The kindness of strangers

Lately it seems so many people come out of no where and are so kind towards us. I don't know how we deserve their thoughtfulness, but I hope to be able to pay it forward to others somehow. Yesterday I took Nicholas and Celia on a walk. They wanted to push their little strollers on the walk and I reluctantly agreed (knowing the walk takes 3x longer with baby strollers). I had Aaron sleeping in the Ergo carrier. We took a walk up a hill and on the way down i reminded them to stay near me. Well, Nicholas got carried away with his stroller and he zoomed down the hill. I always worry a car will back out of the drive-way and not see him. A car will not see a small toddler as it backs up. So I started to yell to him to come back. His stroller was making so much noise as the wheels ran on the sidewalk and his little shoes were running that he wasn't hearing me at all. I was shouting at the top of my lungs to him. At the same time Celia fell behind me and skinned her elbow and was bleeding. I had to turn my attention to Nicholas though, because I was worried for his safety. Thankfully a lady working on her flowers stopped Nicholas and told him to come back to me. As he came back a lady across the street working on her grass asked if Celia needed a band-aid. I said 'sure' and she brought one out and put it on her elbow. Whew. Thank goodness for both women for stepping up to help me. I was a little embarressed that I had to scream through a quiet neighborhood, but the worst was running through my head seeing Nicholas zoom past all the driveways.
We made it home slowly after that.

This summer our neighbor, who paints for a living, painted our basement and kitchen for us. We gave him a giftcard for his favorite sporting store, but he almost wouldn't take that even. His reply was "I like to help out my neighbors, and its your turn". This same man and his wife surprised Jason and I last Christmas with a giftcard for groceries.

I am selling Usborne Books and I have only 10 books for my show. A lady I have never met saw on the Usborne Books message board that I was wondering if I had enough books to show and she is lending me her whole supply of books for my book show this saturday. She's never met me and is being so kind.

These are the few things that stick out in my mind right now, but we have been blessed with people giving us gifts for Aaron's birth and so many kind thoughts and words. We have kind friends and family. I sure hope we can be there for someone when they need it. Just something I have been thinking about.