Foundation

Time and time again, I am reminded of the solid foundation that my parents provided me throughout my youth. A solid foundation that continues to provide stable ground as I have moved into my adulthood. I am reminded time and time again when I recognize the extra steps my parents take in providing support for others. They are two of the most generous people I have ever known. Generous with their time. Their love. Their patience. Generous to those who need or are in need.

Tonight we are spending time with my parents and I overheard a telephone conversation that my Mom was having with a friend of hers. I was in awe when I began piecing together the strands of sentences that were coming from the one end of the conversation that I could hear. I realized that my Mom was trying to organize a gift for a young girl in her community. A gift that will have life long benefits. My Mom and her charity group work year round raising and providing money and aid to the residents of their town. This holiday season, with the help of the local orthodontist, they are arranging the gift of free orthodontia for a young girl who has been thriving in the community but has recently been hanging in the crossroads. This young girl was a student of my Moms years ago and she is now a teenager. She has always been a bright and special girl and as one of six kids, she has a need that just can not be provided from home.

I just looked at my Mom with such an amazing amount of admiration this evening. This is the type of thing that she has been doing for others ever since I can remember. Always quietly without the need of any recognition for it. Every holiday season we sponsored a family. She would take us to the retirement home to pass out homemade cookies. We would pick up one of her students every Sunday so that he could join our family at Church. She has always made herself available to helping others. And my Dad. My Dad is the same way. My Dad is always supporting the 'underdog'. He provides his skills whenever people need help with any sort of a project. Throughout his entire teaching career, he became a hero to the kids with special needs. Every week, he took a group of them out to lunch. Not because he had to or felt obligated to, but because he wanted to. He truly has such a soft spot for each of those kids that he helped along the way and each and every one of them still remember his kindness and generosity to this day.

This is the foundation where I come from. And I am so proud to come from the family that I do. And I will always try to continue the legacy of giving and providing when there is a need. Generosity is a trait that has to be learned. And that learning comes from experiencing those moments of helping others. To see with your own eyes the tears coming from the single mother when she realizes that all of the wrapped gifts at her doorstep are for her and her small children on Christmas Eve. You have to be there in that moment to understand, to truly understand what it means to give. You give to try to make a difference. Not to be acknowledged and patted on the back, but to really do what small thing you can to try and make a difference in someone's life. It is not easy to do these things and it was always a little uncomfortable for my sister and I as we helped deliver gifts to families with our parents but that moment when you see the smiles and hear the gratitude in their voices, that is the moment when you know that your extra step was the right one to take. The necessary one to take.

I hope to instill these same values in my own children. I want them to experience the act of giving. To understand that there are people who have needs greater than their own. I want them to grow up with the empathy and kindness that is necessary in becoming well balanced adults. I thank my parents from the bottom of my heart for providing these experiences for me. And I continue to stand by my motto that it's really the small things in life that become the most important. Providing braces for a teenager is a small thing but that one small gift will turn out to be so extremely important to her as she continues on in her life.

This is a story that I just felt the need to share this evening.....