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Thursday, April 2, 2015

A good day to be a dad

This is Mike...
Today, at 1 pm in the afternoon, Sierra and I were driving home on a small road when we passed a couple of Mayan women and their children waiving at us. Sierra asked, "Dad what are they doing?" and I replied, "They are hitch hiking." She replied, "Why?" I explained they are probably trying to get home for the Easter holiday this weekend. She was still puzzled and said, "why don't they just walk?" I responded by saying, "It was hot and walking with a couple of kids in tow is not easy and imagine just how thirsty they would get." She then asked, "Why don't you pick them up?" I said OK, let's do it and turned around. She was surprised and said, "What if they are dangerous?" I said, "They are clearly a stranded family and just need a ride." She was so nervous to pick them up, was jittery and her voice began to screech the closer we got to them. We stopped the 4 Runner next to them and they were so relieved that someone stopped. We asked them if they needed a ride and the little girls almost jumped out of their skin with joy. I said, "Hop in, we are going to town." The family piled into the car, the mom in the front with me, and the three daughters hopped in the back seat with Sierra. Sierra began speaking with the kids and found a lot of commonality in a very short period of time. I was speaking with the mom and asked if she was visiting family in Placencia for Easter and she said no. She went on to say that they left home at 430am this morning to catch a bus to the harbor whereby they caught a ferry to this peninsula so that they can sell Mayan items. I replied rather loudly and with amazement, "430 in the morning?" The little girl in the back said, rather sadly, "Yeah and we haven't sold anything all day." I dropped them off in front of the beach house we are renting and called out for Zoe and Elise to come outside. They came outside and saw we had guests. I said, "come on over let's look at what they are selling." All the attention was on the goods for sale. Unbeknownst to me was Sierra and the little girl were talking to themselves. The little girl was so enamored with a coloring book laying on the floor of the backseat. That's when Sierra asked, "Would you like to keep it?" and of course the cute little girl nodded. When I caught wind of what was going on, Sierra had decided to run into our beach house to get her some crayons and pens so the little girl could decorate the book when she got home.  We ended up buying $50 BZ worth of stuff and Sierra gave the little girl $20 BZ from her own savings on top of that. It was a win-win, they were happy and we felt great. Sierra is champ for noticing, a champ for giving, and a champ for caring. Today was one of those wonderful moments where I can say, "It was a good day to be a dad!" 
               

5 comments:

  1. Great story. Tell Elise she is doing a fine job raising the girls. Lol. You guys are excellent parents. Happy Birthday you old fart! Enjoy your day.

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  2. Wunderbare Geschichte! Eure Kids erleben echt tolle Sachen!
    Wir denken oft an Euch!
    FROHE OSTERN AN EUCH ALLE! :-)
    Annette und der Rest der Familie

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  3. Lovely story. On so many levels. Thanks for sharing. And happy birthday brother!
    Andrew

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  4. My heart is smiling! So proud of you all, my friends!

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