Kindness can change us to our very core

I’m a single foster mom and up until last week had 3 siblings in my home for a year. I don’t have any biological children, so having 3 at once, was a huge change for me. But the kindness shown to be my friends and others who I met over this last year has blown me away. Whether it was offering up a beach cabin for a time for the kids and I to get away or carrying kids to and from baseball, volleyball, dancing, etc., to providing gift cards for us to get ice cream, to taking my son to his first Rockets game. Every time I thought I couldn’t do it, someone would step up and offer to help! The crazy part is I’m not one who generally asks for help (pride cometh before the fall and all), but this has taught me so much about my real need for others.

The worst part came when the kids left last week and I didn’t know how to help them have closure. So, I just sent a little e-mail out to the friends we’d made over the last year inviting them to join us for lunch at the kids’ favorite restaurant. And, they packed out the restaurant! They came with smiles, and gifts, and hugs, and tears. It was the best gift I could have asked for! Many of these people, mind you, I did not know before the kids lived with me. They just saw the need for these kids to have friends and the stability of awesome adults, and they stepped up. It was a picture of community… the way we’re supposed to support one another.

I’m forever changed by the experience… and the love and support I received (often times by strangers) has restored my belief that kindness can change us to our very core. – Amanda 🙂