Faith in Humanity

I'm not gonna lie, ever since the Election, I've been pretty down in the dumps about our country.  I don't want to get political AT ALL (believe me, my life is political enough without me blogging about it) but let me just say that I saw the choices in the election as a clear cut choice and I don't think we as a Nation made the correct choice.  Then on top of that... we had Hurricane Sandy with its looting and thieving, and the horrible Newtown tragedy.  I guess I was just thinking: "What has happened to our country?"

Thankfully, God has given me the most wonderful little boy in the world and provided experiences through him for me to see the good in the world and the good in others.

Exhibit A:  I flew by myself with Logan to California to visit my family a few months ago.  I was incredibly nervous about this.  8 hours, in a contained space, with a wiggly one year old, alone... it just didn't seem doable.  I was so anxious about it, I think I even managed to make myself sick.  Anyway, the day arrived and as Daniel dropped me off at the airport and I found myself alone, I almost started crying.  Somehow we managed to get checked in, and it was just at the moment I was wondering how I was going to get our bags over to baggage check when a nice man offered to carry our bags for us.  To him, it probably seemed like a little thing, but to me it was literally and figuratively like he was lifting the weight of the world off my shoulders.  And the kind acts didn't stop there.  At security, the TSA officer let us go first in line and go through our own metal detector so we weren't rushed.  He saw us through the entire process and helped me carry everything.  When we got to our gate, a woman gave up her seat so we could sit down.  When we boarded the plane, I had a woman volunteer to carry our bags to our seat, so I could just worry about Logan and the stroller.  When we got to our seats, the WONDERFUL people we sat by convinced the woman seated by the ONLY empty seat on the entire plane to let their son sit there so I could have an extra seat for Logan.  And they played with him and let him crawl all over them the entire flight.  When we left the plane, a different woman volunteered to carry our bags off the plane.  And the lady who had carried our bags on the plane came back and asked if I needed any more help.  By the time we arrived in California, I still was almost in tears, but for a much different reason.  Tears of gratitude welled up in my eyes for all the kind people I had met that day who had gone out of their way to help a young mother with too much stuff and not enough hands.  Each and every one of them was truly a God-Send.

Exhibit B:  It was cold, rainy night and it had been a long day.  Logan and I had been to 3 or 4 grocery stores looking for dairy free yogurt.  (side note- I found some, you can buy it at Safeway, brand is So Delicious and it is, as it's name suggests, delicious!)  We were on our way to pick up Daniel from work, stuck in traffic, and Logan was DONE and crying in his car seat.  I was doing what I could to comfort him, while trying to navigate the road, but it was not working.  He was screaming at this point.  I turned up the radio and just decided there's nothing I can do but ignore him and hope today is the day he learns to "self-soothe".   A few minutes later, Logan was laughing.  Perplexed, I took a quick glance back to see what was going on.  It looked like Logan was playing peek-a-boo.  "Weird kid", I thought to myself.  The laughing continued, when I finally noticed that the woman in the car next to us was playing peek-a-boo with Logan. She could see into our car and must have noticed my sad, crying baby and went out of her way to play with him.  They continued to laugh and play until traffic was moving and our cars drifted apart.  But as she drove off, she waved and blew kisses our way.  Logan returned the favor.  What a sweet lady, I thought!  However, this wasn't an isolated incident.  A few weeks later, another lady did the same thing when we were parked at the metro station waiting to pick up Daniel and Logan was again getting fussy.  I'm almost thinking Logan is beginning to expect the people in the cars next to us to entertain him!  Occasionally, when he starts to get sad when we are driving, he starts talking and playing a game of peek-a-boo in hopes of getting another car's attention.

There is so much good in the world and so many good, kind-hearted, caring people.  I guess babies tend to bring out the best in people.  I know my baby has brought out the best in me, and helped me to see the best in others.   I'm thankful to have been on the receiving end of so much kindness and hope I can "Pay it Forward" as they say.  And you know what, no matter what kind of shape our country is in, no matter what terrible things are going on in the world, as long as there are decent, kind, charitable, selfless people out there willing to lend a hand, I know we as a Nation will be just fine.