Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Tickets....

I think some of you have come to love my kids for the quirky things i report and for the life captures I post here.... so i wanted to share this.

My Addie.
She is the softest heart I know... not sure where she gets it from... (kidding- ME of course! :) )
It is like she has this underdog radar that screams at her heart when there is a child near her without something.

Since she lost her very first tooth.. she has been putting away her tooth fairy money in her dads safe... for the homeless. In fact, when people ask her what she collects, she tells them "money" and she means it. ( Of course they think she just wants to spend it!)
But, She collects it to give it away.
It is amazing to see such a convicted heart at her age. It humbles me and makes her dad and I beam with pride.

Last Sunday is when her story started. She had spent the night out with a friend , ridden to church and out to Chuck E Cheese with them after the services. As they dropped her off back home, the dad told me what Addie had done. Addie saw a small boy with little or no tickets and gave him all 102 of hers. He seemed proud of her and excited to witness it. I smiled and said, yep- thats my addie. Patted her on the head and went on with my day. That is our norm. Our everyday. Her passion... giving.

A few hours later- I must have lost my mind, because I told the kids to jump in the car- we were going to the movies! We zipped down the street to the "old" movie theater and bopped out of the car... skipped to the ticket counter with TWO minutes to spare. ( I like the excitement of the last minute ) As my turn to buy tickets arrived and my kids ran to my right to see the arcade. The lady looked up and said: "Mam, cash only today. Our computers are down. " uh, what? Who does cash only anymore. SO she repeated herself as I looked with disbelief. Ok... well where is your ATM machine. Let me write a check... cant you write my debit card number down?
( important detail - i NEVER have cash... )
Well, no atm. no checks, no on the debit card...
Bank across the street.
Raining,
Kids in arcade,
line behind me.
MOVIE STARTING IN 2.25 seconds.

I turned with Mom Determination thinking about how i could swoop across the room and pick the three up in one arm, swish out the door and FLY across the parking lot to the ATM. ....
but then reality of the rain,
the line,
the clock....
sigh. As i started to walk to the arcade to tell the kids the bad news... a lady stopped me and said.

I have tickets for you. I am buying your families tickets. Here is the money, here you go.

wow.

When The friends dad dropped her off that morning and told me the ticket story.... i didn't realize how that would impact our day.
What goes around comes around.

With slightly moist eyes, i pulled addie to the line and got on her level and gave the simple version of the circle of giving she had been a significant part of that day. I introduced Addie to the stranger and all my kids told her thank you . I didn't get her name, but i wish i had. What an incredible thing for her to do. She had witnessed my situation and came to the rescue. Just like my sweet addie had seen the small child at the pizza place and came to his rescue....

just wanted to share....
km

2 comments:

admin said...

And this is why all good things will only come to you and yours. You all have HUGE hearts. Karma rules!!

Anonymous said...

WOW! That's all I could say. I tried for something more but it has gotten me speechless and that's hard to do!