Random Acts of Kindness

At the beginning of the summer I made a nice to-do list of all the things I wanted to accomplish this summer. I find myself making lots of lists lately, it's just my reality, if I don't mark it down, it doesn't get done. I read once that you have an 80% better chance of achieving your goals if you mark them down. Ok, now I'm babbling...it's what I do.

SO the list was really two lists, one for things I wanted to get done around the house and the other was a list of fun things I wanted to do this summer.

On that list was the carnival! For various reasons, we haven't been since Ruby was born..so I thought we should make it a point to get there this year. Well , I got to cross it off my list when I found out there wasn't going to be any carnival this year! Instead this year they had the "Lobster Festival", which when I think about it,  most certainly tops the carnival which let's face it, is sketchy at best!

So as part of the festival they had various activities going on in our big metropolis all week. Last Friday they had giant bouncy houses, a huge sandpit with castles made by Maurice Bernard (  very talented local artist ) and a big tent with live music all set up down at the boardwalk.

SO we thought, let's give it whirl! 

When we drove up and Porter caught sight of the castles, I thought he might flap right out of the car he was so excited. It was everything to hold him back until we got there.

Then the catch.

Line-ups.

Of course there HAS to be line-ups, I teach elementary school, I get it, if there were no line ups, well, I am quite aware of the chaos that would ensue. But my boy is not a fan of line ups, it's not so much the lining up, but more the WAITING! He hates it. I mean, he really hates it.

They were letting about 6-7 kids in at a time. But of course as soon as I let go of Porter's hand he darted in the castle before his turn. This kid is quick, quick I tell ya! So I send Mark in there to get him because I am wearing a dress and thought I'd spare the spectators of a front row view of my behind. So it took a few minutes but Mark gets him out and of course Porter took it very well ( yes, that's sarcasm). At this point Porter is having a mini meltdown and then the next 7 kids are allowed in, and Miss Ruby was in line, so she got to go in.

So now Porter is crying and trying to break free of our grasp so he can go in too...but it's not his turn. He took his turn when it actually wasn't his turn :)

And then a random act of kindness.

An old friend that I went to school with was there with her 4 beautiful children. She offered to have her son come out so that Porter could go in.  I didn't let her do that of course, but I tell you, her kindness won't be forgotten.  And she didn't make me feel like it was because Porter had autism either, she said " well, I just thought he might like to go in with Ruby".  I wanted to hug her. I wanted to say thank you..thank you for not looking away, or silently judging me, or pitying me.

We didn't stay much longer, we went over to the sand where I had a small panic attack as I watched Porter running over the hills,  steps away from destroying all of Maurice Bernard's amazing sand castle art! Nooooooo!  Thank God I caught him in time!

And that's when we decided to go home :)

We gave it a whirl!

So old friend, thank you for offering to help. It meant so very much to me. I couldn't say this to you that day because I would have cried, but I thought you should know.