Kindness of Strangers

I'll start out by saying that this has been a long weekend and today, in particular, has been very difficult for me.

I left for work this morning and headed towards downtown. This morning was the Susan B Komen "Race for the Cure", so to be pro-active about my commute I skipped driving on the lakefront. It was a good idea in theory and I will never know which way would have been faster at this point... I was detoured once because of work on a lift bridge (over the Milwaukee River), hit every red light, had to stop and wait for another lift bridge to go up and allow 4 sailboats to pass and then there was no parking anywhere near the theatre. I was ten minutes late for work despite leaving earlier than I normally would have, to make up for the extra time it takes to go through downtown.

After I left work I headed home, again through downtown, and had to wait at the same lift bridge for more sailboats! Once I got home I saw Jason for a few minutes and then he left for work. Amelia was napping and once she got up I fed her some apples and then got her ready for church in an effort to save time later.

I got ready for a run. We needed formula and also a few more things of pears. We use store bought for the first four days of every food. After those four days, if there are no problems, I will make them. No need to make a bunch of something she could be allergic to! Anyways, we left and it was very, very gloomy out. I decided to take a chance and took off running towards Target. Wouldn't you know it started to rain on us? We got there, soaked. Well, I was soaked and the blankets covering Amelia were soaked (she was dry as a bone).

We barely made it to church. Once there I gave Amelia an "orange card" (where people write in concerns, questions etc) as I always do. She loves to play with them. A simple piece of paper is sometimes the best toy. Well, today I looked down at it and a huge piece of it was missing. I did not find it on floor or anywhere near us and I panicked. I brought her into the hall and started hitting her back. Then I opened her mouth and was eventually able to pull out a huge, wet ball of orange paper. I don't think orange cards will be entertainment for her anymore!

During the service she was loud and very squirmy. I took her upstairs to change her and she proceeded to urinate all over herself, her new diaper I had set aside and the church changing table. I got her changed into another clean diaper and a onesie, cleaned the table up and decided to leave her up there since there was only one kid up there tonight. One of the girls that was up there (Michelle) tonight I know pretty well and I felt comfortable leaving her with Michelle. I went back up at the end of the service to find Amelia playing with a toy :) She wouldn't even look up to my voice she was so fascinated with the toy!

Anyways, the point of all of this. Today when I was leaving Target a woman saw me getting Amelia all bundled and asked if I needed help. I said no and she asked if I was worried the rain would start again. I told her I just lived 1.5 miles away and I thought I might be able to make it. She offered me her umbrella, just to have in case. I declined, but I still think it was very nice of her to offer. Not a lot of people would have even said hello or looked at Amelia and I.

Then tonight when I was walking to my car after church, a man on his porch saw Amelia and I and commented about her being underdressed. I explained that I had her in appropriate clothes but had to change her into this spare onesie because she had an accident. He offered to go in the house and get me a blanket or towel for her. I once again declined because my car was literally two driveways away.

It was just nice today to have people reaching out even though I didn't know them. I must have had this look to me that said "I am exhausted and nothing is going right today!".