Yes ma'am

As I was out this evening with the kids, we got a (few) pleasant surprises...

At one establishment, as we were ordering- I was insistent on proper manners while doing so.
A kind older man came up to us as we were leaving and stooped down to talk to the boys. He shook each of their hands and with a grin congratulated them on how well they ordered dinner. Then with a wink, he said to me, "Good job, mom."

While walking out of another store, I had the kids reading all the signs and sounding out the difficult words. A sweet woman walked by and exclaimed, "What great readers! Good job guys!" Then she turned to me, "I'm a teacher and it makes me so happy to see you using this time to teach your kids!" the woman shared.

At the library, I was reading to the kids and helping pick out books. One of the workers commented on how well the kids were behaving. In the same fashion as our previous experiences, that worker also complimented me.

This post is not to brag. It is not to point out how today was a good day for everyone (which is not always the case...)
What I wanted to share is how important it is for us to see the good in others. It is imperative for us to share common decency with all the other people sharing in this earthly experience. There are days when I feel like a failure as a mother. There are days when I feed them all the wrong things just to get them to stop whining and sit them in front of the TV to leave me alone.
But, in those sweet moments when my patience it at a premium, when my teaching is stellar and I try to be fabulous- it was really nice to have a pat on the back.
What was so wonderful is the way each stranger complimented the children first. Such a nice little treat for them to get positive recognition. In the car on the way home, we all talked about how it felt to be noticed for doing a good job. "It felt good. We all like feeling good. Let's try our best all the time to have this feeling as much as we can!"

Heavenly Father has given us ample opportunities to have teaching moments with these foster children. It's like a super crash course- the moments come at us fast. Jimmy and I really have to be quick on the uptake because once you let the moment pass, it's gone. Fortunately, we are all working hard to be at optimum performance lately. I would really hate one of these moments to pass us by.
Today was just such a sweet reminder to keep on truckin'. (in totally related news- the kids' first initials spell MACK. We joke about how Jimmy and I were hit by a Mack truck with all of this. We think we're pretty funny...)