You'd think I would be mad that someone I didn't know made me cry. But it was good tears, I swear!
As most of you know, the last few years have been a financial struggle for April and me as a single parent family. This year, I have been financially blessed, and with April being almost five, figured now was a good time to teach her the joy of giving. Pair this with my thirtieth birthday and there seemed to be no better day to accomplish this goal.
With $200, I decided to take her to Walmart with me to buy diapers, baby dolls, and toys for the children at the Open Door Mission. We headed out this morning, and stopped at the customer service desk to see if we could possibly get a discount to help us stretch our dollar.
The customer service lady called the manager, who said that if I spent $2,000, I could get a 5% discount. I said I was only spending $200, and if I could still get the 5%. (That's a small box of diapers right there!) He said no.
A lady that was next to me doing a return heard the whole thing, and interrupted. "Here hun, take this."
She handed me a handful of money, first of which I noticed was a twenty dollar bill. I looked in disbelief, and she said again, "Take it, this will help."
How did I react?
I cried.
I don't know why, I'm not a super-mushy kind of person like that, but for some reason, that was the only reaction that came out. I thanked her up and down, gave her a hug, and I know she said some more things to me but for some reason, I cannot remember any of it. I was just baffled at this stranger's gracious and generous gift. It turned out she had given me $30, which was enough to purchase several packs of diapers.
I walked away from the customer service, cart and money in hand, and told April it was time to start shopping. We grabbed some extra diapers, and a few of the things the Open Door Mission specifically said they needed. With the rest, I let my daughter go to town. $230 later, we checked out and filled our trunk with toys for kids of all ages, and headed out downtown to drop them off.
I am truly grateful for people like her who care. Here is a perfect stranger that was willing to donate $30. A large company like Walmart was unable to cough up $10 for a good cause.
We dropped the toys off at the Open Door Mission. The lady spoke with us, thanked us for our generosity, and reminded my daughter and I of how many children we blessed this holiday with our gift. I told her the story of the generous stranger. She said, "You know, it's funny. Sometimes when we're blessing others, we are blessed ourselves with the gift of generosity."
Even with the tears, I think I can vouch that this is, in fact, the Best. Birthday. Ever. Hands down.
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