People have been incredibly generous and supportive of our family. We wouldn’t have been able to finish our year without donations. It has been an incredibly humbling and sweet experience to be in the position of so much receiving. But even as I’m receiving, I am thinking: “These people are teaching me how to act when someone else is in this situation. They are teaching me to be generous.”

It isn’t all money gifts, either.  Its time, thoughtfulness, advice, meals, services, yard-work, etc.  I cannot list every kindness that has been shown us in this season, but I’m thankful for every single one.  I want to share a couple of intentional acts of goodness shown to us this very Monday.

My mom’s best friend, Marcia, has come over a couple of times to help me clean my house.  She doesn’t ask me what I need (which is good because sometimes thinking about what I need takes too much energy for me to provide an answer.)  She just calls ahead and then shows up at a convenient time.  Cleaning is not my favorite thing and when I get busy, it’s the first thing to fall off the to-do list. Today Marcia raised her bar by hiring her house-cleaner to thoroughly clean our place.  I felt so spoiled! It turned out that Marcia was giving a double-blessing as she knew that one of Maria’s regular jobs had been temporarily put on hold.

(The blurry pictures above just PROVES Maria was an angel! Don’t you see?)

If that wasn’t enough to help Justine and I enjoy our home more, my neighbor Andrew offered to hang up some Christmas lights to give the exterior a little holiday sparkle.  I hadn’t even considered decorating the outside as we are going to be packing to move soon and so much else is going on.   He said he knew that Vernon couldn’t be there to help us hang the lights, and since he had extras, he was happy to help us out.

We didn’t tell Andrew that even in his healthy state, Vernon has never hung Christmas lights! We took him up on the offer anyway. Shhhh…

Next thing we knew, he was up and down ladders, connecting thousands of tiny lights to the roof and garage. And the house looks great.  How fun it will be to come home to a festive home each evening…and a CLEAN one!

I wanted to record these intentional acts of kindness today because its a testament again of how we have been so cared for…even in special little ways. Its also a reminder that we can easily just offer a creative gesture and it can make a big difference.  We didn’t NEED either of those things today. Having a pretty looking home isn’t going to heal Vernon any faster or secure our future, but it makes us feel very special. Especially as we didn’t even ask for it.

Our family continues to be blessed beyond measure. It’s definitely turning out to be a memorable Christmas season.

One thing for sure, I’m definitely learning, through the example of others, how to be a kinder, more generous person.