One of my fellow adoptive mom friends, MaryLeigh, & her family are currently working their way through the legal process to bring their third S Korea born blessing home. The wait is much, much longer than it was when she and I went through this process almost 3 years ago. She was a wonderful source of information and encouragement when we went through our adoptions then. This woman is AMAZING. She could have moped around and been sad that her daughter was now missing a second birthday without them, (like I would have!) but instead she came up with an awesome idea to celebrate her daughter's birthday AND spread some kindness while she was at it. I think this will be something so sweet to show her precious daughter once she is older. How her family celebrated her birthday in such a special way. I sure don't know a lot of people that would have taken that approach and that's one of the many reasons I admire her so much. I think we've decided to adopt this idea for Landon's (and possibly any future children's) birthdays. We'll do as many acts of kindness as they are years old. But Maryleigh didn't stop at 2. She went ALL out and chose to do one for every MONTH Nell has been alive. She did 24 random acts of kindness. She invited all of her friends, family, and fellow adoptive families to participate in An Acts of Kindness Day. For those of us that participated, we printed out this card:
And then we were ready to spread some acts of kindness! We chose to do 2 random acts of kindness to celebrate Nell turning 2 years old.
First, I went to lunch on Friday at Pal's (best food around these parts!) and as I paid for my order, a truck with 2 utilities workers pulled up behind me. I told the lady that I'd also like to pay for their meal and handed her the card and asked her to give it to them please and to tell them to have a nice day!
Second, I stopped and picked up some super cute and fun birthday cupcakes to take back to work. I explained about Nell and sent the card out to my team and then we celebrated her birthday with cupcakes!
This was truly a wonderful experience and a blessing and one that I think everyone should try. You don't have to have a particular reason to give an act of kindness. You don't neccessarily have to spend any money to spread the kindness either. Some of the things MaryLeigh did, like handing out cookies, leaving encouraging post its on a bathroom wall, redbox codes, and donations to shelters are several things that really won't cost you anything.
I one day hope to meet this sweet and tiny princess, her two precious brothers, and their amazing parents in real life. They truly are an inspiration to many. To follow along with their family and see how you can help bring Nell home, click here.
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