You can’t measure kindness. It’s something I’ve always known – and it’s been reinforced over and over again to me the last couple of weeks.
Since we started this journey with Owen, the number of people who have reached out to us in even the simplest ways are more than I can give credit to. People have offered prayers, help with babysitting, toys, books – so much help. It’s moving.
I have a renewed sense of the goodness of people.
Tonight, I’m very thankful to four people. The first two are Luke and Isaac Schrader. Luke and Isaac are two young men who have given over their Thomas the Tank Engine train table, trains and tracks to Owen to play with for as long as he wants. Owen and I drove to the Schrader’s house on Sunday afternoon and it might as well have been Christmas. He was so excited to have a train table of his own to play with when he wanted.
But the treat for me was to watch Luke and Isaac show him how to assemble the track, the trains that they had, and for them to carry it to our car for him in the rain. They were so happy and excited that Owen would be playing with their trains that I almost cried. They are really, really good boys, and I want someday to be able to repay their kindness – either to them or to someone else on their behalf.
The other two are Patti and Ruth with TOT Time, the weekday preschool at our church. By this time of year, fall classes are full. It’s so hard to find a quality preschool for a child if you wait this long. Well, we didn’t necessarily wait, but we might as well have because TOT Time had no openings. I turned in an application and got on the waiting list.
But Ruth, the teacher for the 4-year-olds, said that she just has a heart for children who need something special. She agreed to add a 13th child to her classroom. Patti said that her promise had been to the parents that the class would be capped at 12. But she is going to write a letter explaining the situation, and that she didn’t expect anyone to object.
So here Aprill and I sit again tonight talking about how we can make the best situation we can for Owen. We’ve determined that it is in God’s hands, and that all we can aspire to do is our best for Owen for as long as he is here with us – a month, a year, or longer.
But tonight, Luke, Isaac, Patti and Ruth are giants in my eyes because of the enormous kindness and compassion they’ve had for Owen…and for us. They will fill my prayers of thanksgiving tonight and for days to come.
