid whose life has come together in large part thanks to family and friends, and friends who have become family. It's not exactly the same...but it's a pretty great alternative ♥