Generosity

Sometimes I am blown away by the generosity of others. This was a weekend filled with kindness and one of my all-time favorite things - free stuff! I get a child-like excitement whenever free things are involved. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I want to believe that every human being has a desire to help others; receiving something for free is a small affirmation that it is true to some extent.

Kindness #1: We attended an Early Intervention Program BBQ and people had donated items to give away to the families. The bigger items were then raffled off at the event. We barely made it in time to put our tickets in, but we won! Ya, we actually won this great jumper-bouncer-music and lights-kid thing. Oliver loves it. I thought I should try for it because it would be a good toy to push our physical therapy goals and to help strengthen his little legs. It is even better than I anticipated because he is all smiles while inside.



Kindness #2: A spunky lady is moving soon and decided to give her food storage away instead of trying to haul it. She wanted to help young couples get started, so she told my friend who told me. I had never met this woman before in my life. We show up at her house, she greets us like old friends, and then invites us in. She swoops Oliver up and shows him off to everyone as if he were her grandchild. She coaches us on how to begin our food storage and then sends us home with 300 lbs of wheat, a box of rice, cans of dried vegetables, and fruit drink mix. It was fantastic!

These were bigger things that happened, but I feel it only fair to mention the little kindnesses that happen daily for us also. We have friends that invite us over for dinner. Others who bring by treats just to let us know they were thinking of us. Matthew taking care of a screaming Oli so that I can regain my sanity. There is good all around us. When things get rough it often gets clouded and hard to see, but it is always there when we look.