It was a mommy-son date with a mission in mind. A conversation we had weeks ago had spurred this trip. In a moment of exasperation at his refusal to eat his leftover mouse pancakes, I gave him a lecture. I looked at him picking at his pancakes and had that pang of concern that he wouldn't get it. He would never know how lucky we are...how so many don't have the things that we do. How do I raise him to understand and find compassion for others...to find gratitude in what he has. I told him about how families, right in our community and all over the world don't have enough to eat. They go to bed hungry. They don't have enough money to put food on their table. We talked about sharing what we have with someone else. So I suggested that using his "give" money jar, we could go to the store and buy food with his money to donate to the food bank in Strongsville. A week went by and life was crazy, but he continued to bring it up. I knew { lil bro } would be at the sitters and we could focus on the task at hand. We had lunch together, just us two, and then went to our shopping, adding to the cart all the items from their needs list. He opened his wallet, paying the cashier the $12 he had saved. When we took the food the pantry a mother and her little girl, not much younger than Vance came out with milk and groceries. Quietly in the privacy of our car, I talked him him about how that little girl needed food today, and people giving when the have it, is how the world is supposed to work. We need to do this more often.
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