Amanda's 22nd birthday

Sometimes I feel like there is so much to say and I just get overwhelmed and say nothing.  At least that's how it's been lately.

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.

• So let me see, John and Linda went with a group of church folks and went to Fort Macon and painted the handicapped symbols on their parking lot as their RAOK!
• Mike and Sara on Amanda's birthday made spinach dip and bought a cake.  They filled up champagne flutes and toasted Amanda.
• Kim Rouse...oh my word.  She prayed and prayed to find someone to bless.  Now she is very, very sick and in desperate need of money just to live.  She went to a gas station where she lives and blessed a woman and her child there, telling them Amanda's story.  That woman in turn researched Amanda, read her obituary, researched further and found out I'd written a book and found my book email address and emailed me telling me about her encounter with Kim.  We corresponded back and forth and I told her how beautiful it was that Kim did what she did, also sharing the story in the Bible of the woman who gave all she had (2 coins) in the offering plate and Jesus proclaimed that she gave more than all the rest as they gave out of their excess but she gave all she had.  I said that's the heart of Kim Rouse.  I shared with this woman who sick Kim has been.  This woman, as it turns out, is a social worker in the area and said with her resources there has to be something that she can do to help Kim and wanted her contact info.  I asked Kim's permission and gave this lady Kim's phone number.  Praying God is all in and through this!  This was just a WOW GOD thing!
• Another friend paid for the car behind her's food at Taco Bell and left the RAOK card with the cashier to give to them so they could pay it forward.
• Another friend taped $20 and the card to a gas pump.
• Another friend gave $50 apiece in a card to the crossing guard for the elementary school and to a waitress who also took care of their grandpa.
• Another friend baked cookies to give to their kids' teacher.
• Another friend and her boys went to the next door neighbor's house, an 80-year-old woman who had fallen and broken her hip and mowed her grass, edged, weed-eated, and cleaned out her flower beds.
• Another friend donated to a GoFund Me page for a family who'd lost everything in a house fire.
• Another gave her corsage to someone who was about to be honored on the field for Homecoming at SE.
• More people did things but kept it private.

I felt pretty good yesterday, her actual birthday.  I didn't work much.  I just felt I needed to do whatever I needed to do for me.  I got a lot of messages throughout the day, people thinking of us.  Tim was pretty emotional.  I tried to stay focused on the love and life of Amanda, not the loss (I wasn't always successful).  I made a cake for her that I'd seen the recipe for on FB.  What caught my eye about it was that the icing was made in part with her favorite candy bar, Hershey's Cookies and Cream.  As I was in the process of making the cake, I was in the other room and heard something fall.  I went into the kitchen to find that the timer that had been on the side of the fridge, held on with a pretty good sized magnet, was now on the floor with the magnet out, and in a few pieces (not actually broken).  Okayyyy....so I picked it all up, popped the battery back in, put the back on, and super glued the magnet back in place.  I laid it on the counter for about 10-15 minutes to set up and when I came back in to check it, the magnet was held fast, so I rehung the timer.  About five minutes later, I heard something fall again.  Now this magnet is pretty substantial, so it would take force for it to come off of the fridge.  Yet, here it was again on the floor, magnet out, timer in pieces.  I said aloud, "Ha-Ha very funny, Amanda.  Happy birthday, baby girl!"  I picked it all up, reglued it, rehung it and it didn't come off again.  I love it when she makes her presence known.

When Tim got home from work, he'd brought candles and ice cream.  We lit the candles and Tim, Dad, and I sang happy birthday to Amanda and had cake and ice cream in her honor.  She would've loved it all.