End of Year Review: 12 Months of Kindness

It was our 10th year of committing to a year's worth of giving kindness out to others. We put our list together at the beginning of the year, as usual, and attempted to make it more kid friendly and manageable with four kids; two of which had extracurricular seasons to contend with.

12 Months of Kindness 2018
January: sign up to run Dad's team's concession stand
February: surprise snail mail for Valentine's Day to our cousins
March: volunteer at our church fish fry
April: Help at the Johnstown Backpack Project
May: Studer scholarship and give a special thank you to our teachers and bus driver
June: visit the humane society and give a donation
July: 10th (and last!) annual Studer's Invitational
August: surprise our local librarians with a tasty treat
September: Host a big grandparent dinner for Grandparent's day
October: throw an end-of-season football/cheerleading party at our house
November: surprise a family member with groceries
December: deliver cookies and notes to our neighbors

We did some other very small kind things sprinkled throughout the year too. Things that were never on any list, but that presented themselves in moments that we had the opportunity to choose kindness and help the kids choose to do the right and kind thing too -

• deliver cookies and muffins to our bus driver who is so patient with us
• leave cookies & muffins in the mailbox for our mail carrier Karen sporadically
• share our chicken eggs with neighbors, family, friends, and the Home Ec class at my school
• support my students' extracurricular activities by purchasing things from their fundraisers
• take extra money for any other student who forgot on special days (tattoo/face painting)
• attend a memorial paper lantern service for Daddy's basketball players aunt
• attend a memorial balloon release meeting for a former soccer teammate
• Greyson started altar serving at church
• donating to fundraisers in tragic moments for family, friends, and community members
• packing up and sending off clothes too small for Rusty to a family friend with a littler dude than ours
• making dinner for families with new babies

But as is obvious, we experienced a disruption in our lives this summer - the sort that knocks you off your normal path and plans. We got side tracked and distracted and dropped the ball on many things that we wanted to accomplish or do - not only on the kindness front, but on all fronts. 

but then, you know what we got to experience

the most incredible year of kindness received

I cannot possibly express in words the amount of gratitude that we feel from the love and support and kindness we were blanketed with over the course of this year, specifically in the last six months. It is staggering and overwhelming and feels so undeserved. 

• snail mail letters of love and encouragement
• dinners delivered to us and to our family members
• so many prayers and good wishes sent our way
• an entire book series sent for me and my students
• a classroom fairy godmother who sends a surprise each month to my students' and i
• free shipping from an etsy seller who made me something special and custom
• so many open arms for my babies when we needed a babysitter last minute
• calls and texts from friends who have more expertise than us
• calls and texts from friends and family just to say hi and check in
• patience and grace with us: for our lateness, our last minute change of plans, our forgetfulness
• giving space and respect to our privacy

We have a lot of kindness to make up for in the next year, but what an incredible gift it has been to be on the receiving end of so much generous kindness this year.

truly, a reminder of how important small acts of kindness are - how one small kind gesture can transform a lonely or difficult day into one that does not feel so scary or alone. 

we will never be able to thank you all enough. Even if it was a random moment in which you thought of our family and sent a tiny well wish into the universe - we felt that. thank you. 

we move into 2019 with a renewed sense of commitment to sending love and kindness into the world. 

with all our hearts.

'Because I have been given much
I too, must give'