Kindness of Strangers

Today I found myself a recipient of the true "giving" season. And while Thanksgiving may have passed, I am extra thankful for a kind lady that took pity on us at the DMV.

In a series of unfortunate events, I was slated to go to the DMV this morning to get a duplicate registration tag. I won't go into much detail, but it wasn't my fault- and I let the guilty party know just how unhappy I was with the situation. (maybe there was some yelling... ok, there was yelling)
I tried to reassure myself as I packed up the girls in the car with extra snacks and toys. Surely, the day after the holiday, the last thing people would do was truck down to the DMV. Surely.

Of course this made zero sense, the place had been closed for days prior- so that left the entire valley waiting until Monday to make their trip. We circled the tiny (poorly laid out) parking lot forever, getting into more than a few sticky situations trying to simply find a park. (my apologies to the old lady in the silver Chrysler towncar- but seriously, you made things 100x worse)
Trying not to panic... we hadn't even gotten in to the DMV yet, I took a few deep breaths, unloaded the twins and went inside. The line to get a number wasn't that bad, but it looked like the people waiting for their number to be called were jammed in the building much akin to a teeny tin of sardines. (Gee, I sure wish this errand could wait until tomorrow!)

But I made it to the desk and told the attendant what happened, what I needed, and he handed me a ticket- G261.

I grabbed the new form I had to fill out, juggling it between my extra large purse/diaperbag/toy bin, two snack cups, and holding the hands of each of the girls as we found a single empty chair. I must use this opportunity to praise my cute daughters a little bit. They were angels. For once they saw how frazzled mommy was and decided to have some compassion on me and play relatively quietly while I filled out the form and then glanced at the huge number-board. The last number called? K152... I217.... and then.....G161.

My heart sank. A full 100 people were ahead of us. Who knows how long this was going to take. The girls may be ok for a half hour or so, but I was pretty sure there was no hope of getting out of here with a new sticker in that amount of time. I was close to tears... but thankfully was able to keep from bawling on the spot because I was shoulder to shoulder with a gruff-looking truck driver and a guy in scrubs on his laptop.

We exhausted my entire bag of tricks, reading books, tracing hands, and drawing on the trusty 'ol Magna Doodles by the time I heard G172 called out. I had both girls on my ever-dissapearing lap, and I was probably pretty flushed. My double heaters and the internal baby boy heater were making it feel like we were sitting in a furnace.

Then I looked up from reading the Crayola Book of Colors to see a sweet lady standing in front of me with a bunch of papers in her hand. She asked if I had a G number. I was only slightly (ok, totally) perplexed and answered yes I did. She pulled out a little ticket and gave it to me, explaining that it had been given to her and she no longer needed it, as all her business was complete. I looked down at the number: G184. Then to the number-board: G179.

If I hadn't have had two girls on my lap I would have jumped up and hugged her right on the spot. She explained that she had chosen me because I had kids and could probably use a little less time sitting at the DMV. She was insanely correct. I gave her about a million thank you's and she went on her way. I'm sure she had no idea just how thankful I was. We waited a few minutes for our number to be called, even less time getting the silly registration sticker we needed, and got out of the parking lot lickity split. I can barely remember anything else about this mystery saint, but how she changed my life this morning will (hopefully) always stick with me. It may have been a small thing to her to pass along that number, but it made a huge difference in our day. I was able to run some other errands, and had oddly happy children all afternoon. This act of kindness also changed my outlook on the day. And even gave me the ability to be a little less mad at the culprit involved in destroying the original sticker.

I know that everyone on the planet certainly reads my humble little blog, so thank you, sweet lady in the (I think) grey sweater who handed over the small paper with G184 printed on it. I pray that you will be the beneficiary of many, many miracles in return.