when the wind changes

We ordered a new couch for our family room about four weeks ago. Confident in the saleswoman's assurances that our new couch would be here in "about four weeks," my LSH was starting to sweat the old couches sitting in the family room (which we got from the people we bought the house from, so they were, like a lot of furniture in our house, second-hand.) He begged me to work my freecycle magic on them, and I dutifully complied.

We went from this:



To this, just yesterday morning:

(Yes, nature and children abhor a vacuum.)

I didn't think to check the new couch paperwork until after the old couches were gone. At which point I read the fine print stating that the new couch isn't guaranteed to be here until April 11. Gulp. A month without a couch in front of the TV.

I was feeling kinda stupid about not checking the paperwork before I agreed to list the couches for free, but then I received this e-mail from the people we gave the couches to (they were the first ones to respond to our e-mail, so we chose them on strictly equitable principles; they were in desperate need due to a fire and picked the couches up the same day):

Just wanted to thank you for the couches. We LOVE them and are so thankful. My daughter and our 100lb American Bulldog think they are very comfy. We have been having a very hard time lately dealing with losing all our things, more so pictures and special items we just can't replace lost in the fire. Things are really starting to look brighter for us and we are moving on. Your generosity means more to us right now than you could imagine. My daughter finally has a new place to call home and the smile on her face when she got home from school and saw the couches was purely priceless.

Clearly, the couches had discerned that their time with us was up, and they had a higher calling than our family room because someone needed them more. Kinda like the Mary Poppins of the furniture world.