WWYD?

So the five of us were out running errands this morning and stopped off at Sam's Club. While heading toward the front door we walked past some carts piled up on a curb that people hadn't put back into the shopping cart thingy. I glanced at them and kept walking and then glanced back. There was a zippered bank deposit bag sitting in the child seat of one of the carts. I stopped and grabbed it and unzipped it to see what was inside...it was FULL of cash...I'm talking absolutely FULL of cash, probably several thousand dollars. Immediately my mind thought that is probably just enough cash to pay off our last credit card (we've been focused on getting out of debt and we are sooooo close!). But as fast as that knee jerk selfish reaction came thru my mind, I thought of the poor person who'd lost this deposit bag and knew we had to turn it in to it's rightful owner. I get a knot in my stomach when I lose a $20, I couldn't even imagine how important this was to the person who was missing it. I knew there was someone out there who was absolutely physically ill at the moment from losing that kind of cash. The big monkeys didn't understand the reason why Josh and I were full of WOWs and OHMYGOSHs until I showed them the bag and then they got all crazy and hyper asking if we were going to keep it. I said "nope, we are heading straight for the store manager and turning it into him. Hopefully the owner will come looking for it and he'll get it back." I told them to imagine how upset the person who lost it was, and then how happy that person would be once they got it back because we'd done the right thing and turned it in. So Emilee and Trevor and I headed over to the customer service desk while Josh got Carter buckled into a shopping cart. While I was waiting to talk to someone (all the clerks were on the phone) a man RAN up to the counter, pushing ahead of everyone else who was waiting, and started blurting out something about losing something and had anyone turned in something. He looked soooo frazzled and sooooo upset. I couldn't hear very well as he was a few feet away from me, but I immediately guessed he could likely be the money bag's owner. I said "excuse me, sir??" and held up the bag. He turned and looked at me and almost collapsed to the floor in relief. He was definitely the owner of the bag. The poor guy stammered a bit, thanking us and saying something about how relieved he was that he wouldn't be losing his job (as a result of losing the deposit bag). He went on and on about how happy he was, and I couldn't do anything but smile as he chattered. The big monkeys were watching, soaking it all in, and I took the moment to say out loud, "see guys, remember how I said the owner of this bag would be soooo happy that we went to turn it in?...isn't this cool?!" and they nodded wide eyed. The man asked who had found the bag and I told him that all of us basically did, so he unzipped it and pulled out two ten dollar bills and handed one each to the big monkeys. I told him it really wasn't necessary but he argued with a big smile on his face, saying it absolutely was and that I had no idea how grateful he was. As we parted ways, I was happy to have done something that affected someone else in a wonderful way. But more importantly, I was REALLY happy that I was able to share that lesson in full living color with our kids. The lesson they learned today was priceless.

We also got a second opportunity today to serve others. We have a retired couple next door and they are absolutely wonderful people. They've helped us with our kids on occasion and just been a joy to become friends with. The husband had to have surgery today, so we offered to make them dinner so the wife didn't have to tend to anything but her husband. Many people may think this is a very normal thing to do, but it's the first time our family has done this. Where we are from (and the previous circles of people we were acquainted with) just didn't do this type of thing. But recently we've had people extend this kindness to us, so we were excited when this opportunity came for us to pay it forward. Josh of course had alot of hands on fun as he is the culinary genius around here, so he planned the menu and cooked up a yummy meal and dessert. It was great to take the kids and deliver this meal for them this afternoon, and have it be another example of how to think of others before ourselves.