A BLESSING ON WHEELS

Last summer Naomi took the training wheels off her bike, which meant she was ready to move from the toddler bike to a regular one. We scoured Craigslist for a free one and I posted on a freebie exchange site at our church to see if anyone had a girl who had outgrown theirs, but to no avail. Summer was winding down, though, so I figured we'd just make do through the winter. Naomi was content and life moved on.

Then it was May and the weather was gorgeous, so I thought people may be going through their outdoor stuff and getting rid of outgrown bikes. I started checking Craigslist again and posted on the exchange site that I was looking for a 20-inch bike, preferably without movie/TV characters on it. I figured something would come along eventually.

And it did.

I received an e-mail on Tuesday from someone asking if my post on the exchange site was for Naomi. I said it was. They responded by asking if she had any color preferences. I told them I knew for a fact that they didn't have any little girl bikes at their house to hand down to her ... and that she loves pink. They wrote back and said we needed to contact them. Contact was made and Tim stopped by their house after his class got out that night. He moved something from their house to our car, drove home, then moved it from our car to our van.

Wednesday morning started off as usual with chores and breakfast. Then I stepped outside momentarily and moved something from our van to our driveway. I came back inside and told Naomi to count to thirty, then to meet me outside.

And she did.

She then proceeded to spend the whole day saying "I can't believe it!", reminding us of the cool purse to hold her things while she's riding, talking about kickstands and hand brakes, and giggling.

Someone felt like God wanted them to bless Naomi, so they went out and bought her the bike of her dreams. How cool is that?!

Striking her "try and look cool" pose with her new bike.

Giddy. Totally giddy.

Sitting on the new bike for the first time.

Sitting on the old bike for the last time.

It takes a little practice to get used to mounting and handling a larger bike and in our family that responsibility belongs to Tim, so they're leaving right this very minute to figure it out in a nearby parking lot. She's pretty excited!!