The Kindness of Strangers

It doesn't take much to convince me to travel, so when one of my friends was having a 1st birthday party for her little girl, I was all over it. What's better then getting to see someone else's city, sleep in a hotel room where you don't have to make the beds, ordering pizza for supper and leaving the boxes sit on the counter waiting for some one else to clean up after you? That's right, I love me some hotel time every now and again.

It's the one place where I don't have to play the maid.

While I didn't take any pictures, I promise you, most of the time Kyra's facial expressions mimicked this:

Andy Lydia's was somewhere along the lines of this, but a bit more toothier:

And although these picture were taken a week ago at our own town fair, the girls were just as stoked to be coo'd at by different strangers while attending someone else's town fair.

Ya know what's more awesome about attending another child's birthday party? You still get to enjoy the cake even though you don't have to clean up after that mess either! Ahh... this whole mom gig can be really fun...

Except when a 5-6 hour drive ends up taking you 8 hours. Both ways.

Except when most people stand around staring at someone who needs a bit of help instead of offering.

Except when you do this drive, alone, with two children, one of which has the cuteness of a pair of chipmunk cheeks and the demanding tone (read: scream) of a queen bee.

Except when you need 18 more hands every once in a while and God only gave you two.

At least, every once in a while, one caring person would lend me two of her hands in an effort to help me out by offering to hold Lydia and keep an eye on Kyra while I carried our luggage to the second floor of a no elevator hotel or while I made Kyra a plate of food during the party.

It seems those times when I start to stress the most, some kind person I've never met or barely know is always there to lend a hand. Or two. And then brings me and the girls a small batch of no bake cookies to enjoy on the ride home.

One of the woman I met for no more then 5 minutes on Saturday not only offered to lend me a helping hand during the party Sunday but brought me chocolate cookies to boot. Seriously? Oh! She won her way into my favorite people of the year book.

We all know the quickest way to my heart is to bring me yummy food.

Its the kindness of those strangers that made a crazy, what the hell was I thinking traveling with two kids by myself? weekend, another (almost) perfect weekend.

It totally would have been a perfect weekend if Jer had the weekend off and had been there to help me. But, hey, make do with what God gives you, right? And God gave me a birthday parting to attend and helping hands through strangers. Can't complain.