...my favorite valentine's gift

A few years ago, Mike surprised me.

When we had move from our home two years ago to an apartment in preparation for our move to Texas, we tossed a ton of stuff. He calls it junk, I call it "forgotten treasures". My baby doll cradle was one of them.

It wasn't just ANY baby doll cradle. It was a very special baby doll cradle. It had been passed down through the generations until it came to me.

It was white with yellow daisies on it. I'm sure it had lead in the paint. I placed my babies in this doll cradle. My mom placed her babies in this cradle. And my grandma placed HER babies in this cradle. My grandma's daddy made it for her.

My oldest lovingly placed her babies in this cradle. My youngest? Yeah, she's the one who broke the cradle. She thought since she was the baby, she should go in the cradle. And in the process, broke it.

I was so sad. But, I set out to fix it. Had to make the cradle safe for my babies. So I sanded off the paint... but I didn't get very far. The spindles were stopping me. Some of the spindles were about to come out. One side of the rocker came off. I gave up..... in hopes that someday Mike would have time to help me. Ideally, before my girls had their babies who wanted to place their dollies in the cradle.

Two years ago before Valentine's Day, Mike took me down to the apartment garage. He said "Have you noticed anything missing?" I guess we had so much "stuff" {forgotten treasures} that I truly did not see what was missing. He said "what about your cradle?" My doll cradle isn't packed in a box.... it was always on TOP of a box. I looked, and gasped when I couldn't find it. I was so sad! He said "well, for Valentine's Day, I had it fixed."

I was SO excited! One of his employees had a woodworking shop, and was able to sand it down, make the appropriate repairs, and stain it! Oh, I was so thrilled! I broke down in tears when I saw my new cradle.

Finally my youngest can carefully take care of her babies in this new & much improved doll cradle! Happily Maddie places her baby Emily with a homemade quilt (made by me... the biggest quilt I'll ever make) and puppy dog Gigi at Emily's feet in the cradle.

It may not have been chocolates, or flowers, a fancy dinner, or a beautiful card. But it was the most thoughtful gift .... that meant more than chocolates, flowers or anything money could buy.