Day 14: Send a care package

Hello dears! Today I'm proud to introduce you to Yvonne from Dress This Nest. Yvonne is a fashionista, turned into DIY interior designer, turned into DIY crafter,-- this girl has talent! She lives in one of my favorite places, Oregon! I met Yvonne through Alt for Everyone and couldn't have made a better blogging friend. I appreciate this post as an expecting mother, every little bit truly does count. 

After the birth of my son, the most memorable gift I received was from my friend Becky in Portland.  At the time, we were living in Santa Monica and her gift arrived just days after our son had.  She sent an adorable onesie and a small wooden baby toy, but what really made it special was some mint tea, homemade cookies and an encouraging note.  

I had a tough time after giving labor. My milk took a while to come in and I was worried about my son's rapid weight loss. My body was having a hard time adjusting and my husband ended up with a rough case of food poisoning. Even though I had family around and this new baby, I had never felt more alone.

Becky's gift couldn't have come at a better time. It made me feel like someone understood what I was going through. I had only met Becky once before (she is a friend of my husband's from college) but that small gesture made a huge impact on me.

When Lisa approached me about doing the kindness project, the first thing I thought of was sending a care package to someone unexpected. The world we live in today is so fast paced and so electronic, that sometimes it's nice to slow down and send something physical.  

I recently became a big fan of Bonnie Eng's blog Thirsty for Tea. I love all things tea-time and thought it would be fun to send her a "tea time in a box" care package.  I put together some of my tea time favorites: Steven Smith Tea and Bee Local Honey (which are local products from my new hometown, Portland, OR) and Walkers Shortbread (which I just think is a tea time essential) as well as a cute tea towel from Target.

When I went to look for a box for the package, I couldn't find one the right size. Finally, as I was digging through my linen closet, I came across the perfect box. It was the hard drive from the videographers that filmed our wedding.  

After our wedding, they needed to edit the song to our video for their site (something about copyright issues) so they asked us to send the hard drive back to them and then they would sent it back. I had never bothered to open the box, because I figured it was just our hard drive and I put it back in the closet. 

So now, almost two years later (and two moves later) I open the box to use for my care package and what do I find? Not only did our videographers send our hard drive back with a heartfelt note and a baby article they read and thought we'd like, but they sent a pair of baby shoes for our (then) newborn son! 

Now normally, this would be heartbreaking (a perfectly new pair of shoes that had gone unworn) but at this perfectly cosmic timing, I happen to be pregnant with our second child and it couldn't have been a better reminder of all the unexpected kindness in the world.

I packed Bonnie's things into the good karma box along with a note that if she'd like to continue the kindness and send a surprise box of kindness to someone else, that she please reuse this box, as it is filled with the love of many thoughtful people.

Because that's the best part of a random act of kindness, right? The thought that doing something nice for someone has the potential to propel them to do something nice for someone else and the world could use as much kindness momentum as possible.

Yes, the world could use more kindness and the spread it! Just think what would happen if we all paid it forward! Thank you Yvonne. Make sure you follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to not miss a beat. Trust me, I'll be following her blog for holiday ideas with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner!

Who could use a little extra something to brighten their day?

xoxo