introducing...

the thing that made my husband smile like that...

 an 'oliver super77'

 not familiar with what an 'oliver' is...well it's a...

tractor. :)

THAT was my surprise. i have to say though i giggled at the comments after my last post that mentioned they thought i was pregnant. nope. i'm not pregnant. and the blessing was a tractor.

to some it may be 'just a tractor'. in fact that's *sort of* how i have thought of it.,

but this tractor is special to my husband. it belonged to his grandpa. and his dad. for those of you who don't know, shaun's dad died when he was in eighth grade of thyroid cancer. after his dad died our neighbor bought the oliver from my mother in law. basically he didn't 'need' the tractor, but knew that she could use the  money. it was bought with the understanding that when/if shaun wanted the tractor back...he could buy it back for the price it was sold for.

shaun and i will be married seven years this month. a few times over the past seven years shaun has talked about the oliver. and talked about 'some day' getting it back. a few months ago shaun seriously talked about buying it. i said we'll see, and let's pray about it. and then the next day it hit me. WHAT a blessing it would be to buy the tractor for him for Christmas. so i facebooked his mom and sisters suggesting the idea. and if they wanted to help me bless him. they were all in. woo hoo. we just had to find out the cost, etc...and it'd be a great Christmas gift.

except. my dear husband decided he REALLY REALLY wanted the tractor. he took me out to the shed a number of times for me to look at it. ((our neighbor collects old tractors and stores them in our shed)) in fact the one time he made me sit on the tractor. looked at me and said, you really want it now don't you. i said no.

i was trying to be 'negative' but without being suspicious. i tried my best to say it would cost too much. we couldn't afford it. etc etc etc. then. our neighbor called shaun about something and shaun brought up the tractor?! our neighbor said he'd have to talk to his wife to see about the price and he'd call shaun back. two weeks later he hadn't called shaun back. and shaun was getting impatient. and i was doing my best to just not tell him...i'm buying it you goofball!!

then our neighbor took the tractor out of our shed. ((he wanted to check it over before giving it to us)) well that caused more 'curiousity' with shaun. i told shaun well maybe he knows you're interested in it and wants to give it a check before he talks to you. thankfully that tided shaun over.

i'm serious. he was awful about it. he even tried the guilt trip on me!! like come on i buy you whatever you want. this is the only thing i've ever really wanted and you won't let me have it. ((he's serious though, he does give me whatever i want. and truly is a great husband...all the reason i wanted to do this for him! he also is a great son and brother. he does a lot of stuff for his mom and sisters and they were excited to bless him too)) it was so so hard to not just tell him!

God was so cool through it too. shaun looked up the tractor once online to get a price, and it was crazy high priced. so he then figured maybe it was going to cost a lot. ((thankfully it wasn't as high as the ones online!)) so it detered him for awhile over the past few months. heck i tried talking him into buying a four wheeler instead of the tractor just to get him off the tractor. lol.

because of shaun's insistence and me not thinking i could make it til december...we decided to give him the tractor this past weekend at dustin's birthday party.

i was so excited all week and all morning saturday. i couldn't wait. we had to run to town before the party, and on our way home he saw the tractor sitting outside in our neighbors yard. ((i think he looked for it everytime we drove by our neighbors, trying to figure out why he took it out of the shed)) i tried to hide my smile the best i could. and new it was literally minutes away from driving into our yard...and being his.

shaun's mom and sisters arrived. i met them outside and they said it would be coming soon. AHHH! i couldn't wait. the anticipation was rising. shaun's sister had him help her unload her truck of tools she was bringing back. so he was outside. we all went outside too. ((God worked it out by having it be a nice day outside)) then it was coming up the road. our neighbor drove it up the driveway, and shaun didn't think anything too much of that. (our neighbor is in our yard often with his tractors) this time though...it was different. he was in our yard with SHAUN'S tractor. our neighbor backed it right on to the lawn where we were watching. he hopped off...and shook shaun's hand and said "happy birthday shaun". shaun just looked at him. said thank you. and we said happy birthday and merry Christmas. (shaun's bday is in january...so this is a double gift. lol)

i'm not sure shaun knew what to say. although he didn't have to say much. i could see it in his eyes. the blessing blessed him more than i could ever have dreamed and hoped for. he didn't talk much. part of me thought it was because he didn't want to 'break down'. but shaun also doesn't talk much to begin with. :)

we made him check it out and get on it. i don't think the smile left his face. or dustin's. dustin loved sitting on there with his daddy. i'm praying one day we'll be able to bless dustin with the tractor too, so it can go down four generations of popp men. when we were walking in the house...shaun smiled at me. and i knew he was so excited. the smile he gave me melted my heart and i was so excited too. he also said 'well i guess that means i'm not getting a grill' ((we had talked that morning about his Christmas gift (i told him i had an idea) and he said he thought it was a grill))

a few times during the rest of the day shaun would say thank you for the tractor. or he'd smile at me. or hug me. it was such a blessing to know just how thankful he was. i kept staring at him all day because i loved seeing him so happy. truly besides the births of my children, giving my life to Christ, and my wedding day...giving shaun the tractor was one of the best days of my life.

the party ended and we put the kiddos to bed. and shaun looks at me and says i suppose. i'm like what? and he said, well i have to go drive the tractor around. he'd been waiting HOURS to do it. he said after supper he wanted to, but didn't want to be 'rude'. so he went out in the dark. and cold fall night. and drove the tractor around. i still couldn't wipe the smile off his face when he came inside.

ahhh. i truly tear up just thinking about how happy shaun was. he's told me a number of times since saturday, thank you. i'm so very thankful. truly, he doesn't need to say a word. i can see it in his eyes. and his smile. he said he was proud of himself for holding back the tears too. ;)

i was so very blessed that i was able to work it out with his family to get the tractor for him. God totally worked every single detail out. and i'm so very thankful for that.