Yes, it rained. Interestingly enough, this post has nothing to do with that.

At 7:30 this morning I peeled my eyes open to see The Hubbs struggling to dress quietly, so as not to wake me. Feeling pretty good, I gave a big stretch and rolled onto my back (taking up every square inch of puffy mattress real estate in the process...hey, he'd vacated, that baby was mine). After screeching like a pterodactyl, which is my signature stretching noise, I asked what he was doing out of bed. I had thought we'd sleep in a little and open the garage sale at about 9:00.

Apparently, my poor defenseless husband awoke somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30 this morning and was never able to properly get back to sleep. My guess is that his mind was going a million miles an hour about the upcoming garage sale, but you never know. Either way, the day started out with a very groggy, sleep-deprived Swatta.

I felt pretty rested so I got up and took my shower, shuffling out to the garage after I got dressed. We opened the door and set up shop at about 8:30 or so, I think, bringing some of the more interesting items out into the driveway to (hopefully) capture the attention of unsuspecting passersby -- I mean potential customers.

About 9:00 or 9:30 this morning a small red car pulled up across the end of our driveway. A woman carefully got out, not making a sound when she shut her door. Walking up our driveway, she turned toward her car and made the universal gesture for "stay still, be calm, I'll be right back", mumbling under her breath...Please stay asleep.

"How old?" I asked.

"6 months," she whispered. I got the feeling she was in the middle of a difficult time with the kiddo, based on the look on her face and the fact that she was still whispering even though he was sleeping in a car 30 feet away. I made some kind of appropriate response, though I don't remember precisely what I said.

She browsed through our old clothes, games and brick-a-brack, visibly loosening up little by little as she went along. It was obvious that she was enjoying this baby-free time in a way only the parent of a fussy infant can understand.

We chatted a little here and there, and she smiled at The Princess and talked to her a bit. There were a few baby things set out - the useless potty chair that does no good since The Princess much prefers to use her Pooh Bear seet on the Big People Potty, that God-awful Diaper Genie (I'd pay someone to get that piece of junk out of my garage!), and a couple of onesies. I hadn't brought out any of the good baby stuff because we still don't know if we're going to have another kid or not, and we don't want to get rid of anything until we know for sure that we're done. This stuff is spendy, and it seems silly to buy it all twice if we don't absolutely have to.

Seeing that we had a little one, she must have realized we'd understand...so she told us her story. She is 40 years old, and her husband is disabled. They live on $700 a month. Her children are 19 and 21, and her daughter had a son 6 months ago. Shortly after the child was born, his mommy was in a serious car accident. She is also suffering from severe post-partum depression and has decided that she wants nothing to do with her newborn child. So his grandmother, standing in my garage, told me about how she has taken guardianship and how she and her husband are raising this little boy on a fixed income.

By this point I was fighting to keep the tears out of my eyes. She was a sweetheart, and I couldn't imagine being in that situation. The Hubbs and I looked at her and said if there's anything specific she needed for him, just to mention it. I said we had a bunch of stuff inside that we weren't putting out because we weren't sure about having another kid, etc., and she told me that the one thing she was really looking for was an exer-saucer. She's been looking for weeks and everyone wants $30-$40 for them (they're $60-$100 brand new) and she just can't afford that.

I asked her to hang on a sec, and I ran down to the basement. Her eyes lit up when I came back with The Princess's old Baby Einstein activity center, and she tentatively asked how much we wanted for it. The Hubbs and I looked at each other, and we could just tell that we were on the same wavelength. We wanted more than anything to be able to help this woman out.

So we asked her what she could afford to pay for it. She ran out to the car and grabbed the little boy who, by this time, was awake and none too happy to be left alone. She plopped him in the activity center in the driveway and he immediately stopped crying, enthralled with all of the great toys around him. He looked up at me with the most precious little grin.

She had $11 on her, so that's what she offered to pay - we took it in a heartbeat. Sure, this was The Princess's very favorite thing for 6+ months, but what good is it doing sitting in our basement collecting dust?

I helped her disassemble the activity center and loaded it in the trunk of her car. As she pulled away I stood at the end of the driveway, waving goodbye.

It's not very often that I get the opportunity to be someone's fairy godmother or guardian angel. I'm proud to say we recognized this opportunity, and we were able to help this grandma and little boy today - even if it was only in a small way. The only part I regret is that I never got their names.