Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I am a single mother of a darling 6 year old girl, Haley. With a six year old come a lot of questions! Who is that? What are they doing? Why? Where...and on and on.  I love her questions! Sometimes I do not have an answer, sometimes we brainstorm the possibilities of what may be together. Children are very, very observant and have excellent memories!

One example that comes to mind is right around Christmas last year.

We were heading out to her Grandma's house -- an hour drive, so lots of time for chatting!  We were waiting to get on the freeway when she noticed a homeless man, no sign in hand. "Mom, is that man homeless," she asked.  I told her I believed he was.

We got on the freeway and away we went. She was pretty quiet in the back on they way there. We spent a few hours at Grandma's then packed up to head home. She was rustling around in the back, trying to reach something on the floor of the car. I asked her to sit still, worried her seatbelt would slip from the booster seat. She mumbled something and sat back.

"Mom, will the homeless man still be outside tonight?" she asked.  I told her I was not sure, maybe. It was a freezing night, and I started to think of the man now also, how cold he must be.

All of a sudden as we got on the freeway exit, Haley shrieked, "There he is! There he is!" and started rolling down her window. "Mom, Mom, I found these gloves and scarf back here.  Can I give them to him? Can I?" she asked. I pulled to the edge of the road, and beckeoned the man to come over. Haley smiled at him and handed him her gift. I looked in the front passenger seat  loaded with tupperware leftovers from Grandma's house, and handed those out to him as well. The man thanked us, he clutched my hand in his and I could feel the bitter cold of them. We wished him a safe night and continued on our journey to our warm home.

"Haley that was very sweet of you!" I told her. "Well they were your gloves and scarf Mom, but his hands looked colder, and he has to keep looking for his house all night!"

We had talked about what homeless was, and I could hear myself telling her, "Someone who has lost their home." She had taken my words literally and thought it was a like a lost puppy. 

On the ride home, and as I carried my sleeping angel in the house that night, my heart was filled with gratitude.