Giving this Thanksgiving

In October a very special little girl passed away.

She was adopted from Guatemala like Lily and my heart aches for this families loss.

I was having a bout of sleepless nights and one morning,

by morning I mean 3 am,

an idea was born.

I called it Acts for Avi.

The idea was for people to perform

 acts of kindness in honor of Avi.

People are amazing!

(At first I was going to do this whole thing anonymously, but the truth is it felt so good I had to share. Oh, and there is the fact that Avi's Daddy Dave, found out about my campaign, that kinda made the whole anonymous idea out of the question.)

Someone paid for another families meal at a restaurant,

someone else gave a loan to a family in Guatemala for clean drinking water,

a family donated money to a hospitals therapy dog program,

another family brought food to an elderly woman, and another made blessing bags for the homeless.

there were many more random acts of kindness done in honor of Avi, these are a few off the top of my head.

Every time I think people stink

(Like Friday when a 140 worth of clothes was stolen while black Friday shopping)

I'm going to think of these kind strangers who came together to honor a little one that touched their hearts like she touched mine.

As Acts for Avi took shape a new idea was born.

My own act of kindness, that I did with countless others, was to gather items for a school for homeless children in my area.  The school is called Mustard Seed School. 

I chose the school and the cause because it is close to Avi's families heart and I'll have to say it's now close to mine too.

I was able to donate 11 backpacks

each backpack was filled with:

socks

 underwear

 shoes

a binder

notebooks

a pencil box filled with supplies

and one small stuffed animal to bring comfort.

My goal was 10 backpacks

As you can see the donations were so abundant that they overflowed the backpacks and landed on my living room floor.

 

 

 

 

 Countless people told me along the way what a good thing I was doing, and it was good.  It felt good. It made me smile, it gave me some perspective, and it taught me and my family a little bit more about how to give instead of take.  I didn't expect to feel this full after donating the items.  After driving through loaves and fishes and seeing homeless mothers with their children, having men direct my car to a parking space, men I would avoid eye contact with on the street and clutch my purse a little tighter, its hard not to find perspective.

Avi taught so many people about love and patience and tenacity without a single word. 

Lily has never experienced what it would be like to be a have not.  She is one of the kindest, good hearted, sensitive kids I know, but she was a little snarky when purchasing these items.   she asked why I cared so much about homeless kids.  She could not grasp what homeless meant. And why would she?  She has never wanted for anything.  When we drove through Loaves and Fishes she had lots of questions and ended up with some perspective of her own. 

My official campaign is over but I will continue to honor Aviana by doing small random acts of kindness whenever I can.  I will continue to teach my daughter the heart of giving.  Thank you Aviana for teaching us all a lesson in giving

 this Thanksgiving season.

You were truly one of the purest little souls I've ever met.  I am truly blessed to have known and snuggled with you while you were here, I am saddened by your physical loss,

 but happy you are free dear little one

May you run wild and free with Kama and always be in Peace.