Kindness of Strangers

Twice this week I have been blessed by the kindness of strangers. On Wednesday I accidently left one of my bags of items I had purchased at Walmart in the shopping cart. They have these carts which have this attachment that the kids can sit on (purely functional - nothing fun like the ones at some grocery stores that look like a car). Ian had been fussing so I had given him one of the bags to play with the stuff. Unfortunately when I was unloading the kids and bags from the cart, I forgot about that bag, which had been down by Ian's feet. I realized it as soon as I got home. I called the Walmart to see if it was still in the cart. They said it wasn't. I was tempted to drive right back and check for myself, but I didn't want to put the kids through that. I decided to call back later to see if the person who found the bag was honest and returned it to Customer Service, and that proved to be the case! I went back to Walmart (by myself) after choir rehearsal on Wednesday night. It was only about $13 worth of items, but I was still grateful they weren't lost.

Yesterday morning as we were walking to the playground, we passed a lady walking her dog. Shortly after we arrived at the playground, it started raining. We sat in the gazebo to wait it out. Ian kept shouting "rain!" He was laughing at times. It was a lot of fun to be in the rain in his opinion! After awhile I realized the storm wasn't probably going to end any time soon. I figured the kids would stay fairly dry due to the canopy on the stroller, but I was expecting to look like a drowned rat by the time we got home. Just as we were heading to the stroller, a minivan pulled up to the playground. It turned out that the lady who passed us had taken her dog back home and had come to take us home via her minivan. The stroller I use for taking the kids to the park doesn't collapse. She had to put down the seats in her van in order for the stroller to fit. The kids and I sat on the floor of her van as she drove us home. What an extremely kind gesture! I thanked Susan for being a good Samaritan. I usually check the forecast every morning, but yesterday when I checked I was just looking at Saturday's forecast because we're hoping to take the kids to Lake Tobias en route to Paul's cousin's wedding tomorrow. I was so gunshy this morning that the kids and I didn't even attempt a trip to the park. Sometimes it seems that society is going in the wrong direction, but these two events showed that there are still honest and kind people that will help a stranger!