Random Act of Kindness Paying It Forward

In 2008/09 Dr Eye Girl asked if I would watch her 2 yr old daughter for a day during an optometrist convention. I said sure. A couple days later she asked if I would be up for watching her eye doctor friend's baby girl at the same time. Sure. I was a stay at home mom that year. Years before, my MIL had taught me: "what's one more?!" so I didn't see a big deal about caring for four kids under the age of five for a day.

The day was fine. Kids played. I fed them. Changed some diapers. The moms came to pick up the girls. Dr Eye Girl, Dr C and I talked for about an hour then Dr C friended me on FB.

Skip to 2011. I was now the admissions director at a private school. That baby turned three and started school. At my school. And she brought her friend Dr. V who enrolled her son. They told a bunch of people about the preschool program at my school. And they came in and talked to the kids about eye health and did eye exams on site.

It was such a blessing to my school to have these great families involved. I often told people that you never know how helping someone could come back to be a blessing in your own life. I didn't babysit those two little girls because I thought I would get something out of it. It was just a thing to do. I didn't even do it to be nice. It really was just because I was asked.

All that is great but here is where it gets amazing....

Mini Me almost failed Kindergarten. Come to find out, she has eye issues that made "the letters on the board look like they are having a play date." I talked to some educators and they thought she would outgrow it. I talked to Dr. C and she said that Mini Me would not outgrow it and she needed to see a pediatric optometrist.

Thing is, J had been laid off. Lots of interest in him but no job offers. Unemployment ran out. Savings ran out. No vision insurance. No money left in savings for glasses or the weekly eye therapy Mini Me needed. Dr. C told us about a Groupon at her office that enabled us to pay next to nothing for Mini Me's glasses.

Remember Dr. V? Guess what she does? Pediatric optometrist! This amazing woman did Mini Me's eye exam for free. She then arranged for Mini Me to have eye therapy every week for six months at no cost to us.

Mini Me was able to catch up to her peers on reading. The difference in her is night and day. At her recent follow up appointment (that we paid for - yeah for jobs and insurance!) Mini Me was so improved that she is off the charts on the great end!!!

These amazing blessings in my daughter's life came about because I babysat a stranger's child one day.

You never know what one random act of kindness will do in your life. Don't seek out to get rewarded. Just be open to showing kindness to those that cross your path.