We’re moving to a new town next month so you can imagine what life is like right now for us. Boxes and bubble wrap. It’s a mess but we’ve been truly blessed with new opportunities.
Our new town is about three hours away and we don’t know a soul there. Well, until just a couple of weeks ago that is. Now we know Maddie. 
My daughter had a Friday off from school so we took the opportunity to visit her new school, turn in all the registration paperwork and hopefully meet her new teacher and classmates. It was a spur of the moment decision to drive up there instead of mailing everything but we thought we might luck out and get to meet some folks.
We were lucky and met her teacher who couldn’t have been kinder or more generous with her time considering we showed up practically unannounced. My daughter’s future classmates were excited she was a girl since there are currently twelve boys and only seven girls in the class. That’s right – only twenty students in the class. This should make for an interesting dynamic.
Fast forward to later that evening while making the obligatory trip to Walmart to purchase groceries and a new Blu-ray player. Because when you move it seems you spend most of your time at either Walmart or Home Depot. While I was trying to decide between Blu-ray and Apple TV I felt a little person poke me in the arm. “Are you the lady that’s moving to our school with a daughter?” Insert shocked look here.
This is how we met Maddie. She remembered us from our five minute visit to her classroom earlier that day and wanted to tell us she can’t wait for mini-me to start in January. She was shopping with her grandmother for Christmas presents in the video games section and happened to see us. It took everything I had not to try and schedule six months of play dates right then and there.
I can’t tell you how thankful I am to know that my daughter is going to land in a classroom with someone like Maddie. I know she’s not the one other girl in the class that’s in the gifted program and I can only hope that she’s harboring a Minecraft addiction but honestly – I don’t care. She’s nice. She remembered us. She’s excited to be friends with my daughter. I think I love her.
Moving is never easy on anyone but at least my husband and I have done it before and know we’ll make friends in our new hometown. Trying to convince my daughter of that has been tough and that’s an understatement.
Maddie gave her (and me) a glimmer of hope that all will be better than just ok. And to think it happened in electronics department at Walmart.
This Thanksgiving I give thanks for Maddie.
I always enjoy your blog (and get so much encouragement from it), but I especially love this post. I love the impact that kids have on the world. They inspire me so often. Yay for the Maggie’s in life. And for this one in yours. Happy Thanksgiving!
I get a lot of inspiration from these kids as well. I know my daughter makes me want to do better and be better. I’m trying. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I think that’s something that I’m really grateful for with our journey with our two. It makes you very grateful for the little things in life, like a tiny show of kindness, an act of acceptance, and having a sense of connectedness. Thing we would otherwise take for granted. We have challenges every day, some days are pure hell (thanks to high anxiety and existential depression), but our kids really are gifts in some ways too <3