For Amanda's 22nd birthday (3rd in Heaven), we chose to do Random Acts of Kindness again. This world has gone crazy with hatred, racial division, etc., and I felt one thing we could do would be to spread love and kindness.
We had cards made up from Vista Print and mailed them out across the country to those who wanted to participate. More participated without receiving cards, as well. I had found these beautiful owl blank note cards online and ordered a bunch. I sent the RAOK cards inside of those.
For us, we have been doing stuff all month basically, which I considered part of our RAOK. We cut my aunt and uncle's grass, but then since Tim and I had cut dad's, Jack/Sheila's, I figured it would be nice to go cut Aunt Kay's grass, too. When Tim was done with J/S's grass, he came over and we tag-teamed to finish Aunt Kay's. It looked so good!
I've also started making dinner and desserts for Jack and Sheila. I know they're struggling financially and this was just something I could do to help. I do it most nights and this blesses me as much as it does them. I love being able to help, especially knowing what a toll Jack's stroke has taken on them both.
I also, with the owl note cards, wrote about 15 notes of encouragement to folks. Some were for people whose children went off to college. Some were for those who've lost a loved one. One was for appreciation to Dr. Gadberry. Some were for people going through health issues. Some were for students who had gone off to school. Words of affirmation is one of my love languages, so this was a perfect fit for me to do. I heard back from several people thanking me and telling me how much it meant to them, so that was great :-)
Tim and I thought and thought about what else to do. We combined ideas. I wanted to do "Free Hugs and Prayer" signs and stand somewhere where there'd be a lot of foot traffic and he suggested in front of the Wesley on the 24th (Saturday) as it was SE Homecoming game and there would be a larger than average amount of people there. GREAT! I knew I wanted an owl on the sign somewhere, so I looked up images and found a cute one to give him an idea. He drew them up, I colored them in, and he added all of the artistic flair. They were perfect!So there we were out front of the Wesley on that Saturday. It was hot as heck and at first I was a little discouraged, but before we got there, I had prayed. Just God, bring people and let this honor Amanda and glorify you. I ended up getting to hug so many, including two members of the band as they marched by. They wanted hugs so I ran out there and gave them hugs. I had people stop in the middle of the street in their cars and grab a hug through the window. I got a lot of "thumbs up." I had people driving by on the little carts from SE jump off and give me a hug. I got to tell why we were doing this. Tim got to pray with several people. I looked over to the SE police station and out front there was a Highway Patrol officer, Sheriff, Durant PD and SE PD officer. I ran over and just gave them each a hug and thanked them for all they do (in light of all of the craziness in this world right now, people hating on our law enforcement officers all across the country, it was especially meaningful to me to do this). All in all, it was a great day and I was so pleased doing this.
