Val, Charity, and Friendship Ripples

 I have been blogging for about 12 years now.  I blogged daily for about half of those years, but the last few years I've blogged less, choosing/needing to focus on my family more as our family has doubled in size since I started blogging among other changes! (As you can see, I am slowly getting back into it as I could use the outlet!)

But some of you, dear readers have been here since the start.  And some of you I've even gotten to meet, running into you randomly in the Philadelphia temple, and then when I moved some of you welcomed me here to Pittsburgh, which has been so nice.

I want to share today just one more of those "ripples of friendship" that crosses even the Atlantic Ocean and ended up helping me with a problem that I was having.  

Some years ago a longtime blog-friend named Kayla befriended a stranger who was kind of out of her element and definitely out of her country at the time.  Kayla went out of her way to help this person and her children while they were traveling/living in Ireland.

This had a big impact on this young mother.  Fast-forward some years later, and this young mother went out of her way to befriend ME and my family when we moved here to Pittsburgh, very distraught over having to abruptly move! She has baked me birthday cakes, attended my home-study General Conference groups, and brought me small gifts and words of encouragement over the last four years.

Recently, it was this friend's birthday, so I decided to run a small gift over to her house (yes, it was actually a very late Christmas gift, but those are details!)  Anyway, I went over to finally do something nice for this friend on HER birthday, but once again she ended up helping me.  

I was having a problem helping my son learn his letters.  And it was really worrying me.  My friend ended up suggesting, then loaning me a letter-learning video for Val, and it has actually helped him a lot.

This might not sound like a big deal, but it really helped me, because I was really worried about it.  And I can't help but see the connected between my friend Heather, my friend Kayla, and me.  And that connection is not blogging, it is friendship.  It is kindness.  It is charity (which is the pure love of Christ). And I am on the receiving end of the charity that was shared first by Kayla to Heather and now Heather to me. 

So thank you, Kayla.  And thank you Heather.  And thank you to the Lord for sending your sweet spirit to inspire these lovely friends to love one another.