A Random Act Of Kindness

When I challenged all of our supporters to do a random act of kindness, I knew there would be some feel good stories to come out of it. But, I had no idea that so many of you would go out of your way to honor my triplets and spread joy to strangers. THANK YOU!! For the past week., I’ve been eagerly reading all of your random acts of kindness and I’ve shed plenty of tears of joy because of you. From giving blood to buying someone else’s meal or Starbucks coffee, people sure went out of their way to create kindness.
I could go on and on with how creative and generous people were, but I’ll just share a few. A fellow triplet mom offered to buy gas for a lady. She was hesitant, so the mom told her about my triplets. The lady was moved to tears and gladly accepted. Another lady bought cleats for a high school student. He was also moved to tears when she told him why she was being so generous. And a few of you helped out kids in need by buying school supplies. Now the random acts didn’t have to cost a dime. Several of you took my husband’s lead and donated blood…something that hospital are in need of. A few of you went out of your way to help senior citizens in grocery stores and out shopping. Some baked cookies or gave produce from their garden to neighbors. One lady even donated breast milk to a milk bank since she was out of town and away from her child (Love this!). And a few of you simply prayed. You prayed for others who have endured heartache like my family. I thank you for that very fitting act of kindness. I don’t want to take up all day, so feel free to read through the comments on my Facebook page or on the blog to see how much good was going around last weekend. And trust me, you’ll want to take a gander! The kind gestures have put a permanent grin on my face. And it has made me more conscious about doing little things for others. It’s amazing to see how something as simple as prayer or a Starbucks coffee can make someone’s day!
Parker’s angelversary was definitely emotional. All last week, I was anchoring in the field at the Illinois State Fair. So my mind was occupied for much of the week, filled with fried food and fair activities. Ryan and I had a really special weekend. We started the anniversary with our normal Saturday routine…a trip to our favorite breakfast diner. We found a family with three small children and picked up their tab. Ryan donated blood and then we picked up the tab for the man behind us at Starbucks.
 Our afternoon was spent visiting the place where Parker passed away: the Nicu at St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield. We wanted to give a special donation in honor of Parker and Abby. A few weeks ago, we decided on donating children’s books. Because we could barely touch P&P early on, we would read books through their isolette doors. So this seemed like the perfect way to pay tribute. We had planned on buying enough for all 30-40 babies to take home. But our simple wish turned into a much bigger project! I mentioned our plans to friends and family and was blown away by how many people wanted to send us books. All said and done, we’ll be giving away more than 200 books. Most will go home with families, but some of our favorites will stay in a “book nook” in the Nicu.

Each book has a simple message inside, “In Memory Of Parker & Abby”. I’ve even received a few emails and pictures from current families thanking me for the books. So thank you to my generous family and friends for helping us remember my two angels. Peyton was a ham that day, flirting with the doctors and yapping up a storm with her nurses. We hope to make this book donation a yearly tradition!
At Parker’s time of death, we lit two candles in honor of P & A. We lit a third candle for one of my friends, and fellow triplet moms. She lost her son and the funeral was held on Parker’s anniversary. My heart goes out to her family. I went through much of the heartache and grief she is dealing with, almost a year to the date. I’m glad my Abby and Parker were there to greet her son with big hugs and plenty of baby babble. I imagine the triplets having a wonderful time playing together in Heaven!
As Ryan put Peyton to bed that night, he snapped a beautiful picture. He captured Peyton looking out the window at the stars…I’m sure looking for her brother and sister.
Before I go, I want to share a gift I received this week. The same gal that made P&P’s darling hats last year, sent me the sweetest gift. This is Peyton’s new hat for the fall/winter. As Katie wrote in a card, she made a hat for the upcoming Oregon Ducks football season. “The yellow is because it’s a color Peyton always wears. The green is what I used to make Parker’s football hat. And the multi color is for Abby, for the colors in her memory pinwheel. The butterfly is to remind Peyton that they are always with her.” Need a tissue? I sure did! Thank you Katie for this beautiful gift. I can’t wait to share a picture this fall of Miss P sporting it!