Lindsay Rae
“She handed each child a new coat, loaded up her cart as she left I side hugged her and told her ‘you have got this.’
After they were out of ear shot…I turned with tears to the smug, well-dressed man and woman behind me.
‘Those children? They lost the right to live with their parents just days ago, those clothes? Probably the only clothes they own, or got to leave their home with. THAT woman? Opened her home to kids—kids that needed a safe place to go, when the one they lived in no longer proved to be safe enough or secure enough for them. The food stamps? Something that health and welfare helps an already mother to two feed three new mouths. There are not nearly enough women or people like her this world.’
I whipped back around and started slamming my groceries on the belt, and then turned back around…Voice shaking…
‘AND even IF those kids were all hers, and she had a dozen “baby daddies” and was on food stamps..no child in this country or any other deserves to be cold or hungry, I am sorry, but your behavior? Poorly done, VERY poorly done.’”
The heartbroken mama then grabbed herself a well-deserved bag of peanut m&m’s and finished checking out. Her new “friends,” she says, silently joined a different line following her outburst.
Lindsay Rae
As Lindsay paid for her things, the cashier behind the register thanked the brave mom for what she said to the couple.
“Single mother on WIC. What you said? Rocked!”
Lindsay thanked the young woman and told her to hug her babies tight when she got home.
“I cried hard as I found my Tahoe, buckled the baby in the car, loaded up, and opened those m&m’s.
You foster mama’s out there…hold your heads high, you are the hands and hearts that are the strong and the steady for small ones when they need it most.
Hats off and so much love today to you.”
Lindsay and the mama in her line are warriors.
They open their homes, their hearts and their families to kiddos who desperately need all of those things and more. They don’t do it for the heartache, or the recognition, and they definitely don’t do it for the judgement of others. They do it so that children may have a shot at a normal, stable, full and safe life.
There are a million ways you can help in the life of a child in foster care. You don’t have to open your home to make a difference, but imagine the difference we could make if we just opened our hearts.
Lindsay Rae
Kudos to Lindsay, and to all of those foster mamas out there who are helping to shape the future generation.
As for those who believed it was okay for them to pick apart a struggling mother? We’re praying that their hearts were changed by the sacrifice they saw in Walmart that day.