4/23 Blog: Lending a helping hand

In our everyday lives of multi-tasking and juggling multiple balls at once, it is easy to believe that we are invincible. Let's face it, there are days you think you can do just about anything. What we forget sometimes is we are human. We get sick, or our spouse does. Our schedules don't always line up perfectly. Or a well organized plan can sometimes be ruined be mother nature, a flat tire or any other unplanned event.

The morale I am trying to get across is don't be a hero, instead don't be afraid to ask for some help. Even better if you see a friend in a situation like this, lend the helping hand. We have had two recent instances where we were blessed to be able to lend a hand to a friend in need. Last night, we had to care for and take a good friends son home after hockey. Unfortunately his dad was ill and had to have heart surgery, and is still recovering. Their family was able to come to town and help for a while, but the dad still can not drive. After offering help on many occasions, we were thrilled when the finally took us up on it and we could take the boy to dinner with us after and drive him home.

Tonight it was at baseball practice. A boy on our teams mom is ill and also unable to drive. They have to juggle multiple children's activities with one driver and tonight was a conflict. They asked if we could drop him off after practice and of course we said yes. This is no effort at all on our part (in the grand scheme of things), allows both boys to practice and play in their normal routine and shows our kids what a helping hand is.

I remember as a child growing up my parents being the "shuttle" for many of our friends after practices, games, and so on. They would never let a child walk home at night or too far. We had a 15 person van for years, despite only having five members in our family, and it was often full. So being able to help out and drive a child homes brings back very fond memories for me, when parents trusted you with their kids, and deep friendships were formed on those rides home. We of course hope each of our friends has a speedy recovery, but in the meantime we hope they have peace of mind knowing their kids can maintain their schedules and sense of routine.