The Kindness of Strangers

As parents, it's our job to teach our kids about the world around them.  More to the point, to make sure they recognize there is a world around them.  It's easy (for all of us) to get wrapped up in the day to day chaos of our lives, forgetting that everyone has ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs.  So I want to share our story to remind us all what a simple act of kindness can mean to someone else.

Last evening, we all stood in the parking lot saying our goodbyes.  While saying goodbye to Austin is always tear-filled and sad, this goodbye was just that much more painful.  410 days is a long time.  In true mom form, I cried straight through the lobby and all the way to the room.  Hunter and Will took the opportunity to hang out with the gentleman working the front desk, telling our story and explaining the tearful goodbye.  

After a few minutes, Hunter determined his best course of action for cheering me up was finding a package of Twinkies.  Let's be honest, nothing is more comforting than a Twinkie.  So he returned to the front desk empty handed, after scouring the vending machines, to see if the same nice gentleman could point him the direction of the nearest convenience store.  With directions (and an offer to take him when his shift ended), Hunter walked to the store, again to be disappointed that he couldn't find them.  So with a smorgasbord of other goodies, Hunter returned to our room and spent the next hour making Jeff and I laugh.  It wasn't until Hunter was leaving and we were heading to bed that we found the package outside our door.  A box of Twinkies, a package of Kleenex, a gift card for coffee and doughnuts and a simple note that read "Attention Army family, thank you for your many sacrifices."

So first, let me say thank you to Adam, the firefighter (and part time front desk clerk) that took time and money out of his day to make ours a little brighter.  Second, let me say that the the biggest thank you belongs to Austin.  He's the one out fighting for us.  Our sacrifice is so small compared to his.  Lastly, I want the boys to always remember how they felt about a strangers random act of kindness.  We'll spend the next 410 days  paying it forward.