Kindness of Strangers

This past weekend I took a trip to California to visit my parents, sister, brother in law & nephew and I was traveling with both boys BY MYSELF!! Yikes! I was dreading this a little bit and, although I hoped Chase would do great, I also could see a bit of a nightmare on my hands if both boys weren't cooperating.

I made my way through the airport with Brady in a front carrier, Chase wearing his backpack and holding my hand and carrying a huge diaper bag and my purse. It actually was pretty organized if I do say so myself - ha ha!

Anyway the point of my post is to say this:

"I was absolutely blown away by the kindness of strangers!"

In today's world when most people look the other way I just couldn't believe how many people offered to help me throughout this trip. Here's a quick bullet point summary:

Going from Denver to Orange County...
* After I got through security I was standing there holding Brady because I had to take the carrier off, Chase and I have no shoes on, my stuff was everywhere and TSA was checking Brady's milk for a bomb I guess. A young military wife traveling with a 1 year old by herself has me put all my stuff by her and as I am getting Brady's milk she is putting Chase's shoes on him and helping him get his backpack back on
* The tram doors were closing in front of us so a guy ran in front of us and stood in the middle so the doors couldn't close and helped Chase get up into a seat for the train ride
* On the flight a woman behind us traveling with 3 kids asked if we wanted to borrow her portable DVD player with cartoons because they were done with it (this gave Chase 30 minutes of activity - thank you!)
* Later Chase was playing peek a boo with the same lady behind us so she asked him if he wanted to come back and sit with them and play games. So Chase climbed back and sat between her and her 5 year old and they played games and watched cartoons on her phone!
* Getting ready to get off the plane the lady sitting next to me offered to hold Brady for a second so I could get my carrier on

Going from Orange County to Denver:
* At security (my biggest issue) 2 TSA workers helped us get all our stuff together once we were through. One of them had Chase in a chair putting his shoes on and the other one was buckling my straps for my carrier
* In the restroom I had to change Brady's diaper and Chase wanted to wash his hands at the same time so a woman asked if she could help Chase. She then held him up so he could reach the soap and wash his hands
* As we were landing Chase had to go potty so I must have looked a little flustered since we were not supposed to be getting up and the woman sitting next to me told me she would hold Brady while I ran Chase back there real quick

Here's the moral of the story... I was capable to do all of this on my own but I just couldn't believe the kindness around me and how many people were willing to just jump in and help a stranger. Definitely renewed my spirit in people around me :)